Mission Accomplished

One of Harper's New Year's resolutions was to learn how to swim without her floatie this summer. Mission accomplished with a little coaching from Dad!

Back

Well, our vacation is officially over. Today was our first day back to work and baby school. If Harper could read, she would object to the term baby school because she is not a baby anymore. She would then remark that she would like me to refer to her school as big kid school because she is in fact a big kid now. But alas, I digress...which is a major symptom of vacation withdraw.

In an effort to ease back into real life, I will be posting some of my favorite pictures from last week. I will then visit this page periodically though out the day and wish we were all still at the beach. You can play along if you would like.

 Harper and her crazy sunglasses 

Taking a break from swimming in the pool

Cinnamon Beach - don't you just love that name?

Harper holding a crab

Outside of our favorite breakfast spot

Having lunch after a morning at the beach

Dad Job

Some things are dad jobs. Throwing the kid into the air? Dad job. 

Teaching her how to jump off of the fountain without her floaty?

Definitely a dad job.

Sand Fleas

Today, I'm thankful for the beach. We spent the better part of the morning at Flagler Beach and I'm not going to lie. It was awesome.

Harper kept busy building sand castles and jumping waves with Rob. The kid has no fear. 

This might be the sun talking, but as I was sitting with my feet in the sand I was thinking about how awesome it is to have a beach. Think about it. Earth is the only planet in the universe that is known to have beaches. And for that, I am thankful. E.T. is totally missing out. 

Gone Fishin'

We've been in Florida a whole two days and Harper is definitely in vacation mode. First thing this morning, she was trying out her new fishing pole in the pool.

She didn't even change out of her pajamas.

She's actually pretty good at casting (Check out the one at the very beginning of the video. The second one is questionable.). We wanted to make sure she could do it before we removed the plastic fish and attached a real hook. You know... because we're not really in the market for any extra piercings.

For Now

You guys, it's going to take me forever to sift through the hundreds of pictures that we took last week. In the meantime, here are a couple that initially caught my eye.

Flagler Pier - This is my happy place. 

 Harper says her favorite part of Disney was Minnie Mouse's house.

Sticking her head out of the train window. I think the conductor specifically said not to do this. 

Taking a walk down by the intercoastal waterway

Ponce Inlet lighthouse

   

  

More to come...someday.

Marine Science Center

We visited the Ponce Inlet Marine Science Center on Saturday. This place is awesome! They mainly focus on sea turtle and seabird rehabilitation, but they also have an education center that the public can visit. Besides having some cool aquariums containing flounders, sea horses, and lobsters, they have a touch pool where you can touch animals that live in the local waters. They had sting ray, a shark, horseshoe crabs, sea urchins, hermit crabs, and several types of fish. I thought Harper would be all over this. But, she was pretty hesitant until one of the women that work there came over to her and gave her some confidence.

Pure Unadulterated Joy

The Mad Tea Party ride at Disney World:

The Orange Tree

While we were in Florida, my mom and dad decided to plant an orange tree in their backyard. You may remember the last time we were down there, Harper (kind of) picked an orange off of their neighbor's tree.

Our intention is to take a picture by this tree every time we visit to track how much the kiddo and the tree are growing.

I threw in this picture just because I like it. They're buddies.

Vacation Withdraw

I would rather be here right now - my favorite beachfront restaurant with my favorite family.

Vacation Pics

Here are some of my favorite pictures from this week. Later today, we'll be heading back to Nashville. Until then, we'll be hanging out at the pool.

Harper is a good supervisor.

She's also brave when it comes to holding crabs!

Building sand castles

Headed into the water with dad

Inspecting grandma's flowers

Airboat Adventure

Yesterday, Rob and I took an airboat ride through the Everglades of Central Florida. It was awesome! I've been vacationing in Florida all of my life, but yesterday, I saw a side of Florida I'd never seen before.

We knew we were in for an adventure when this guy and 4 of his friends greeted us at the boat doc.

We saw so many gators, we lost count.

We also saw 2 bald eagles. Neither Rob, nor I were fast enough on the draw to get a picture that did them justice. But let me tell you, the founding fathers got that one right. Those creatures were impressive.

We also saw lots of turtles including this one. She was sitting on a nest of eggs and covered herself in sand.

All in all, the airboat ride was super fun. I highly recommend it! Ecotourism rocks!

Water Bug

This is the best child flotation device ever.

Alligators Everywhere!

Today we visited the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. I've been going there for at least 20 years. It was cool to be able to take Harper.

The gators were out in full force.

So were the birds.

Harper wrangled the gators like an old pro.

Ecotourism is pretty awesome.