Some recent events

The day before Matthew left, John took a day off of work and we went to the zoo. We also met some friends there and I think the kids had a great time.


It took Emily a few minutes to warm up to the water park, but then, she was hooked!

I love this picture! The boys were having fun punching the water.

John caught this shot of Emily. Pure delight!

We have another family picture in this same spot taken a few years ago before Emily. I'm going to try to find it.

This past week, John had to work in Sarasota, so Emily and I got to tag along. It was great! I decided that when I'm old, I'm going to buy a condo in Sarasota so I can die at the beach. It was beautiful. I really fell in love with it. Emily and I had a great time exploring. I actually searched for a gym that had Body Attack classes so I could work out. I'm pretty sure that means I'm hard core.
This is Emily in the hotel with her "ello". We immediately had to unplug both phones so she wouldn't make any calls to china.

Here's Siesta Key beach. According to the girl at the front desk of our hotel, this is one of the world's most beautiful beaches. John likes this picture because of the girls in bikinis, but I promise, I was just trying to get a shot of the beach. Look at the color of the water. Why can't we have that color water here in Jax?

Don't we look happy? That's only because I couldn't yet feel the sunburn forming on my back. In case you didn't know, it's really hard to reach your back with sunblock when you go to the beach by yourself. I've also always loved the way my hair looks when it's windblown. Even with a hairband, somehow it still manages to fly all over the place.
It was so nice that a pool of water had formed on the beach. Emily had a great time playing in it and I didn't have to worry about her drowning or getting eaten by a shark, which I did see, by the way. There were several swimming not too far outside the swimming area. No one seemed too concerned by them, so maybe they were dolphins, but I wasn't going in to check.

We ended up coming home a day early, which was kind of a bummer, but it was nice to have an extra day to get back into the swing of things. On the way back, we stopped by Downtown Disney, which John refers to as Disney Lite. It's great to be able to bring the kids to a Disney themed place without having to pay to get into a park. Emily had a blast running around the store picking up different stuffed animals. Every time she would find something new, she would hand the item she had in her hand to John or me, which we would immediately put back on the shelf. Somehow, we managed to get out of the store without having to buy anything AND without any tantrums. I was truly amazed. So, all in all, other than losing our best umbrella, I'd say it was a great work/cation. I got to experience two of my favorite things in the world, the beach and Disney, with my family. Hopefully, we'll get to go back again soon!!