::florida part 2::

Too bad about the nude sunbathing--but I sure do love the beach, so I guess it's ok. Here are a few views of our first hotel area from out on the beach. It was very picturesque.

Old people everywhere of course, even in bikinis. Yikes.

The next one shows you the big main building of the hotel--it looks kind of like some sort of polynesian lounge.

We were up high in a room in the tower on the left. We had an awesome view from our little balcony!

Can you believe how many huge high rise hotels there were along the beach?

The shells were so fun--I've never seen a place with so many shells. From something we read it looks like the shells are on the beach in piles during certain times in winter. By summer the tides have washed them all away. How crazy is that?
I picked up some awesome ones and brought them home to share with Max. He could hear the ocean in most of them.


After the conference was over we headed up the coast about a hour or so to another little island. This one was much quieter and less fancy. There were also more old people there somehow. The beach was not as fun there--tiny teeny waves--but the most fun part about it was that Kris and I had a couple of days with no work, no conference, nothing. We just got to hand out and have fun.
We rode beach cruisers to lunch (and ate with droves of old people dressed in the colors of sherbet).

We took walks. We chatted. We sat in the sun. We played tennis.

(We play tennis badly, but it's fun.)
It was just so nice. We were glad to go home to our boys, but so sad that our couple of fun days were over.
Thanks SO much to Kathy for coming and taking care of our guys. I didn't have to worry about them being safe and happy. I knew they were in the best hands they could be. We LOVE you Kathy!!!

And really, who can complain about coming home to this:



What a great week. And I got to come home on my birthday to a party. Awesome.

::florida part 1::

So there was a great looking conference for pedodontists and orthodontists in Florida. We got a flyer for it a good while back and Kris thought it looked amazing--and that the location looked hard to beat. He enlisted his ever willing mom to come and watch the boys and we got to head out together for a long weekend of work and fun.
It was so nice. We've hardly been out since the baby was born, and haven't been off together overnight for years. After I got through the initial confusion of why flying was so darn easy, and figured out what I was supposed to do with myself without somebody to spank or kiss every two seconds it was great and very refreshing.
And Kathy kept me posted with pictures like this:

and this:

So I didn't feel TOO far away.

We were in Marco Island, FL. Not really so much an isolated island, but just one of the many many little pockets of land right off the west coast of Florida. The hotel was beautiful. It was right on the beach and though these weren't the kind of big waves you might be used to from CA beaches, they were nice. The air was fresh and there were shells everywhere.


The beach--a view from one of the patios of the tall (8 story I think) hotel.

Yes, the pool was amazing. I did keep wishing the kids were there to swim in it. It was the perfect toddler and kid pool. It had a hugely long set of steps that a kid could play on without blocking everybody's entry & exit from the pool. Perfect. We might just have to go back!

This is a face somebody made and left in the sand. I captured it for Max.

The following is one of my favorite sights--wish I would've had my nice camera instead of my phone at that moment.

These guys just look so serious. It makes you wonder what very important and life changing event is happening in seagull world.

And finally (for part 1) a Florida beach sunset. You know how it is when you're at the beach and the sun is setting? For a while it seems like everything is the same light blue/yellow bright blazing color. That's when the sun is almost to the horizon, but not quite. But when it finally reaches the edge of the world, that's when you start to realize again that there's a difference in color between sea and sand. And that's when the sky puts on it's show.

It's when the orange goes away that you see all the other amazing colors--waiting their turn.


(It looks like we're in jail because we're at the hotel restaurant and they have some sort of seagull deterring netting up over us.)
I can't say that this particular sunset had anything on some of the amazing ones we get out in NM, but it was pretty nice. And being at the beach makes everything smell, taste and look just a little better anyway.