the sunshine state*

In March, Jason and Ava and I were fortunate enough to be able to take a trip to Florida. Yay! Thanks so much to Bill and Cynthia for bringing us down and letting us stay with you. We love and miss you!

The flights went well. (Thank goodness!!!) Ava made lots of friends, ate lots of snacks & watched Elmo:)

Here are a few pics of our first morning in Sewalls Point, which is such a beautiful town. There's nothing like waking up in a tropical place when you've had winter for months on end!

We stumbled upon this fabulous fountain while out for our morning walk, isn't it perfect for little kids?! As you can see, Ava thought so:)

Here are her first moments touching the sandy white beaches of Florida...

Out on the pier, running running and more running!

On our second day, Bill had the day off and decided to take us out on the boat. We had such a wonderful time! We stopped in one little bay, and were surrounded by about 8-10 Manatees! It felt like such a special gift to be able to experience that.

Here are a few pictures from our adventure. I was a little nervous about having Ava out on a boat for several hours with only a 10 foot radius to play in. But she was completely entertained thanks to all the wildlife, and our trusty Elmo coloring book* Cynthia caught a beautiful fish, which she wanted to keep but Bill insisted we throw back:) We loved that he cared so much! With all the commotion, Ava got so excited she wanted to jump head first in to the water with the fish...She's my wild girl. Absolutely no fear, which I have to admit can be a little scary for me.

( if you can, click on this collage to enlarge it, then you can see all the captions)

We also got to go have lunch with Jason's Grandparents Bob and Elinor and his Uncle Bobby~ We were so happy that we got to see them while we were down there, and that they got to meet their great-granddaughter!

Cynthia took Ava and I to the beach while Jas and Bill wen trap shooting (he'll have to tell that story. What a blast they had!)

Ava fell in love with the ocean. She couldn't get enough. I'm not sure if these pictures capture it, but she wanted to run full speed in to the 3-4 ft waves without me! I found myself constantly trying to keep her from falling off the drop-off and heading out with the tide. It was an absolute delight to watch the pure joy she got from running in and out of the waves. We were only there for about an hour, but she could have spent the whole day. We will never forget this will we Cynthia? What a memory we made!

first moments at the beach:mostly clothed

I slowly but surely realized she needed to be stripped down to fully enjoy this experience~ I still can't believe I didn't even think to bring a swimsuit for her. Like there is any way Ava wasn't going to want to run in to the water....What was I thinking?

just a little silliness

on our last morning Jas and I took Ava to the beach one more time. This day she was much more subdued and was actually more interested in chasing birds and looking at shells with Jas. It was nice for me not to have to chase her all over the shore in a mild panic:)

We did lots more on our trip: eating out, eating in (Cynthia really is an amazing cook) lounging, shopping, going for walks, late night talks (our favorite). Bill and Cynthia even treated us to a fabulous date night while they watched Ava!( I still can't believe that one you guys!)

Overall it was just so wonderful to get away as a family one last time before Jas goes to Afghanistan. To be honest it's the only thing I was really hoping we could do this year & I feel supremely blessed:)