Florida

Where to even begin.  It has been a month since I've updated you on our adventures and there have been many adventures!!  Hopefully that will be an intro to many new posts to come.  In late June we went to Florida to visit my family!!  Cruz and I flew in first then Mario came out to join us.  We were so lucky that everyone could make it and we had the whole Houde clan there (now including the Quinn's and the Arce's!).  Unfortunately tropical storm Debra also joined us!!  We still had a great time and luckily we were there just long enough to even have a sunny day without 60 mile an hour winds to enjoy at the beach!  Kim and Tibyron had a short visit but at least we were house ridden so we got to spend some quality time together!  We even managed a family picture, see below!!  I love the once a year trip we have to all get together, boy it makes me miss not living close to family!! I love you guys ... tear!!

 Family pics

Golf outing: Towards the end of our trip the weather started breaking a little and we were able to get 9 holes of golf in, all 5 of us!  It's a good thing Cruz loves to play golf and although 9 holes is probably 1 or 2 over his attention span he is a trouper.  He is always good when we go golfing with him.  When in doubt, let him drive!!  

Naples Zoo: Who knew how fun the Naples Zoo would be, well now I do!!  It was a great zoo and it was so different from Phoenix.  The lush trees and flowers you are walking through have such a jungle feel to them and with the sticky humidity you almost felt like you were viewing the monkeys in the wild!  It was a great day and Cruz loves animals so had a BLAST!!!!

Yeah, BEACH DAY!!  I was so looking forward to this so at least we got a good day.  Last year I was so stressed out since the beach is so shelly and Cruz was putting everything in his mouth.  This year I couldn't wait because Cruz knows not to eat the shells (even though he still tried a couple) and he loves playing in the sand and building (or knocking down) sand castles.  He had fun collecting shells and digging in the sand.  If it gets him dirty he loves it!!

Although we were there for a good amount of time it always goes by so fast!  Ah, I wish I could go back right now, even just for a weekend!  Well, we'll be back next year!!  Thank you mom and dad for the great hospitality and being such great grandparents!!  Cruz had fun and is excited to go again soon too!!