Florida 2012

 

Our August Vacation to the Punta Gorda Isles

What a great way for the McMahon's to end our summer with a great Florida Vacation. Everyone is well relaxed and ready to jump into a new school year and we have many great memories to carry us through. We stayed with Mimi and Poppy for a week in Punta Gorda and also got to meet up with Gramma and Grampa one night too for dinner and we all had a wonderful time. The kids were literally fish all week...tons of swimming, boating, fishing, shark teeth hunting, and a wee tid bit of relaxation during our week. Connor had a huge first on vacation, catching his first fish ever and ending up catching not 1 but four fish. He caught two catfish, a sheep fish and a redfish. Of course we had to throw everything back but it was still very exciting. A big first for Mara as she swam the entire week in the pool with out a bubble and became a captain of a huge sailboat. Meggie had her big very own first as well for swimming in the pool all by her self with her swimmies and totally loving it. Mommy was able to sit in the lounge chair and watch all three kids swimming and having a blast and I didn't even have to be in the pool. Just a little sign that there is three little kids growing up super fast before our eyes. Meggie is no longer that little tiny baby anymore and is right up there with her big brother and sister. She does everything they do including jumping in the pool!

Day One
 We left Philadelphia on time and realized the only perk that we will ever have with having a peanut allergy child is that we get pre boarding and first on our flights on southwest airlines. I was very relieved to know that the flight attendants really care about kids with allergies and it was a completely peanut free flight and we were allowed on first so that we could make sure the seats were clean around us and there were no stray peanuts wondering around on the ground. I am really glad I checked the floors and seats well because even though Meggie was a lap child she spent only about 5 minutes total on my lap. She screamed during take off and landing because she wants to be a free child and roam all over the row between both Don and I and the kids. She didn't want to miss a beat.

Mara showing off her excitement to be at Mimi and Poppy's pool and to be swimming all day!

 Mimi and Poppy enjoying every moment with their grandkids in their pool. Poppy called us today to say how quiet the pool is and that their is nobody(Mara) asking every minute if she is going to sink. She must have asked every time before she jumped in if we thought she would sink in the spot where she was going to jump.

 Meghan Reese swimming for the first time with swimmies all by herself in the pool. I think the fact that the pool was 92 degrees had a little something to do with her having no fear of holding on to her mommy. She probably figured it was nice and safe just like the bathtub because we took her to the pool this week here and she won't swim with out me again. Our pool water is only 79 degrees at Peachwood....brrrr after getting used to the Florida pools.

Connor was consumed all week with swimming and fishing and also checking to make sure his pee pee was still there. We don't know what got into him but he was very concerned about it all week! I think its just all about growing up and it must have felt funny in the water or something, we have no idea, but I had to take a picture because he seriously did this the entire week.

After swimming in the pool all day we had a nice pasta dinner prepared by Mimi and then relaxed the rest of the night. The kids enjoyed their trips to Publix in the morning with Poppy to get their donuts while Mimi played with Meg and Mommy ran and Daddy tried to catch up on some zzzzzz's.

Day Two
Poppy packed up the car with practically everything in the house to go to the beach. I should have taken a picture because I thought it was bad when we took the kids to the beach but we really had everything you could imagine and more. He was all prepared for the kids to catch a ton of shark teeth and have a blast in the ocean, but little did we know that it would be a complete wind storm there and we had to take advantage of the gully instead.

 There are usually no waves and today the waves were huge and crashing right near the shore. Which made for not a very nice ocean day. There were a ton of shells and seaweed probably coming from all the storms brewing in the gulf. Of course the kids weren't afraid of the waves but you had to hold on for dear life and Mommy does not like that!

 Poppy trying to show Connor how to catch shark teeth with his screen contraption. He scoops up the sand and then sifts through all the shells until you find sharks teeth. We did manage to find a lot and now the kids have hundreds of sharks teeth to show all their friends.

 Everybody hanging out in the gully looking for more sharks teeth and playing it safe away from the ocean. We only stayed about 2 hours on the beach and I think it took us longer to pack up and get there and set up then we were actually there. It was crazy but the kids still thought it was a great day. After the beach we got home and of course swam the rest of the day away.

Day Three

The calm before the storm! That is the pretty picture of the birds relaxing on the beach before our three little crazy kids ran them off the beach. Mimi, Don and I took the kids to the Waterfront at Fishermans Village and they all shopped while I ran and then we went to the wildlife preserve to check out all the endangered birds of southern Florida and then the kids explored the beach on Ponce de Leon.

After playing and swimming all day we all had a great dinner at the crab shack on the river and then indulged in yummy ice cream!

 

 



Connor was a big shot and ordered a double scoop of chocolate ice cream and mint chocolate chip on top and actually ate every bit of it. Mara loves plain chocolate ice cream and we played it safe with Meggie and got vanilla ice cream and she loved every single drip of it.
Day Four
Mommy and Daddy actually got a few minutes to our selves and we decided to take a tour of the canals and check out the mangroves on our kayaks. I will have to add the pictures later because they are all on Poppy's camera.
...here are the kyak pictures!

We did have a nice beautiful day of boating! We started the day off on Poppy's boat and everyone took a turn driving the boat with Poppy. We had to stay under moderate speeds because Connor didn't like going fast. He has always been the more nervous, sensitive kid and he really doesn't like jumping in feet first like his crazy sister, Mara. She was all for taking over the boat and wanted to go really fast. We all compromised had a ton of fun and enjoyed a great boat ride through the harbor of Peace River. After Poppy's boat ride we ventured out in the afternoon without Meggie and the nervous Nelly(Mimi), she is actually worse than me with the worries so we thought it would be best to try the sailboat with out her and we probably should have left Connor home too! As soon as the sails were hoisted, the boat started healing and Connor started freaking out! He just wanted to get off and be back home in the pool swimming where he felt safe. It was an adventure to say the least. Noel, Poppy's neighbor was great with the kids and wanted them to be a part of everything. Captain Mara was so happy and made us all dizzy with her crazy steering skills. We zigzagged through the entire canal and nearly missed a few boats and anything that crossed our path.

At first, Meggie wasn't too thrilled about the life vest, but after a few moments she forgot about it and was all smiles. She loved it and we just kept laughing together and saying wheee,wheee!!!

 Mimi and Poppy excited to finally have their grandkids here in Punta Gorda and enjoying Poppy's boat!

 The start of our boating fun in the beginning of the canal heading towards the Peace River!

Our Sailing Adventure with Captain Mara!

 

 Mommy taking in the moment and thinking about all the great moments I had on my Dad's boat as a kid. It was awesome. I went right back to my favorite spot at the bow of the boat and just took it all in and not long after my minnie me came right by my side. It was great to be back on a sailboat again even if it was only for an hour!

 I think you can almost hear the fear in Connor's face in this picture. He was definitely not in his safe place on this boat. He kept trying to get past his fear to come up to the front but we decided that maybe we will have to try this adventure again in a few years.

 Daddy enjoying his first time ever on a sail boat. He really enjoyed it too! Although he said he would never get a sail boat because it's too much work, he did have a fun time and I'm sure he would love to do it again.

Day Five
 Started to think that Hurricane Isaac just might be heading to the west coast of Florida, so we decided that the Beach wouldn't be the best of ideas again and we just had a great relaxing day in the pool. The kids played for hours on end and we all enjoyed a few Margaritas poolside. Connor tried kayaking in the pool with the raft and Poppy pretended to be 40 again throwing the kids all over in the pool.

We played a little bit of pool volley ball and even made a slide out of the big black raft. Mara and Connor kept trying different ways to go off it and definitely were having a blast.  After swimming all day, we all got prettied and were on our way to Naples Fishing Pier to take family pictures and meet Gramma and Grampa for dinner.

The week was finally catching up with Connor and Mara and we weren't in the car 5 minutes before they were both fast asleep.

but of course, Meggie had a great 3 hour nap everyday and she was happy to be enjoying a quiet moment in the car without Connor and Mara screaming.  I was really glad that they took a nice nap because our photo shoot would have been a total nightmare with two tired kids. It's already hard enough to get the attention of a 21 month old and putting in a tired 4 and 6 year old just makes for a crazy and stressful time. We did get a few great shots but it still is really hard to get everyone looking at once. Here is a sneak peek at some of our shots!

We took a ton of pictures but I still have a lot more editing to do before we print them. It's a lot of fun to find the perfect facial expressions on the kids and zoom in to crop and make it their own photo. I just love these five pictures and can't wait to send them to be printed.

 please Mommy Don't let me go...Mommy hold you! Meggie wouldn't go for the just kids photos on the pier. And of course my after thought was good thinking Meggie. I wasn't even thinking that we were pretty far out over the ocean at this point.

 So, we tried a just kids photo shoot in front of the Banyan tree, but of course I had to snap quick because Meggie is super fast.

 I think she thought it was some kind of game and every time I would place her next to the kids she would come running after me.

After our pictures were done we headed to check out down town Naples really quick and wanted to go to Tin City but we parked in the wrong spot and after getting the kids in and out of the car a few times we decided to just hit the road for our dinner at Daniela's restaurant. Our restaurant was absolutely phenomenal. It was just luck of the draw and I actually made a mistake picking something that was in North Naples and not Downtown Naples but it worked out perfectly for the chef was our waitress and she was amazing with us and the kids. It was just a quaint little find and the food was delicious. It was all homemade Hungarian, Romanian and northern Italian food. All the pasta was homemade and unbelievably tasty. They had the best tiramisu any of us has ever tasted. Meggie was thrilled when Daniella brought her the entire sleeve of club crackers and a bowl of Romanian soup. She was totally quiet for over an hour and a half.

 Meggie is saying, Wow this is all for me.... she was so never so happy to see those crackers.

 Connor and Mara hugging Gramma goodbye. They were really happy to be able to see them even if it was just for a few hours. We were glad they were up to taking the 2.5 hour drive from Miami to Naples just to meet us for dinner. Connor is really excited for his next adventure in November to go to Grammas for a few days all by himself.

 Mimi with her Mara. Having a cuddling moment before we head back to their house for bed time.

 Daddy and his baby girls. Don's favorite sayings to say to Mara is "you will always be... and Mara replies..my baby girl" and then with Meggie he says " I present to you....and Meg says...a BABY" It is just so cute. They sure do love their Daddy.

Day 6
Don and I took the kids to Fisherman's Village to do some shopping and give Mimi and Poppy a little break. Don and Poppy spent hours putting up Hurricane shutters and then Poppy spent hours working on everyone else's houses too. They prepared hours on end for the storm that made us leave a day early and never even came. They did get a lot of rain and the canal came up over the top of the dock but the flight that I gave Don a hard time about changing to Sunday we changed and our original flight still took off on time. Of course if we would have waited it out we would have been stuck probably in the middle of a bad storm and the luck wouldn't have gone our way, but we were proactive and decided to leave Sunday instead of Monday. We had a wonderful trip and are so glad that we finally made the trip out to their house even if it did take 3 years and 3 kids later to finally get it together to visit their beautiful home in a little land of paradise.

 Connor and Mara spent a lot of time playing with Poppy's scuba diving weights and Connor mastered picking four of them up on a single dive to the bottom of the pool. He kept using the heavy weight to put in his bathing suit because he said it helped him sink to the bottom of the pool faster. Of course Mimi didn't like the idea because I guess she thought it might actually sink him. Good Old Mimi.. If you thought I was nervous you should see Mimi in action!

 Meghan doing what she loved best all week....eating poolside! By the end of the week she was able to get in and out anywhere around the pool and even tempted the deep end.

Here is Connor in mid dive to the bottom to pick up his weights and you can see the metal weight hanging off the back of his bathing suit. He said he can't wait till he is old enough to go diving with Poppy and Daddy.

Fishing with Daddy

 

I was going to add the fishing into each day but once they took their fist cast off the dock they were literally "hooked". They caught at least five fish and got about fifty snagged lines as well. But the expressions and happiness of Connor's face was worth every snag and lost hook. He was so excited to be sharing this experience with his Poppy and Daddy.

The little boat that "could". It was super fast and Connor took control and ran it round and round.

 

The fishing experience all started with Poppy's neighbor Noel, who is such a great guy and even though they never had kids he is a kid at heart and Connor had so much fun with Noel. He brought Connor over a remote control speed boat and that was it for Connor, he was totally sold on this guy. Of course Poppy tried to get one for him before we got there but the flea market was already sold out, so Noel was the big shot now. After Connor ran the battery out on the speed boat the real fishing began. Poppy, Don and Connor tried the fishing the day before but only with fake fish and once the shrimp were placed on the line it was a whole different ballgame. One fish, two fish, three fish and you get the idea. The fish were biting like crazy.

 "I got one, I got one, I can't believe it, I actually caught a fish" Connor was so excited to have got a fish on his line and he couldn't wait for Daddy to help him reel it in for him.

 Don was so excited reeling it in and was pretty sure 100% that it was a catfish and after a few seconds of reeling....yup...it's a catfish.

 

and off to catch more fish....

Definitely a priceless moment and one moment they will never forget. Daddy and his little boy, "gone fishing"

They tried late afternoon fishing, evening fishing, morning fishing and day fishing. 

 

 One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish,
Black fish, Blue fish, Old fish, New fish.
This one has a little car.
This one has a little star.
Say! What a lot of fish there are.
Yes. Some are red, and some are blue.
Some are old and some are new.
Some are sad, and some are glad,
And some are very, very bad.
Why are they sad and glad and bad?
I do not know, go ask your dad.
Some are thin, and some are fat.
The fat one has a yellow hat.
From there to here,
From here to there,
Funny things are everywhere.
Here are some who like to run.
They run for fun in the hot, hot sun.
Oh me! Oh my! Oh me! oh my!
What a lot of funny things go by.
Some have two feet and some have four.
Some have six feet and some have more.
Where do they come from? I can't say.
But I bet they have come a long, long way.
we see them come, we see them go.
Some are fast. Some are slow.
Some are high. Some are low.
Not one of them is like another.
Don't ask us why, go ask your mother.

And there you have it, a little glimpse into our vacation on Crooked Island Drive!

*note that next time we go on vacation this can not be the only picture taken with both Mimi and Poppy with the kids and not only that their is only one kid in this picture. I thought we got some more pics with you and the kids all together but it looks like the photographer failed at her job once again. Some great picutres but we should have taken some on the beach with you guys in Naples. Just means you are getting us again next year! Love you both and so happy we had such a great week together. Miss you both so much and the kids do too and I even think Don misses it there too!

xoxo.....see you soon