More Florida Fun

Eating and swimming weren't the only things we did during our trip to Florida ...

Among our other activities, Elsa really enjoyed riding in Grandpa's new Jag. She kept calling it the "invertible." Grandpa took her to the grocery store in it and she was very upset when the ride ended too soon. She also kept asking to go faster. Great.

We also went to a really fun playground near their house.

The playground included this terrifying (for me) slide with no sides. I can't imagine why you don't see these more often.

Claire enjoyed the playground the same way she enjoys everything ... for a short time, in small amounts, and on her own terms. Then she was done with that place.

We also did a quick trip to the beach.

Same deal there with Claire. She liked it ... for about 15 minutes. After that, she was ready to go. By the way, does this remind you of anyone? Yes, I'm blaming Bob for this affliction, since he doesn't like the beach either, and he also tends to enjoy things in 15 minute increments. If Claire doesn't grow out of this, he'll be responsible for entertaining her while Elsa and I go have fun at the beach. : )

But just like her big sister before her, one thing Claire really did love about the beach was the seagulls. We have pictures of Elsa chasing the seagulls on this very same beach, when she was just a few months younger than Claire.

And here she is dipping her toes in the ocean surf for the first time. She didn't like the water at first, but got used to it after a few minutes.

Elsa and Claire also played together in the sand for a short while, until Claire got bored with it.

One of Elsa's favorite activities at the beach was picking up seashells. Obviously we didn't find many of those when we were in Door County this summer. She collected a whole bag full of interesting shells to take for share time when she went back to school. One was a big, iridescent and semi-transparent piece of what her teachers estimated to be a giant razor clam. She also had a piece of coral in there.

Unfortunately, there was a bit of an incident when she shared the shells a few days later. Apparently a hermit crab had still been living in one of the shells we picked up. Needless to say, he didn't weather the trip back to Wisconsin in a sealed plastic bag so well. And I'm told that when she opened the bag at school, it didn't smell so good! Good thing it's a nature preschool and one of her teachers is a trained biologist and naturalist. They're equipped to deal with such things there. : ) They showed me the recently departed crab when I arrived to pick her up. Ickiness!

Well, at least three of us had lots of fun with Grandpa and Grandma. Hopefully Claire will enjoy it as much as the rest of us the next time we go!