From one beach to another

Gerry's early birthday present from his parents this year was a trip to visit them in their new home in Florida. We were hoping to get some warm Florida sun, but while the weather was not as cooperative as we had hoped (only occassionally hitting low seventies and usually grey), we still had a wonderful time!

Our first day there was the coolest, requiring some layering to play outside, but we were bound and determined to be outside! One of Reed's favorite features at Grandma and Grandpa's house was the garden, filled with agates. He'd pick them carefully out of the garden and deposit them in waiting hands or sometimes, the pool.

Gerry's folks have a couple of Shih tzus (Florida dogs!) and they waited "patiently" for any cracker bits that Reed might "accidentally" drop. You’d have the same look on your face that Reed’s wearing here if two dogs almost as big as you were watching you, hungry-eyed, while you snacked!

It didn't take Reed long to figure out that if he pointed at where Grandma kept her animal crackers, he would promptly be rewarded with an animal cracker for each hand.

Gerry's folks only live a few miles from the beach so we made several trips. Reed has a bit of an aversion to getting his hands messy, but we didn't know that this aversion applied to his feet too, so when I tried to put him down on the beach for the first time, he curled his legs up as far as he could to avoid touching the sand.

Reed's first sand castle. Okay, this is really just a pile, but give him a break, he's only 14 months old!

The family out on the beach.

Three generations of the men in the family.

Reed does his best impression of Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible.

The difficulty in getting a baby to look where you want him to. "No Mommy, you look here!"

We found some shells for Reed to take home. Shortly this picture was taken, Gerry and I noticed Reed playing with half of what had started as a whole sand dollor. I quickly scooped the other half out of his mouth as Gerry noticed that the shell still contained its deceased resident. Yuck!! In typical mom fashion, I worried for the next 24 hours that Reed had swallowed some of it and was sure to get some bizarre food poisoning, but he was just fine.

It was a wonderful visit and I look forward to the next time we'll get to visit our Florida home!