Happy Father's Day!

Our daddy works so hard for us. We were glad to have the day to show him our love and appreciation.

Thanks again sweetheart for being such a super husband and father. We love you SO much!

water bug

Maura loves water and she's been spending a lot of time in her turtle pool!
And on occasion she attacks me with water. She was chasing after me, laughing, and having oodles of fun.

Uh-oh....here she comes again.



And lastly I wanted to share another favorite activity of our water bug. You really can't tell, but in this picture it's pouring down rain. Don't we wish we had her energy? :)

Our anniversary announcement!

We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary today and we thought there's no better time than to announce our big secret.

As you can tell by the picture, our third child is on the way and we are overjoyed!!!! Never a dull moment around here! :) We'll keep you posted on the details.

Love, Gary and Anna

Last vacation shots.....

The happy couple.

We opted for the dolphin cruise instead of the kayaks. Here's the lovely ship. We sat on the top deck underneath the canopy. And yes.... we did see dolphins. A happy couple put on a show in the ship's wake for around 10 minutes or so.
This restaurant was known as the Bubble Room. We ate at many fine eating establishments and relished every bite our food. Our favorite rest. on the island was Doc Ford's. The food was amazing and the waitress literally said you couldn't go wrong with anything you ordered on the menu! We found this to be true. One other cool thing about the island was everything was mom and pop. You couldn't find a hotel or rest chain in sight.




Some amazing tasting cheesecake!

Birds are a common sight on the island. The J.N. Ding Darling Nature Reserve has over 500+ acres of land which is untouched Florida habitat set aside for the birds and other animals of the island. Millions of birds migrate here every year during the winter months. We took a tour of the refuge and saw several different types of beaked creatures, a large turtle, and a small alligator.

These last shots are a last evening on the beach. We just relaxed and enjoyed the view, smells, and sounds of the ocean.

And one last sunset for good measure. Sigh! I miss it already. And if anyone is interested in traveling to Sanibel, please let me know. It was a place that I found people hadn't heard of. I even asked a local travel agent and she had no clue about it. Anyways, I'm always up for sharing good things and Sanibel would come highly recommended from us. Looking back, it was an amazing vacation.

I should briefly mention that we were missing the girls terribly by the 5th day. I'll try to share some pictures of Maura's vacation with her cousins in the next week or so. And according to my mom and our babysitter, Sophia Grace was an absolute angel. It was nice to know they were in such good hands while we were gone. Thanks everyone for your help--it meant so much to have a little time away.

Red as Lobsters

This is how we spent the majority of our day. You can't tell it from this picture but we are incredibly sunburned. We lathered up with waterproof sunscreen and everything. I guess we'll have to reapply every thirty minutes tomorrow. The rays are tremendous down here.
Check out our mid-west rafts--I'm such a pansy.
Nice hat! :)

This common beach seen position is known as the Sanibel stoop. Gary is bent over rummaging through shells at his feet. The waves deliver them to you, but you only have a moment to grab what you want before they are drawn back in by the tide.

I'm doing the same thing, but haven't found the right one yet.
We had a blast on our rafts! I was getting rocked by some waves on the way back in. And I wish that I had a shot of Gary just trying to mount his pony. Most of you know that Gary is 6'5". With that said, he didn't exactly fit on the raft, but somehow made it work. There were times that he fell off which I secretly enjoyed. It was absolutely hilarious watching him try to conquer it again and again. Good times! :)
I love that Sanibel is kid-friendly. We are currently without ours, but here is a shot of sandcastle that I thought some of you would appreciate.

And last but not least, here are some tropical flowers to enjoy.

Sanibel is such a hidden treasure and the people here are super friendly.

On the agenda for tomorrow is J.Ding Darling refuge and renting a kayak at Tarpon Bay.

Hope you are enjoying the pictures. We're having so much fun!