Traveling with small kids and big dog (More of the relaxing part)

So here it is. The day we've dreaded the most. The last day in paradise. It's time to look reality in the eye and face the fact that it won't be long now until we'll be back in cold, snowy Canada. I've got to admit, I do feel a little depressed. Like I've said before, I'm a summer girl and love the heat so this has been heaven for me. I don't even want to think about wrapping myself in winter-coats, scarfs, hats and mittens again. Gah! But I guess we'll get through the winter - as we do every year - before moving on to black fly and mosquito season. Remind me again why I'm living in Canada? Darn you, Adrian! 

Anyways, I'll just tell you guys about what we've been up to during our second week of being here and try not to moan too much. The winter might be fun. Think positive, right? So Adrian, the vegetarian, has braved the rough waters of the Gulf of Mexico with his dad twice and has decided to eat some seafood while we're down here. After hours of baking in the hot afternoon sun and being eaten alive by noseeums, they accomplished what they had set out to do and caught some fish to bring back to their women. The whole thing was very manly and sexy and they looked more than pleased with themselves while proudly presenting us with what they had caught. It was quite cute and after slaving all day to gather food, they actually prepared and cooked dinner for us and it was delicious. Here's a look at the proud fisherman and his catch. Like a little boy on Christmas morning, no?

 

The next day we took the children to Fort Myers to a place called Nature Park. It was pretty much a small zoo with a bunch of fake dinosaurs and touch center, where Noah was able to touch some lizards, star fish and sea urchins. He had a blast there and has been talking about going to see dinosaurs ever since, if he's not asking about going to the beach. I think we've got a little beach bum on our hands.

As you can see in these next pictures, we didn't have any fun on Fort Myers Beach and hated every second of it. What a way to spend New Year's Eve. My mother used to say that the way you spend the last day of the old year is going to predict what the new year is going to be like. If that's true, then I'm very much looking forward to 2015 because we had a wonderful day. The kids had so much fun digging holes to bury their daddy in, splashing about in the waves and eating popsicles in the sun, and we were simply happy watching their smiling little faces. Makes me want to move somewhere warm where you can do that on a regular basis.

 

We also bought some bike seats for the children and took them for a few rides around the Island, which was pretty neat but also challenging, because Mia fell asleep both times so you have to hold on to her the whole time, which is quite hard on the arms. She also thought it's quite funny to grab the handlebars out of the blue and just yank on them, which almost had us landing in the ditch a couple of times. But other than that and the fact that my ass was hurting after five minutes, it was a lot of fun and gave us some much needed exercise after all the times we've pigged out since we've been here. 

 

Adrian and I also got to go out on a date one night while Gramma and Grampa took care of the children, so we got to spend some alone time at an awesome little restaurant by the water and got to share some of the most delicious and freshest seafood I've had in a long time. It was so nice to have a meal with both of us actually sitting at the table. I know this sounds silly to some, but if you have a two year old and you're eating out, one of you will most likely chase after him while the other one is either left alone or, in our case, looking after the baby. Conversation is pretty much impossible. Everything we do without the kids nowadays is a luxury. Hell, to tell you the truth, I'm happy if I get to go to the bathroom without having one of them hanging off my leg or flush while I'm still sitting on the toilet. Anyways, here's a couple of pictures of our awesome meal.

Today we decided to end our trip with one more beach day and headed to Sanibel Beach on Sanibel Island and we are so glad we went. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, the kids had so much fun and dolphins were swimming only a few feet away from the shore. We kept swimming out to see if they would come close but had no such luck. We're sad to leave and had a blast down here but our trip is not over yet. We've still got a few days on the road and have decided to take a different route home, along the east coast, and stop at Cocoa Beach, where we'll be spending our first night and hopefully have another nice afternoon at the beach.

 

I'll be telling you all about the second part of our road trip in my next blog post so don't forget to subscribe. If you want to see pictures of our trip as we go, follow me on Instagram or like my Facebook page. Wish us luck and I'll talk to you guys soon. 

Totally random

Is it really uncool to admit that I kinda started liking Country music??? I have never understood why people like it so much and have laughed at Adrian listening to it a few times - not that that's all he listens to, he pretty much listens to anything - but since we've been down here it has been playing everywhere and after the first week I was shocked as I caught myself singing along and actually knowing the lyrics. Well, I guess there's good tunes in any genre and you should be open minded with anything in life. That's just my two cents for today.