To wrap up summer (and I want to sob when I think of putting summer of 2015 "in the books"), we had a week of regrouping after our wonderful family visit. The trio played on their swing, enjoyed some unstructured time, and we also organized and packed for a beach trip back to Marco Island.
The beauty of visiting a barrier island is the wonderful, glorious breeze that allowed us to be outside without enduring too much oppressive heat. The monkeys even complained of being cold after getting out of the water! We had a fantastic, laid back time, and we met several local tenants this visit, meaning the trio had friends at the pool each day. William George was very popular at the pool, having befriended two college freshman with whom he had water fights each day. The girls got in on the action as well. George also had an 11 year old friend who taught him the joys of catching lizards and starfish (the latter was quickly returned to safety). Finally, the most adorable of our friends were a boy and girl, whose family is from the Isle of Jersey. Oliver very much wanted to play with George, but he was often distracted by his older friends. Oliver's mom (his "mum"), asked George to name his favorite snack, and Oliver was at the pool the next day with a package of said snack (Fudge Striped Cookies), and a friendship was promptly formed.
We went to the beach a couple of times, but since the water was a little murky this time, we opted for the pool over the ocean. We were incredibly fortunate to locate a property with full, panoramic views of the bay and the yachts... and a sporty, cigarette boat that George and Skip loved -- very "Miami Vice". (It's for sale, if anyone is looking for any Christmas ideas for Skip.) We had three balconies overlooking the bay, and, as with our last visit, we did not want to leave. Normally, although I love to take trips and have some adventure, I am ready to return home by the end of a trip, but we simply do not feel that way. Marco Island feels like home, and we miss our newly made friends from Chicago, Maryland and Jersey (old versus New).
William George and Snoopy spent anytime indoors watching the "boats" come and go. George would often yell, "Here comes a BIG ONE!"
We had several, pool-wide, multi family water wars at the pool. Luckily (since we brought the water guns), we were blessed with good sports, and George immediately bonded with the older kids by being able to deftly handle himself with his weapon. We we approached the gate one morning and were fumbling with our key, we heard the two freshmen yell, "Hey! It's GEORGE! Hey, George!!!" As a result, he became fearless, learned various dives, and earned the reputation for being fearless.
Aside from the breeze, we had a couple of thunderstorms at the beach. Apparently this area is known for lightning strikes, and we had just told someone at the pool about George's reaction to a VERY LOUD thunderclap the last time we visited, when we had an overnight thunderstorm wherein he repeated the same maneuver. We hear his feet thump to the floor, and then a shuffling sound through the condo until he appears at the bed. All of that occurs in two seconds flat.
The bouts of rain merely provided some cloud coverage and cooled things down a little.
And George says to please not tell anyone he is afraid of thunder. He has a newly formed reputation to protect.
Lauren excelled at swimming. She mastered the backstroke, which had been troubling her, and finished the week by doing backstroke laps, back and forth.
Gran and Poppa had slipped the trio some spending money, and they wisely invested in some inflatables. George purchased the grey dolphin in the below photo, but he had trouble balancing it while jumping into the water. Our sweet friend, Eleanor, let him borrow her stingray instead, and he probably dove onto that thing 10,000 times.
Gracie went with the killer whale, and this thing was enormous in the pool. (For scale, it took us 45 minutes to deflate the thing when it was time to go.) Currently, Gracie is the strongest swimmer of the group, using her long extremities very capably. She continues to be cautious and careful with diving and jumping in, but once she is in the pool, she torpedoes about.
William George, on the other hand, displayed no qualms about the pool, and continues to work on his swimming.
Even Skip took a turn on the inflatables.
Summer vacation 2015 was a blast! We indulged in Cold Stone Creamery (a short walk), a couple of our favorite restaurants and Starbucks (the girls' favorite, although they were slightly bitter that Starbucks had relocated from around the corner (walkable) to a couple of blocks up the street). We miss our vacation schedule dearly and miss our home away from home terribly.
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