The Sunshine State

The trip to Florida was a success - meaning that the kids had fun and experienced the ocean, no one got sick or injured, and we didn't get booted off the plane over Tennessee because our toddler was out of control.

Highlights of the trip included:

• Parasailing over the Gulf (Ethan, Abby and I). What fun! The kids absolutely loved it (although in the first few seconds as we began our ascent to 500 feet, Ethan may have nervously wondered aloud if he should rethink his desire to go skydiving some day).
• Seeing dolphins from the pier
• Having a private pool at our house. Gracie, who prefers to swim without creatures nearby, especially loved the pool and swam for hours each day.
• Swimming in the warm Gulf waters - except Mirabelle. Madame Fearless was actually nervous in the water! She preferred her bucket and shovel on the beach.
• Shelling at Sanibel Island. Randy found a conch shell that was a foot long. Fortunately it was unoccupied. Our collection is being de-stinkified in bleach water as I write this.

Not-so highlights

• Stingrays in the Gulf. Their close proximity shouldn't have been an issue because apparently they're harmless unless you step on one, but we were pretty surprised when we saw them gliding by our legs. Randy and I had thought stingrays were a little more... exotic - meaning nowhere near us. Abby and I saw one the size of a pony swim past when we about knee-deep in the water. I courageously high-tailed it to shore. No future in marine biology for this girl!
• Flying. Oh, how I hate the way airlines squeeze you for every dime now. Twenty-five bucks if you have a bag to check. Oh, and by the way, that's $25 each way. Also, trying to keep Mira entertained during the flight was utterly exhausting. My friend Lia suggested bringing a bag of suckers on the plane. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't promote coating a one-year-old's brand new teeth with sticky sugar, but I have to admit, that bag of Dum Dums saved us when she fell apart with an hour left to fly. So what if I was covered with sugary drool and the object of disapproving looks from my fellow passengers? At least Mira wasn't demonstrating the Art of Tantruming. And she did get a good tooth-scrubbin' when it was over.
  
• Repeated-repeated-repeated renditions of "Margaritaville," "Hotel California," "A Horse with No Name" and similar beach bar crowd-pleasers that we heard mediocre local performers covering each evening as we explored Fort Myers Beach. (Randy especially loved how one performer would change the Horse with No Name lyrics from "After two days, in the desert sun/my skin began to turn red..." to "After two days, in FORT MYERS sun/my skin began to turn red..." Ugh).

Here are lots of pics from the big trip:

"I'm ready to jump in now."

Going up!After parasailing