Naples

Early Tuesday morning we got up and drove to Naples Florida.

Its on the SouthWest corner of the state.

Mike had to work in Port Charlotte. Its about an hour north of Naples.

He worked very hard. For 10 minutes.Then we drove to our hotel. It was a beautiful resort.

It rained most of the day. All the way from Orlando to Naples, a steady drizzle to heavy rain. We were disappointed that we might not get to show the boys the gulf beach.

We got to the resort, went grocery shopping, and the rain started to let up! Yeah!! We had a 1 bedroom suite with full kitchen and balcony.

The full kitchen was great because we went to the store and bought food to cook instead of spending a fortune eating out. We had tilipia stuffed with crab, and lobster ravioli with shrimp scampi sauce. YUMM!

Mike buys things like chips and dip for his snack, I buy seaweed salad.

What does Caleb eat?

My seaweed salad!!! Here I'm cooking dinner. For some reason, cooking in a resort doesn't feel like cooking does at home, and doesn't bother me. I actually prefer it. (saves money!) Besides, even tho I put things in the dishwasher, I didn't have to CLEAN it!! It totally stopped raining while we were eating dinner, so we headed down to the beach. Naples is the most prettiest town we have seen in Florida yet. It has beautiful architecture, beautiful streets lined with tropical plants and lights. The beaches on the west side are different than the Atlantic beaches. These are white sandy beaches, while the Atlantic has more coarse sand, and larger rocks. We strolled about a mile south, then headed back.

On our way back I noticed Caleb was holding his pants up. His pockets were so full of seashells that his pants were literally falling off of him! Luckily, Mikey had cargo shorts on with lots of side pockets, so he took the shells for Caleb.

We also found thousands of live clams. Little baby ones. They wash up on shore, and if you watch carefully, you can see them dig themselves back into the sand.

Wednesday morning we woke and drove across the state. The road is called Alligator Alley. I know why!! I saw at least a dozen alligators.The entire length has a swampy river next to it. Most of the water is still, but every half mile or so, you'd see a ripple flowing in the water with 2 eyes sticking up in front. Sometimes you'd see an entire alligator out of the water walking along the edge. They have fenced in the entire length tho since there were so many gators hit and killed. Here you can see how it looked the entire way. From the road way to the trees is swampy water, with just next to the trees being deeper. We stayed at the same hotel that have several times already. Its the one with the little putt putt golf next to the swimming pool. We had dinner at our favorite Palm Beach waterfront restaurant.

While we were eating, we got to watch a boat that was stranded in the middle of the waterway. Those poor people! A storm was coming and every time they tried to start their engine tons of black smoke came out.

We finished our dinner just as the rain came. Since it was raining again, we decided that instead of going to the beach we would just play in the swimming pool, and play putt putt.

Mike put in his hard 45 min of work, while the boys and I played Toon Town in the truck outside on the laptop. Love that WiFi!!

Today we played again in the pool, then packed up and headed home. But first we stopped at a Seaside beach restaurant. There was a live band playing, and the boys decided to go dance on stage.

Here is the 4 of us next to the restaurant. Oops, I meant the 3 of us, and a scary skeleton pirate .

We had a nice lunch here. The boys are laughing at this picture because it looks like the shark is getting ready to eat my head. Here is Caleb at home with his collection of seashells from Naples. Another fun filled work week for Mikey!

A shout of CONGRATULATIONS to Leonard and Michelle!

They had an ultrasound today that showed they are having a BOY!!

Now I can send them my boys clothes and toys!!

The due date is Halloween!

St Augustine and the Boys

Mike and the boys went to St Augustine last Thursday. Christina had plans with her friends, and thanks to the new cats I wasn't able to join them.

These 3 kittens are fun to watch, but they are ALOT of work.

They are now at least drinking and eating on their own.

They still don't have names.

Maybe they will just be Little Cat A, Little Cat B and Little Cat C.

Thats from Dr Suess book Cat in the Hat Comes Back.

But Mike and the boys had fun anyways.

This is the balcony off their room.

You can see a golf course in the background. Mike says its famous. (if you are a golf fan)

Here they are at the World Golf Hall of Fame and Village They had so much fun! They played some golf, but it was very warm, and they pooped out after 9 holes. So they went swimming again! What silly faces!! I'm glad they had a good time.

It wasn't quiet here with 3 kittens, but I cleaned house and watched an entire season of Sex and The City. Since I never watched it before, I want to see the entire seasons before we see the movie.

Tomorrow we are headed over to the West Coast of Florida. The boys have not been there yet. We will head south of Tampa to Port Charlotte, spend the night, play in the water. Then we will take Alligator Alley over to the Fort Lauderdale and stay a night.

Both places Mike has about 30 minutes of work. So we will have lots of time to enjoy the sights!

Keys, Fireworks and Cats. Any want a Cat?

I know.... I have not done my blog on a decent timetable. I think our household is exhausted after my brothers visit! But here it is! For those of you that haven't already read my brothers blog, here is his blogdress. http://phoenixpisces.blogspot.com/ He has pictures I don't and a more detailed account of some of our days.

First and for most, I must say how MUCH I enjoyed Franks visit with us. For those of you that don't know Franks and my past history, I will give a very short synopsis. When we were kids, I was very very jealous of him. So we fought.. ALL.. THE.. TIME.. I don't know why, and I am not going to analyze it now. However, as adults we have discovered that we are very similar in personalities. As an adult, I can very much appreciate it. We had the BEST TIME EVER!! It was the most UNstressful 10 days I think Ive ever had!

Here is Caleb eating off a spatula of some cheesecake dessert I made.

On the road!! to somewhere or another??? Bro eating something or other at Bubba Gumps at Universal Studios. The boys in a Cool Down Tank at Universal Studios. It was warm, but very tolerable. Look at all that cold water mist on them!! The boys in front of Poseidon's Fury. If you look closely you might see Frank, Christina, and Zachary on the raft. Zachary LOVED this ride. It was his first time on this one. He got SOAKED!!! Caleb was big enough, but did not want to go on it at all. He apparently didn't like it at Disney. (Same basic ride) Caleb will go on anything at once, but it takes him awhile to decide to go again. He did go on Spiderman, Simpsons, and Men In Black. He said WWHHEE the entire time! SO CUTE!!! My new tattoo on my leg. Calebs tattoo on his arm. Zacharys tattoo on his arm. Yes, they were fake. All of them. However, not for long. I am so itching to get another one, and Mike keeps SAYING he wants one. So be prepared!!!

Us walking thru Universal Studios

LOOK OUT!!!!!! Hungry dinosaur!!! Here we are at the Keys. We drove all the way to Key West. Took us several tries before we found the best beach to snorkel. But once we did, OMG!!!!! what a BLAST!!! This pic is hard to tell, but Zachary really got HOW to snorkel, and he loved it!! He totally did it just like you are suppose to! We even explored a sunken ship! A few words about the Keys. They aren't the softest beaches. There are coral reefs a few miles out, so it keeps the beaches from getting sandy. Which means they are rocky. The reefs stop waves from coming in, so snorkeling and probably scuba diving is very good. So if you ever go, bring water shoes or flippers so that your bare feet are not cut up. That said. It was ssoooooo fun!! We all LOVED LOVED LOVED snorkeling! So did Zachary, Christina, and Frank. Caleb did not want to put his head under. Mike and I had snorkeled before on our cruises, and really enjoyed it, but seeing our family enjoy themselves, and watching Zachary, made the entire trip incredibly wonderful!!! We WILL go back!!

Bro left the 4th. He says he is moving here after he is done in culinary school.

We are keeping our fingers crossed!!! Bro left the morning of the 4th. Then Mike went out and bought all these fireworks. They are legal here. ALL fireworks are. But I'd only let him buy little ones. Is there REALLY such a thing? Little FIREworks?

They really liked the sparklers.

Oh My Goodness! Look at our grass!! Mike had it mowed June 14th. This was July 4. Wow. Looks like we live in a jungle!! It has rained here every day.You can tell!!!

yes, Mike mowed, the next day!

This was the day after he mowed. Doesn't it look better?!And these are our new family members. At least for now. Saturday Mike spent hours talking about having another baby. Sunday he came home with 3 kittens. 4 week old kittens. I hope hes getting BABY out of his system!! Any one want a cat?

3 New Kitties. I never knew little cats could be so much work. They are not weaned. Not litter boxed trained, and have no idea how to eat or drink. I cant even tell 2 of them apart!!

Any one want a cat?

You can imagine how our last few days have been. They still don't have names! Nascat is soo pissed at me. Everytime I say his name he growls at me. Freeway is ticked too. So now we have 5 cats. 3 with no names, and very high maintenance. They are rescue cats, like all of our other ones. Some jerk left them in a box in a store parking lot. In 90+ weather. Nice huh? We called the shelters, but none are taking any. Christina's friends took 2 of the 5. At least they are friendly and lap cats. So our days and nights are now filled with bottle feeding and litter training. Any one want a cat?

I thought I'd throw this picture in because it is so THE BOYS. They sleep together snuggled, yet like the cats, sleep with arms and legs all over the other one. Any one want a cat?

So thats been our life lately. Always an adventure!

Any one want a cat?