Home From Florida

Key and Robbie paddling around in the Gulf
Beach bums (no, for the thousandth time, they are NOT twins!)
Cutie Pie
The whole fam damily
Sunset in Venice looking out over the south jetty

Andy ducking to avoid the wrath of the flamingo (or as Natalie calls them with her Southern twang "Mangoes").

Gator wrestling at Sarasota Jungle Gardens

Andy with a conure

Key the diving man
Happy 3rd birthday Miss Natalie!!!!!!!!! She had two parties at different friends houses. I wanted her to have a cake so that is what she had at Wendy's house. She only wanted 'roni pizza so Bonnie got her one at her first party. Thanks Bonnie!
Andy helped eat the cake at the party. Thanks Andy, you are a trooper!
A flamingo and Natalie collide. A split second later and they had gone their seperate ways.
Hanging out under the hibiscus.

Pretty in pink polka dots
Natalie with her very own Little Mermaid....ahhh ahhh ahhhh AHHHH AHHH AHHHHHH
Andy Man - the diving king
All we caught on this boat trip was a picture of a dragonfly
There were really cool red dragonflies at the Van Dykes house



Key and John, trying to figure out how to get this crazy gar off the line
The three muskateers at Ken Thompson Park. I helped get this park from paper to reality when I worked for the City.
Sitting on a big shell at Mote Marine
Having a blast in the Children's Fountain at Bayfront Park.

We made it home from Florida late Sunday evening. I can't believe we were there for a whole month. It flew by. We had a great time catching up with our bestest friends, love ya FL people! :) (If housing prices keep dropping we might be tempted to come back!) The kids spent most of the time in the pool. We now have three very good swimmers! Yay! The first week Andy sat on the steps. The last week Andy was diving for dive sticks, which previous to the trip were called drown sticks. Key even managed to snorkel some in the Gulf. He claims to have seen an underwater lizard but I'm pretty sure it was some type of fish. Natalie IS a fish. She was our first swimmer, still remembering from last year. The retirees at the condo would gather in the evenings to watch her swim.

We visited Sarasota Jungle Gardens and the kids held birds and an alligator. Andy was attacked by a flamingo.

We also went to Mote Marine Aquarium and saw the rehabbing sea turtles, dolphins and whales. There was also a huge manatee to watch and marvel over.

Our last outing was the G.WIZ children's museum in Sarasota. Great place to learn and have fun. The boys especially loved it.

Natalie now has dark brown skin and platinum blonde (white) hair.

The boys borrowed Good Burger from a friend (thanks Rose!) and can quote most of the lines. I am currently the high bidder on eBay for our very own copy. Natalie fell asleep every night watching The Little Mermaid, her new favorite movie.

Key apparently didn't remember mosquitos being so large in FL from when we used to live there. He saw a big one flying near him and exclaimed, "Dad, that mosquito is carrying a stick!"

He also declared that Natalie's screaming in the car was causing him to get an ear infection. Natalie was very upset about having to leave Gina's house and Gina's dolls and Gina's stroller, etc. (Thanks for being such a good friend to Nat, Gina.)

Another time Natalie came crying to me and announced that the chair had tipped her over and poured her out.

I forget what Andy was so excited about but he screamed, "HOLY MERCY!"

Robbie went diving with friends and brought back some cool sand dollars. He hit his favorite fishing holes too. Caught 12 snook walking out to Stump Pass in Englewood. And the lucky duck saw a manta ray jump out of the water. Well, he says he did. He might be saying that to make me jealous!