Mom visit

Jim picked up Colleen's mom from the airport on Thursday and after leaving New Hampshire she was happy to see no snow on the ground. After the first day it was in the 50s and even upper 60s all week and a welcome change from the cold and snow.

She was thinking of a possible move down here to be by us so we started looking through the listings that our real estate agent sent us

The best part of it was that our real estate agent (Marsha) reminds us so much of Colleen's mom, both in how they look

And in their interests. On Friday night we went over to Marsha's house to have our auroa pictures taken and our auoras analyzed by Marsha

Then Colleen's mom gave Marsha a palm reading

It was really fun to watch them interact!

The next day we went to look at townhomes near us and she fell in love with one near us. It was a 3 bedroom/3 bathroom with a lake view from the deck, bedroom, and living room

It had a paved path around the lake

a community pool overlooking the lake (that is open from April until October)

and even an off-leash dog park in the complex.  It is only 3 miles from our house.  Now she just needs to sell her places up in New Hampshire and pack up!

The next day we went for a nice walk along the greenway trail in our neighborhood.

When we were out the next day we noticed with the upper 60s the trees in the median of Cary Parkway starting blooming even though it was mid-January, it looked really neat though

Later while Jim was at work Colleen and her mom continuted to decorate the nursery and started haning up Avery's letter over her crib

We had fun during the week hosting her in our house and guest room.  She baked us cookies, bread, and brownies.  We were sad to see her leave and hope she ends up moving closer to us!

Florida - Day 3 and 4

When we got up Saturday morning we opened the window and enjoyed the sunrise over the water from the view out of our room:

After we got up we headed first to the Hollywood, FL dog park.  Kylie loved the little kiddie pool they have for the dogs!  She loved lounging in it:

Then we headed to the Everglades for a fan-boat tour

 

 

 

We spotted two alligators

 

After the boat tour Colleen got to pet an armadillo

We then headed out to the beach in Hollywood to enjoy the remainder of the daylight.

 

On Sunday we woke up and headed out towards the Keys.  The water color was so beautiful, greenish-blue.

When we got to Key West we took our picture at the southern-most point buoy

(although Jim noticed on a technicality that there is a small portion of the island farther south than this buoy a little to the west.)

We also stopped by the most southern hotel although there were two more hotels farther south than this one!  There was one even called the "Southern-most Southern-most Hotel", all trying to one-up each other

We then took Kylie to a dog beach 3 blocks away and let her run around and splash around

 

We had lunch at a dog-friendly Mexican restaurant. Kylie looked like quite the vacationing dog with the Corona next to her on the table

We stopped by Earnest Hemingway's house, but notice Kylie isn't looking....

It's because of all the roosters on the island!  There were everywhere and Kylie was so fixated on them

We saw the very southern end of US Route 1 in Key West at Mile Marker zero (It goes all the way to the northern tip of Maine at the border of Canada)
















On our drive back across the Keys we stopped at a state park beach for one last look at the ocean.  We let Kylie back out in the water

We watched the scenery as the sun began to set

We head back tomorrow morning, we had a fun trip!

Florida - Day 1 and 2

We decided to take a "baby-moon", one last non-kids trip. We are taking a 4 night extended weekend trip to Hollywood, FL. (Hollywood is just north of Miami and just south of Ft. Lauderdale) We brought Kylie and we are staying in a dog-friendly hotel here 1 mile from the beach! We drove down and arrived last night (Thursday) and we will leave Monday.

On our way down the Florida coast, south of Daytona Beach, we stopped at the Ponce De Leon Inlet Lighthouse, the tallest lighthouse in Florida.

It is 175 feet high, 210 steps to the top. Even though Colleen is now 5 months pregnant, she climbed the steps with no problem!

It was a nice view from the top...

After that we went over to the beach to check it out before the sun set. We were able to legally drive on the beach and park our vehicle on it.

Colleen (remember 5 months pregnant) did a great cartwheel with the lighthouse in the background.

Jim tried to do a cartwheel and....it didn't turn out so great.

Colleen even got to see a couple manatees, well sort of:

We then arrive last night in our hotel, and this morning we took Kylie to the dog park near here. She loved the little pool at the dog park and just lounged in it after every ball retrieval. It was really funny and we'll try and get some pics tomorrow.

We then went down to the beach. The water was a pretty blue-green and the temp was around 75-77 today, perfect!

After hanging out at the beach for awhile, we went to go eat at an Italian cafe in downtown Hollywood.

Colleen even posed near this shrub that looked like a lady with shopping bags!

In case you're wondering, Hollywood, Florida was founded in the 1920s and is named after Hollywood, California because the town squares resemble each other.