Ahhh, Naples...

It's hard to believe summer is already over and everyone is back to school. I must admit having recently returned from a relaxing trip to Naples Florida, I'm still struggling with a bit of vacation hangover. But alas, life must go on...

Contrary to poplular opinion regarding 'mother-in-laws' (who came up with that term anyway?!) my mom2 - as she likes to be called, is one of the most kind and generous people I think I've ever met. She knows what things are important in life and that's part of what makes her so much fun to be around! It just so happens that one of the things most important to her is spending time with the family - and we have been blessed beyond belief in this respect - both of James' and my family get along so well, that when mom2 wanted to go on a family vacation she invited my parents to join us! After arranging all the accomidations and checking out travel books - flights were booked, bags were packed and one by one we began arriving on the gulf coast.

Our journey began on Friday after Stacie got off of work, and after driving through some intense thunder storms we arrived in Naples on Saturday evening where we were greeted by Mom2 and Pablo (James' brother Paul). After a relaxing dinner at Olive Garden the fun began! Pablo brought his xbox along and purchased this new game Guitar Hero - what a blast!

You can probably figure it out from the pictures, but it uses mainstream punk rock songs from Nirvana and just about everone else you could think of - and you actually play the music. You can earn starpower for everything from jumping up and down to playing with your teeth - it's pretty crazy! Just like the pros, you can go on tour and if your serious you can hook up with fellow band members and compete in an online battle of the bands. I think we'll have to look at getting Paul the drum component for Christmas :) We laughed so hard that night, you'd be suprised how much everyone gets into being a rock star! Once the crowd cheers for you, you're hooked.

Sunday we chilled at the pool and did some SERIOUS grocery shopping! Later that evening we picked my parents up from the airport and the family was complete!

August is actually off season for the Naples area, which worked out wonderfully for us. We were able to enjoy some of the most beautiful beaches without any crowds! The first one we visited was on Marco Island, it was a wildlife preserve complete with a lagoon and lots of birds - just beautiful!

Tuesday we stayed in to help those that needed to recover from their sunburns, played a little tennis, and went to see Bourne Ultimatum. That evening we broke out Settlers - you know it wouldn't be a family vacation with out it!

Wednesday was another day at the beach. This time we drove up to Sanibel Island, which is one of the top three shelling locations in the world - live shelling is prohibited, so unfortunatley we had to put back the coolest find of the day a sandollar! Dinner this evening was at Aurelios, a Chicagoland pizza joint, one of our favoirtes. Oh, it was sooooo good! I can still taste it!

Thursday, after some early morning tennis, the guys did some golfing while the girls checked our the winter estates of Eddison and Ford. What a history lesson! It's so neat to see how those brilliant men lived,worked and enjoyed life. They spent tons of time on thoses gorgeous porches, playing chineese checkers, reading and napping. Ford and his family were seriously into music and square dancing - they did it almost everyevening after dinner!

Still wanting to uncover some more sea shells we packed up the car bright and early and headed back to Sanibel Island. We also spent some time on Captiva Island that day (if we ever go back they have an amazing spot to watch the sunset, it's said you might be able to catch that flash of green right before the sun goes down from there. We'd like to look for it!) Here's just a few of our finds. Pablo had the best find of the day, by far! We finished the evening with dinner by the pool and a ferocious game of pool football - even the moms got in on the action.

Saturday we said our goodbyes and headed our seperate ways :( We already started planning the next get toghether... I hope it comes sooner than later! We loved being with all of you and miss you much!

(So... mom2 thanks for a great vacation!)

James and I had a few extra days before we had to be back so we spent some time visiting with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins in Orlando, then drove to check out New Tribes Mission. Wow, what an amazing place! James and I are looking into some options for future ministry and were just in love with their heartbeat and phillosophy. If you don't know much about them, check out the link, they work strictly with tribal people, planting churches and translating the bible - it's amazing stuff!

From there we drove to Savannah GA, had dinner in a restored grocery store and feed house - it was beautiful, strolled down river street, and went on a ghosts and legends tour at 10:00pm! We would love to go back there again, it was so romantic and there was just so much that we didn't get to see.

Here's a few more of our vacation memmories:

(Pablo, click on the pics to see some of the captions)