As promised, more pictures from this year’s trip to Florida. There’s at least one more batch coming.

Max loved running into the water up to about his knees, then running back out and laying down in the sand “to dry off.”

Sharing snack al fresco

Feeding the seagulls before we leave the beach is a must-do

Anna got restless while out to dinner one night, so Grandma Helen took her out for a walk

We are very lucky that my dad and Helen not only have a home in Florida but very generously host us there every spring. We look forward to this trip all year, it is so wonderful to have a taste of sun and warmth but more importantly to have a week with them! The kids are blessed to have such amazing grandparents in their lives. Thank you Dad and Helen for taking such good care of us and spoiling us when we visit. We love you very much!

We spent lots of time at the beach as usual this year. The kids loved playing in the sand, standing in the water, searching for shells, and going down the slides on the beach. One beach visit Anna spent over an hour playing with a bucket of water–scooping sand into it, splashing her hands in the water, putting shells in and taking them out. We also visited Max’s favorite local restaurant twice. They serve an amazing buffet that includes a salad bar, a variety of pizzas, and ice cream for dessert. This year Max proclaimed it, “The best pizza I’ve ever had” so we had to go back for a second visit.

Another treat this year was overlapping with my aunt and uncle and cousin who were visiting from Michigan. We hadn’t seen them in far too long and I loved watching them interact with the kids. They joined us, along with another local uncle and aunt, for a beachside picnic to celebrate Maxwell’s birthday. Helen put a lot of work into it and it was a great success. We had a picnic lunch, cupcakes, and Max got to open presents. He was so excited by each present, it was really cute. Each time he would say, “I wonder what’s in this present” and then would gasp in delight as he opened it, exclaiming “Wow!” or “Oh my gosh!” (the latter is a new favorite expression, I’m guessing he picked it up from someone at preschool).

We took about 800 pictures and it was very hard to narrow them down for the blog. I’m going to do a couple installments, so below is just the first batch. I’ll do another post soon with more.

The trip down. Both kids did great on the flights. Anna had a few bouts of crying, mostly when she had to be seated for takeoff and landing, but overall she did really well.

Playing with the iPad was a hit with both kids this time:

We love the beach! This batch of pictures has lots of me and Anna, there will be some of everyone else in the next round.

More photos to come!

We’ve been rather housebound for the past few days since Anna has been sick. Thankfully today she seemed pretty close to her old self, other than she still doesn’t have too much of an appetite. So we went out for lunch and then after rest time we took the trail through the woods to “blue slide park” (Max differentiates our neighborhood parks by slide color). The air was crisp but the sun was shining, and it felt great to be outside. On one stretch of the trail there’s a steep hill. Max instructed me to pretend that I had never seen it before. Then I needed to be “a little bit scared” and he gave me reassurance and encouragement as I climbed it. We enjoyed time at the park and then walked home again. Perfect Sunday afternoon together!

Max said “Wow! Look at that! It’s the tallest tree I’ve ever seen!”

Having fun in the stroller:

This is his “I’m smiling for the camera” face:

Managed to coax a “real” smile also:

And one more of our punkin: