Florida, Part II

Gabe and I took Ellis mini-putt golfing one day. Brag alert: I got two holes-in-one. 

They're cute:

Feeding the baby alligators after our round:

The albino alligator:

Maci discovering the riding lawn mower:

True to form (lately), Maci decided this new environment (a pool) was barely death-defying. I tried the tough-love approach of forcing her to get in with me which, if you consider her screaming and crying to be a sign of failure, failed. Gabe succeeded by easing her in and distracting her with fun and laughter. We're a team.

This poor gecko. I wish I could tell you he/she was not harmed in the taking of these photos, but I'm pretty sure the little gecko endured psychological trauma. There was a lot of poking and loud (happy) outbursts from the little girls:

We finally found Maci's water speed. Not frozen in piled-up snowflake form, not millions of gallons meeting with the shore, not chlorinated in a huge pool, but dripping slowly out of a spigot was what captured her the most. Remember these from when Ellis was about this same age?:

Randoms and FL Part I

 See what I meant in the last post about Maci not being in love with snow/thinking it puts her in grave danger:

Random shot from Thanksgiving of Maci helping with the beans (she really did help and lasted quite awhile at it):

Another random from when we decorated our tree:

Surprise! Random of Ellis asleep. I can't stop taking pictures of my kids asleep:

The day after Ellis' harrowing sick-while-flying experience; also a re-enactment of her kissing this pelican in FL a few years ago:

I asked Maci to kiss the pelican and she wound up sitting on it while putting it in a headlock instead. To each her own:

After a walk on the beach, asleep on Grandpa's lap:

Ellis LOVED the beach:

Maci thought it was just some other terrifying variance on the snow she thought she left behind in CO. And so she spent our time at the beach avoiding as much of the beach as possible: