Florida

I don't have any really great pictures to show off the great trip to Florida (which was actually last week). I'm a terrible photographer, and the weather was actually not so great. But, we did get to the beach one day--this is our friend Rene carrying Joseph on her back. She helped him find a couple shells and we all saw dolphins frolicking off the coast--very cool.

A family vacation to Florida is definitely not our style. Normally we'd prefer a historical destination with lots of good coffee shops and used book stores. But, Eric had to go to a conference in Naples and our friend, Rene (an alum of Gordon and ASP), figured out how we could all go for the price of Eric flying alone direct to Naples. It was a pretty relaxing week for me. Rene's boss was out of town and offered his bayside mansion in Tampa for us to stay in. I was very tempted to take pictures of the house, but I thought that would be tacky. Suffice it to say that Joseph's favorite features were the courtyard fountain, the boat, and the kitchen island big enough to crawl around on. Rene is pretty much my hero right now (and I'm not just saying that because she reads this blog) because she graciously carried Joseph all over the place for four days straight. She is Joseph's new best friend.

Eric had a great conference and, I think, has a clearer sense of where he'd like to be professionally next year. We're headed to New York next week to explore living and working possibilities.

Oh, by the way, we ended up needing the whole suitcase for clothes and books and toys, so we let Margaret spend the flight on our laps.