Florida

Right after the holidays Emily's boss announced he would be taking a few weeks off to visit family so we thought lets make it a vacation time for us too. With some changing to Marks schedule we made it happen.
A week ago (March 1) we arrived in Naples, Florida to enjoy some sunshine, warmth and being together without distractions or stress.
After getting our rental car we stopped at culvers for lunch and custard

 A little friend joined us at our table, Noah freaked out. For a boy he is really scared of bugs, we are going to have to work on his bravery.

After lunch we drove to our hotel and checked in. Noah was excited that there was balcony he could go out on. He would point out cars and try to talk to people, whenever we were in the room this is what he wanted to do.

We headed down the naples pier for the rest of the afternoon.

 

Noah tolerated us walking out on the pier, but he really just wanted to get in the water and sand. He is definitely a beach bum at heart .

 

Our plan was to stay and watch the sunset over the ocean but moments after this photo was taken Noah fell off the sandbar. It was hilarious, we laughed he stood there in shock. We headed back to the car or dry clothes and decided to call it an evening. 

DAY 2
We headed out to Everglade City to see the everglades and hopefully some alligators. Noah was so excited at the prospect of seeing one.
 We took a boat tour into everglades national park. At first we were going to do a traditional air boat tour but after remembering Noah's dislike of loud noises I knew that would not go well. On the national park website the boat tour website linked us to  Everglades National park boat tours after reading I learned 2 interesting facts that sold us quickly not only are their boats quiet (to not scare the wildlife) but they are the only company allowed in the actual national park.

 Noah was a little nervous at first but soon he was telling the guide to drive faster and faster.










Now that we have actually been to the everglades and learned more about them and the wildlife I think a canoe tour could be a fun thing to do and neat way to experience them up close.

 These are osprey, they are pretty neat bird. When they find a mate, they stay with that mate for life and always come back to the same nest to hatch their eggs. Not often that animals in the wild have a lifetime mate so it always interests me when when they do.

 Entering the tunnel in the mongrove forest. Pictures really can't show you how beautiful this place is but here are few just because....

Iris taking flight.













Noah really did have fun, he just took his hat off so
the sun was blinding him.

Noah kept "napping" on the boat floor...he wouldn’t' take a nap for real but he liked pretending.

In the pictures above you can see how the mongrove tree roots are all intertwined. They gather mud & animal feces creating and "island" like area but if you tried walking on it you would just sink. At least a hundred years ago indians started piling shells on the mud and created actual islands where they lived and farmed. Marco Island that is close to where we stayed is actually a shell island also, it has sky-risers on it...amazing some mud and shells can hold that much weight! The second picture is a close up of the island.                                                                                                                                

After our tour we took the advice of our captain and went to Camellia's Street Grill for lunch. It was amazing! The atmosphere was fun, the food was amazing and even if we had a wait because they were so busy it didn't matter. The couple next to us were actually fellow Aggies who are retired and winter in Florida. We had a fun chat with them and Noah enjoyed playing with their dog. Anytime we saw a dog he would run up to the owners and ask if he could pet it,

 

 

  THE KEY LIME PIE WAS AMAZING! I'll never be able to eat the fake stuff you buy in the freezer section again.

After lunch we headed into the Everglades National Park. Our first stop was a visitor center, I can't remember the name. There were a few alligators swimming around the visitor center but the really cool thing was seeing the manatee's swimming around.  There hard to capture on camera but I tried a few

From there we headed to Turner road to see the alligators.This was at the suggestion of the couple we met at lunch and we were not disappointed. First we stopped by the park at the road entrance, we saw on alligator far away so that wasn't to exciting but we did see lizards and Noah enjoyed playing photographer (the picture of his parents) and climbing the rock wall.

The drive down turner road, even if dusty, was completely amazing! I have to admit I freaked out a bit about Mark & Noah going down on the bank but after learning more about alligators I would be okay with it happening again and I might even join him.

 some big alligators were seen

We ended our day driving back to Naples in the sunset and than enjoying the nice pool at our hotel by swimming under the stars.

Day off time to have fun

My work schedule has been down right awful lately, waking Noah up to drop him off and not getting home until late so we'll eat dinner and go to bed. I forget every year how much sick season sucks at work maybe I block it out for good reason....yea that is probably it.

Anyway today I decided Noah and I needed to have some fun together. 

We started off by meeting up with my friend Kelli for lunch, we have been friends since we were young enough to think Cheetos tasted good dipped in ketchup so basically forever. We had a wonderful lunch, catching up and playing with Noah and my niece Maxine who plays with us on my day off while her parents work. The only picture I got was Maxine when I gave her some bread, she wasn't a huge fan. Beside the face she did what my family called the body shudder, my dad does it with certain food and we seem to have all inherited it to some degree. 

After lunch we met up with Melissa at the fun park for a few hours fun. She is as he put it "her favorite".

We started off by bowling....

His cheering face 

Maxine seemed to enjoy it also, I was worried the loud crashed would bother her.

Melissa and I lost to a 3 year old, I am going to pretend the ramp made the difference 

I took Maxine to her mommy and when I came back Melissa and Noah were having a grand time in the arcade and soft play area.

A little air hockey 

This is why she has reached favorite status, she climbed around with him. 

A great way to spend a rainy/snowy afternoon. Thank aunt Melissa! 

Jump Zone

My sister said she was taking her girls to the jumpzone this last week and asked if we wanted to me them. 2 of the doctors I work for made it very clear I was to never take Noah to the jump zone, they have both treated/seen some very bad bone fractures from that place. I justified it by reminding myself he would be in the kid zone, luckily he was all right and came out with nothing broken. I could only imagine the lecture I would have gotten if the opposite had happened. I don't know if it was the fact that I couldn't control all the children or the fear of the lecture but that place gave me serious anxiety. Noah had a blast so I am sure we'll go back but maybe I should send his dad.

 Noah's buddy Leo met us there too, I made the mistake of mentioning we were seeing Leo later in the day so every few minutes he'd say are we meeting Leo now.

Amelia had no fear she wanted to be right in the middle of it all

 Eliza preferred sticking close to us, she backed into the foam pit at one point and was not impressed with it.

 Noah however loved the foam pit

Especially using them as blocks.

 He didn't stop moving the entire hour we were there

 Benjamin loved the rope swing, he tried showing Noah how to use it but Noah was not okay with it and backed away quickly.

 The picture is blurry but look how much fun they were having.

 Leos's legs were a little short for the horse but he kept trying, I love kids at the age of discovery!

 The best I can figure in the picture above and below is they were playing monsters or zombies.

It was a fun time but the medical professional in me just couldn't stop seeing terrible outcomes, not sure if my job is blessing or curse at moments like that. Thanks to our friends for meeting us!



Hardware Ranch

On the 18 one my friends from work wondered if Noah and I wanted to go see the Elk with her, her nephew and her dad. Getting out of the valley blanketed in bad air, blanketed isn't an exaggeration it truly is thick, and ride a wagon among elk sounded like a pleasant way to spend some of our day.
It was a really nice day for January in Utah.

 Noah is all ready for this adventure. It wasn't cold enough that snow pants were necessary but when your 3 staying out of the snow is hard so he got full coverage.

 They had a fire going which Noah thought was pretty awesome

 Noah LOVES my friend Melissa and he enjoyed getting to play with her all afternoon.

 See he just couldn't not be in the snow

 On the wagon, they feed the elk to keep them from coming down low in the valley and being in  neighborhoods 

Train Museum

A few weekends ago we met up  with some of our Chicago friend, they are friends Mark grew up with and we are still very close too, at the train museum in Ogden.
Noah really likes trains, he has a blast playing with the other kids...3 other little boys.
The biggest hit had to be the room they had for kids to "drive" trains and the other rail road equipment.

 Of course he had top put the hard hat on immediately, I realize now I probably should have been worried about the germs and such oh well he survived,

 He kept trying to cover his ears in case they go to loud, I couldn't convince him they didn't drive any more.

 This is Benton, him Mom & Mark grew up together, he is 1 and he is the most adorable little boy!

 Of course we had to have a treat after our time at the train museum  we went to local mercantile and got ice cream. Noah was so excited about the play dough ice cream