Family fun in the sun

We just got from a wonderful week vacation with the extended family in Florida. We've been to the Alden Beach Resort at St. Pete Beach twice before with one side of the family. This time we went there with the other side of the family. Last Saturday, we arrived and met the grandparents at the Tampa airport. Late that night, Aunt Sonja and "the cousins" arrived. We had six days of fun and relaxation.

Poor Elaine wasn't used to walking in the outdoors without boots. She refused to walk on the sand, regardless of whether she wore sandals or went barefoot. I had to carry her on the beach and she would only sit down on a blanket. Once there, she loved spooning out sand and sorting sea shells for hours.

Meredith loved building castles, finding shells, and jumping in the ocean--especially with Zach. Meredith spent countless hours in the pool too. Both girls never wanted to leave the pool. Every time Elaine caught sight of the pool she desperately wanted to get in it.

We saw a dolphin. We saw pelicans and fishing hawks and storks and egrets and lizards--all within 100 yards of our room. The week also featured a trip to the zoo in Tampa and a eco-boat ride and an eco-safari adventure involving ziplines. Jen was interviewed by a local television station on the latter one. Meredith fed a giraffe at the zoo (it had a blue tongue!) and allowed a parrot to sit on her head for a bit.

While enjoying the sunset on the beach one evening, we turned around to see the space shuttle taking off on the other side of Florida. Meredith thought that was pretty cool.

The girls were excellent travelers and we dealt with minimal tantrums from kids and adults alike!

All an all, a great, relaxing time. Pictures to be posted soon.

Florida pictures

We just returned from our trip to the Gulf coast of Florida with the Randolph clan. We had a couple adjoining rooms at a beach-side, family-owned, family-friendly hotel-resort. We swam in the pools and hot tubes, hiked and played in the sand on the beach, had some coconut rum, went to the aquarium, and generally hung out and had a relaxing time.

Half our time there comprised of cold, windy weather. Even us hardy Minnesotans were bummed by the below 50 degree nights with the frigid winds. It made the run from the pool and hot tub to the room a fast one. We appreciated near-perfect weather the last couple of days. Jen even got a little sun. Meredith, Elaine, and I seemed to protect ourselves with enough sun block to hide any evidence we were in Florida for nearly a week.

Some pictures from our time below...

New Year

While we do a decent job of spreading out the holidays (we'll be doing Christmas presents with the other side of the family in a couple of days), the tree and lights had to come down last weekend. Meredith was sad to see the tree go and was only partially placated with the idea that now the birds were going to be able to enjoy the Christmas tree outside.

My illness has continued. I've been sick since December 17, and had my first halfway decent day yesterday on the 31st. Two weeks of being sick, much of it bedridden, over the holidays has been no fun--for me or anyone else. Meredith hasn't expressly told me that I was boring, but has been able to communicate the basic idea. Yes, sick parents are pretty boring. Meredith has filled the void by begging to watch TV and by doing her dinosaur puzzle over and over again. The parity between her begging to watch TV and actual viewing is about even.

Tomorrow we're off to Florida for 6 days to be on the Gulf coast. We'll be there with Grandpa Kerry and Grandma Gail, as well as Uncle David and Aunt Olga. It appears we're arriving just in time for a cold spell unfortunately, but at least it looks like we'll miss rain. Of course, even a cold day in Florida is a bit better than the average day in Minnesota in January.

The New Year is almost upon us. 2007 has been pretty momentous for us. We look forward to seeing what fun, adventures, new developments await us in 2008.