Adults away....and Ian

We have some great friends who invited us down to Sanibel Island for the 2nd year in a row to stay in their timeshare on the beach...and this place is beautiful. We did take Ian and the others stayed with grandma for the weekend. Wow, was it so much easier with only one kid! I think he got a bit spoiled with no shared attention!

This was the view from the hammock hanging from the palm trees. ahhhhh, paradise! You can see the pathway to the ocean.

sunset on Captiva Island is THE place to be. The beached was packed and it was beautiful





and thank you to our friends for a relaxing, restful weekend. The weather was perfect, the food was delicious, and the company was fantastic!

Girls skate

During the summer (wish I would have known about it at the beginning of the summer!) the skating rink does tiny tots under age 6. They mostly play disney music which was pretty cool. The girls had a blast but man oh man were my arms sore from trying to hold them both up! Luckily, after the first half, they both wanted to go out on their own. Madeline did pretty well on the wood floor but still fell quite a bit. That girl refuses to ever give up so she just hopped right back up and kept going. Ava felt better going on the outside of the rink where it was all carpeted.

John's brother was nice enough to help me out with Ava. This was when we first got there and she couldn't keep her feet still!

Ava doing much better after she stayed on the carpet.

Madeline was so intent on doing it!

Madeline, cousin Lauren, cousin in law Taylor, Ava

Beach weekend

Every year John and I and his family go away for the weekend to celebrate his dad's birthday and our anniversary (which are 3 days apart). We use to always go to Disney in the beginning, but slowly graduated to going to the beach. Equal drive time, but being in a condo allows us to cook most meals in and have a ton more room. It has started with us just having Johnny and then between us and John's brother, we seem to have added a kid or two every year to the mix. This year there are 7 grandchildren, my 4 and then his brother has a 5 year old girl and almost 3 year old twins. Needless to say, this year was very LOUD in the condo with all tile floors and thin walls! Thank goodness our clan was in another condo in a different building! It was a great beach weekend with a ton of swimming, too much sand, and thankfully, no sunburns!

Madeline, Lauren, Sara holding Ryan, Ava, Dave, Ian, Johnny, Grandma holding Nick

Madeline

Ava

Johnny

Ian

The girls' hair was pretty gross from all the swimming in the beach and pool! madeline had the start of some dreads!

We always go down to John's Pass for ice cream! I wish we would have taken our glasses off!

some pictures to melt my heart

Sebastian Inlet-camping trip #4

Our fourth camping trip took us across the state to Sebastian Inlet which is world famous for great waves and an even better chance of being eaten by a shark! The campgrounds were small but somehow we managed to snag the last spot on the water (even as a last minute trip at that) The direction of our site allowed for the best sunsets, a short walk to the Atlantic ocean and a great fishing pier, and a short bike ride to a great park/picnic areas. We did have to get in the car and cross a bridge to get to the little jetty which was a lot safer to swim in than the ocean was. The ocean had a really strong undercurrant and I wouldn't let the kids go in at all.

setting up our site

There were zero waves inside this area. There were a ton of different types of crabs, lots of fish, and manatees! The kids were within feet of several! Out in the canal, we saw a bunch of dolphins jumping in the waves

sorry about the film quality=disposable camera!

A few more

Just wanted to include our pictures from July 4th:

eating Ian

I realize I have been very negligent with the blog lately and besides being busy, I have no other excuse! We have been camping and to the beach a couple of times already and I haven't posted any pictures! Well, we forgot our camera twice and I had to buy 2 disposables and send them away for developing and I still don't have them back!

I do have some great pictures of eating Ian....this kid eats anything! Spinach, beets, hummus, you know, things that kids typically won't touch and he devours! Here are some action eating shots:

John showing him how to get the chips out of the bottom of the bag! You know, useful things daddy must teach his offspring

Oh rib, how I love thee

"Give me back that marshmallow fluff!" I use to live on that stuff in college, on a sandwich with peanut butter, and have never bought it since having kids. Well, we bought it last week and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it!

eating some(5 pieces!) refreshing watermelon at the 4th of July parade