Florida!

Springtime in Colorado is a completely mixed bag.  Waiting for the temps to rise and the color to return can be kind of agonizing, so it is the perfect time to fast forward to somewhere warm and sunny...like Florida :)

 

 

We took an after Spring break, break and headed down to Marco Island! We could think of nothing more perfect than ditching school and work for a week to play at the beach with our friends!  The Nichols head down to Marco every year around this time and we have been talking about coordinating a trip with them since Riley and James were babies....I'm so glad that we finally did it! 

The girls were in absolute heaven!  There was plenty of swimming, sunshine, sand, more swimming and lots of playing with friends.  We stayed in a condo right on the beach and we all loved getting to look out at the ocean and hear the waves anytime we wanted!  We spent a lot of time out playing in the waves, building sandcastles and looking for seashells. 

We also discovered that humidity is definitely Piper's ideal climate...her head was full of perfectly formed ringlets the entire time.  Too cute!

And this sweet little toothless girl was all smiles, all week.  She could not get enough of the ocean,  a total beach babe! 

 Totally the life, right?!

 

 

 

Dave and Katie Nichols have a beautiful house in Marco and they invited us to spend time hanging in their pool, riding on the boat and having a home away from home for Easter. 

 

 

My little water baby, Piper could have lived in their pool :)  She had her own personal fountains...heaven!

 

 

 

This was our first time being away for Easter, but the girls weren't one bit worried that the Easter Bunny would have a hard time finding them at the beach.  Being down there with the Nichols meant that all the kids were together for egg dying, I think that Riley and James have done Easter eggs almost every year. 

We had our first sunrise service on the beach and followed it up with an egg hunt and brunch at the Nichols.  Oh and the Easter Bunny did find us at our condo and delivered the girls special baskets filled with beachy-themed goodies! 

 

 

 

On a rare day away from the water, we drove to Naples to check out their zoo and we were so glad we did!  It was so much smaller than ours and had things we had never seen been, like honey badgers...Riley's fave.  We decided on the car ride home to nickname our Pipey the Honey badger, after an unfortunate incident with Roo's souvenir. They also had giraffe feeding and camel rides.  Such a fun outing!

 

We were amazed at how well all 3 girls did with the long plane ride and being away from home for 8 days.  It was a perfect family get away and we all came back with big smiles on our faces and lots of happy memories.