Florida Fun

The Regan family just got back from a great week and a half in Naples, Florida, where we stayed with my mom and dad at their condo.  We had a great time - it's a beautiful place to be, and the weather was near perfect (high in the upper 70s/lower 80s) most of the time we were there, so we couldn't complain!   We went swimming, bike riding, boating and even went to the Collier County Fair, which was a trip - no pun intended.  Emily seemed to enjoy the whole vacation, and we loved being able to take her outdoors without a hundred layers of clothing.   The experience with Emily was very different this year - last year she was just starting to roll over, so we basically watched her roll around or sit in her bouncy seat, then toted her everywhere.  This year?  Different story!  The active 17-month-old toddler that she is, she hit the pool and the beach with us (you should see her back dive), went to a Gymboree class, danced at Tommy Bahama's restaurant:

...marveled at the pigs, cows and sheep at the County Fair:

...and spent seemingly endless hours playing hide and seek with us, her new favorite thing to do.   She was also really great on the airplane.  We had fears of three hours holed up with a climbing, crabby toddler on the plane, but she was a trooper, even while fighting a bad cold on the way there.

During our trip, we met up with Pat's cousin Andy, a professor at a relatively new college called Ave Maria University.  The college is part of a very interesting concept - a brand new Catholic community called Ave Maria, built around a massive, beautiful cathedral and the college. which started with 50 students and now, we're told, has around 600.   Take a look at the cathedral - it's gigantic! 

Andy and his family live in the community, which is still really new - they're just now building a gas station and the grocery store isn't yet open - about an hour east of Naples.  It was really nice to meet them, and I know Pat had a nice time reconnecting with his cousin whom he hadn't seen in quite some time.  When your mom comes from a huge family, as Pat's does, and you have nearly 50 first cousins, you'd think it'd be hard to keep up, but their family does an impressive job of keeping in touch.  Here's a photo of all of us:

We can't thank my mom and dad enough for having us for the fifth year in a row.  And a big thanks to my aunt and uncle for taking us out on their boat. So much fun!