Florida - Dad's 60th celebration

This is Florida according to my Nikon. 

I didn't take it everywhere with me so it only has a few things on it. 

We had all been talking for several months about what to do for my dad's 60th birthday. All sorts of locations had come up; Alaska, So Cal, Hawaii, Colorado etc. We arrived at the Florida decision for multiple reasons 1.) None of us had visited Stacey in St. Pete's yet! 2.) Amy & Josh had a trip planned there already. 3.) My parents had a few appointments there 4.) Beaches 5.) Good priced flights. We all hopped on planes and from different locations and made it safe and sound to Florida. The kids loved the plane ride and all did soooo good! We brought Benny's carseat on the plane and I think that is what made all the difference. He even slept half the time. We had a stop in Alabama - Sadie called it Alagrama :). 

My parents and us stayed in a 2 room 2 bath hotel suite, and Ash & Al also stayed at the same Marriott with us. It was right on the water and had a beautiful view of the Gulf. Amy & Joshed stayed at Stacey's. My Uncle Rick & Aunt Debb plus Allie and her 2 girls came down to spend a few days with us too. We loved spending the time with our family.

Our First stop was Sanibel Island. It was by far my favorite thing we did. It is one of the top beaches in the world for shelling. My mom & Amy made the kids buckets and shell bags. At low tide the beach had millions of shells on the beach. Full conch shells!! The kids had a blast. We brought a good 10 pounds of shells and sand home. We had lunch at the Blue Giraffe. I was so surprised by how much more tropical Florida was, especially Sanibel Island! I would have loved to have spent another day there. I think I took a million pictures in Sanibel and no other ones the rest of the week. I don't think the pictures need captions I feel like they speak for themselves.

My mom got these cute little robes for all the kids.

My Aunt Debbie made these cute shirts for all the little cousins! We lined everyone up according to their birth order. Sammy was sad...

Then he fell over and was really sad...

Papa rescued him...

and held him up :)

Then we tried to turn around for a numbered shot. They did alright ;).

And then there was us!!! Slightly irreverent. 

I think this is my favorite picture! Shells for days.

Our view from our deck.

Stacey's house in Dolphin Cove. 

My dad :)

We visited the Clearwater Aquarium also home to Winter the dolphin from the movie Dolphin Tale.

I think the highlight here was the feeding the Sting Rays. Beyond that I was pretty disenchanted by the place.

Winter just floated around on a raft. She looked sad to me.

We loved the rocking chairs and the porch.

So that pretty much completes Florida through the Nikon camera. I have lots more photos of paddle boarding, plane rides, Aunt Stacey's beach, and lots of other things on my phone that I'll group in a different post. We also have the most beautiful family pictures that a photographer took of us on Treasure Island.