Sunny days are here again!

Carson on the plane
Carson enjoying theocean-front view

Burying Nick in the sand

Good morning sunshine

Just another day at the beach

We are so happy to see the sun shining this week in MN. The temps are creeping back up to the mid 30's and there is no snow in sight. That wasn't the case last week when we got a ton of snow and the drifts were piled 6 feet tall on the curbs. Thankfully, we jetted off to Fort Myers, Florida for a little fun-in-the-sun while all this was going on. It was our second family trip to Florida with the Miller Family, but Carson's first time on a plane. Both boys did wonderful on the flights, with one little fit by J.P. when he was awoken from his nap a little early. But both of them sat in thei carseats almost the entire time, enjoying lots of candy and snacks, and watching movies. We had a very rough landing on our way down due to the high winds, but J.P. was hooting and hollering like it was a rollercoaster ride. He even yelled out "This is just like Madagascar movie", meaning the scene where the animals crash their plane. The adults weren't so amused by the bumps though. You should have seen our two families rolling all our crap and luggage through the airport. We had 2 strollers, 4 suitcases, 4 carry-ons, a playpen, and 4 carseats to haul around.

I guess it is all part of the adventure of traveling. We spent some time at the Pink Shell Resort on Estero Island and it was a little windy and chilly when we arrived. Thank heavens the pool water was heated to 80 degrees, but it didn't really seem to matter to us "northerners". We were going to get our suits on and swim, come hell or high water. It warmed up when we arrived at Sadie's Dad's place in Bonita Springs. We spent the next day at Fort Myers Beach and the kids had a blast. Lots of sand castles, shell hunting, and drinking of the salt water (Carson!). We were even sarranaded by a guy who played us a Brett Favre song on his guitar and saw some dolphins swimming just off shore.

The next day we headed to Captiva Island to visit the Mucky Duck restaurant and enjoy the island life for one day. It got up to 76 degrees that day so we were in heaven. The boys got to bury Nick on the beach (see video) and Carson took advantage of all the free sand to eat. He decided to get 3 molars on our vacation so I think it felt good to chew on the sand. It was a nice trip for the adults too. Each night we got to lay the kids down and enjoy a nice dinner and watch a movie. That usually doesn't happen at our house so we were thankful for the time with our friends. Then it was back to reality and home to our snowy Shakopee. The boys were so happy to see all their toys (especially J.P. and his cars). We had a nice Valentine's weekend visiting with G&G Kuchenbecker and cousin Daries. J.P. celebrated his half-birthday at school and was excited that it was PJ day too. He loves to be comfy cozy. It was also show and tell day so he brought a sand dollar that we found at the beach. He calls it an octopus because it had long dried-up legs.

Another note, please keep Nick's Grandma Ginny in your prayers because she is recovering from a painful surgery to remove some cancerous cells in her lung.