VACATION!!

This year we were VERY grateful to again get to be able to take a vacation trip to the condo in Florida. This is the third year that A's bosses have let us do this and it really couldn't mean more to our family.  I didn't take as many pictures this year, because I found that the sand from LAST year can still be seen in spots on my camera and there just doesn't seem to be any way of avoiding it. But here are a few.

We took a walk a couple of evenings up and down the beach. It is so relaxing in the evening and the boys love to try to find interesting things washed up on the beach. They prefer living things, but most often settle for broken shells and other paraphernalia. Emmanuel ALWAYS has something to show the camera. And there always seems to be a live crab involved...

 Then for Anthony's birthday we went to the Dunlawton Sugar Mill Gardens. The gardens was originally a sugar mill and was built around 1832. But a steam powered sugar mill is pretty difficult to maintain in the heat of Florida so it was never really profitable. In the 50's it was a theme park with huge dinosaur statues which are still there. Now it is a botanical gardens and was to check out. But HOT.

 This is Wyatt being a human sun dial.

Apparently they are still excavating the original sugar mill. I thought the sign was cool. :)

  Triceratops!

After the botanical gardens, we decided to stop at the Ponce Inlet Marine Center, where the boys got to touch the rays. Very exciting! They also had turtles that they were rehabilitating and some birds indigenous to the area.

 And here are a few of the boys swimming. Emmanuel is a regular surfer (well, really a body boarder right now, but he pulls off the surfer LOOK pretty well). Wyatt can hold his own pretty well too. Even Anthony got into the action. 

 This one you had to watch closely. He had no fear at all. The water was pretty shallow, but the undertow still always made me a little uneasy.

 

We had a really great time this year and I don't think anyone was ready to come home!