Marco Island

Ahhhh, that was a nice vacation? Can we go again next week?

We started out as the whitest family in the state of Florida, so much so that we actually looked a tad on the blue side. We finished the week on the pink side and with vitamin D levels not seen in our blood for some time. So many stories to tell, so little room to fit them in, so much of my memory lost to baby brain. I think I need to categorize my stories.

Funny:
I'll start with the rental car. Sounds like a strange topic, right? Luke was really into the rental car for some reason - he really, really liked it. He now thinks that Avis is a person and still asks if he can ride in Avis' car. Avis has a friend and customer for life in Luke.

Next up, the toilets in the airport, strange topic again you say? No pun intended, the super powerful, man-eating, auto-flush on those toilets scared the sh*t out of Luke. So much so that he kept asking to "pee in the grass?" everywhere we went so he could avoid strange toilets. Such a boy - making his mark all over Florida.

So we went to the zoo one day and they house all of their primates on these little islands on a man made lake. To see the primates, you have to go on a little boat ride. This means waiting in line to get on the boat. After waiting for 30 minutes in line, our boat is about 50 yards from returning to the dock to pick us up and Luke decides he has to pee. Oh the joys of a potty-trained toddler with a bladder the size of a grape. Poor Matt had to sprint with Luke to the closest bathroom and luckily they made it back on time to get on the boat. While on the boat, the tour guide asks everyone to be kind and not yell or make any gestures to the monkeys. So what does Luke do at the sight of the first monkey? He starts repeating "ee ee ooh aahh ee ee ooh ahh," while doing the classic monkey movement of placing your hands in your armpits and flappig your arms up and down. Of course, we couldn't help but laugh but it was slightly embarassing.

We had a Michael Jackson "This is It" dance party in our room. Luke felt the need to wear his sunglasses during said dance party and this made him look like Stevie Wonder instead of MJ.

Cute:

Luke is a total beach bum. He would live on the beach in a tent if he could. The weather was not super warm so the windy beach was rather chilly but it didn't stop Luke from staying out there as long as possible. Every time we asked him if we could go back to the pool/room/restaurant, he'd say "Not yet, I'm still playing." Also, everytime he found a seashell (which as you can imaging was rather often) he would say "oh, here's one!"

In the pool, Luke was a fish. He even learned to voluntarily go under water - woo hoo! That's a huge pool milestone! The cute part is how we got him to do it. We played "Pock a Posy!" What is Pock a posy, you ask? Well it's actually Ring Around the Rosie to you and me :) When you "all fall down," everyone goes under water. Luke enjoyed Pock a posy so much and we did it so many times that we had to take breaks because we were getting so dizzy.

Salt. Ok, not sure if this is cute or irritating. Luke had a special little red truck he took everywhere with him, including restaurants. While waiting for our food to come, Luke made it "snow" on the truck which means he emptied out entire shakers of salt onto this truck. One guy passing by our table thought this was quite inventive. I'm sure the waitresses loved us.

Well enough with Luke stories. All in all, we had a fabulous time. Mimi helped us keep Luke occupied and we made her go to bed by 9 everynight which she's not used too. I guess that's what happens when you share a room with a toddler. We've decided that we need to build vacations into our schedule and budget because it's such an awesome time and brings us such great memories for the future. This was one we won't forget!

Here are just a few pictures: