Visiting Naples, Florida

Ok, so before I begin re-telling our adventures, let me preface this blog by saying that I do not in any way favor one child over the other. However, when taking pictures this trip, one child, to remain nameless, preferred to cooperate- smiling, looking cute, standing still, etc- while the other child, who will also remain nameless, either made silly faces, ran from the camera, or threw a fit. So, when viewing the blog, please keep this in mind when there are very few pics of the nameless 3-year-old, not because his mother doesn't love him, but because...well...ummmm.. he's 3!

This last week we headed down to Naples, Florida to visit my grandmother and a few other family members. The kids had a wonderful time playing with my cousins (who are all their age) and swimming in Great-Grandma's pool, well the "hot pool"- aka jacuzzi .

Harbin wasn't a huge fan of the pool- he liked to be in the "hot pool" (which was the same temp as the regular pool) because he could touch, but he could have cared less about the big pool. Catherine enjoyed being in the water, but was hesitant about the swimmies. She liked to hold onto one of the kickboards and splash.

We went to the beach one day during our trip and the kids really seemed to enjoy it. Harbin loves to dig in the sand and does much better going into the water when it's on his own terms. He and Scott swam across Clam Pass and were proud to make it safely back.

Catherine hasn't really experienced the beach much since she is walking and wasn't too sure about the sand on her feet. She liked to try to wipe it off and often got frusterated when that just put sand on her hands too. It was funny to watch her start walking and then one foot would sink in the sand, and while trying to get that foot out, the other would sink, so on and so forth. She definitely enjoyed just hanging out in the beach chair!

One evening we went out to dinner at the Waterside shops in my grandmother's neighborhood. The kids like throwing money into the fountain, although Catherine never seemed to catch on to the idea that you have to let it go. We were able to capture a few cute pics of the kids, including Harbin shring his ice cream cone with Catherine.

All-in-all we had a wonderful trip, and we wish that we could have stayed longer. The drive back was uneventful, although I feel like we are still recovering from traveling through the night.

Check out the link to the right for all of our pics from the trip!

The mom.