This year my mom won a trip through work and took all of us to Florida for a week long vacation. We rented a house at ocean reef and got to spend a week with GG and grandpa. Ocean Reef is a beautiful place. Perfect beaches, golf courses, pools, water, sunsets and best of all (for us northerners) warmth.
Shannon also enjoyed the reef but for very different reasons. Outside of her window there was an empty lot with a bulldozer parked. Dirt, rocks and machinery were what she woke up to every morning and she couldn't be happier. Then we threw in riding around in golf carts and tile dolphins at the bottom of the pool and I thought she would explode. The house we rented opened up to a large patio and you were just a few steps away from the pool. I don't think Shannon ever got over the fact that we were always outside on the patio.
Our days fell into a happy rhythm. Each day we would wake up early and head to the pool and beach but most exciting was driving by the alligator (which was actually a crocodile) but we didn't want to confuse her so we kept it at that. This week Shannon learned that alligator's mouth goes "snap... snap".
To top it off there was even a green lizard who managed to get inside of the pool screen much to Shannon's delight. She got to watch it scamper up and down the screen trying to find its way out.
Most exciting for us this vacation was that Shannon slept well every night, which was in stark contrast to our vacation sleeping escapades. We brought pink-B (blankie), our nightlight from home and sheepy all of which seemed to do the trick. Or maybe it was all that fresh air, swimming and running around.
We had done some swim lessons last winter but not much else swimming since last summer was cold and wet so we were unsure about how Shannon would handle swimming. I don't know what I was worried about as you will see in my pictures she was in heaven. Especially when her daddy was swinging her through the air.
