the beach

A portion of our last day in Florida was spent on Sanibel Island at the beach.  I'm pretty sure Dieter loved it.  He hated the sand as it stuck to his hands, but he loved wading in the water.  We saw a dolphin that was only about 20-25 feet away from the shore line (if that...I'm not so great with distance measurements!).

 Wes spent most of the time under the umbrella taking pictures of us.  

 The beaches weren't too crowded.  I wonder why that guy lying down is wearing khakis to the beach.  I should have asked him!

more hockey

 We had so much fun at the Everblades game we were determined to get back to see more hockey.  The Everblades weren't going to be in town the rest of the time we were there, but there was a college tournament happening.  We got tickets to a double header.  The first game was was Princeton vs. Maine and the second game was Cornell vs. New Hampshire.  We had even more amazing seats than where we sat at the previous hockey game.  We were on the front row right next to where the team came from the locker room and where the Zamboni comes out.  Being adorable has huge benefits!  While Cornell was waiting for their game to begin, the team and coaches were gathered around watching the game at hand.  One of the coaches started talking with Dieter.  Pretty soon he came back with puck with the Cornell logo on it.  We were so thrilled that he was that nice to give him a puck.  Later on the Zamboni driver gave him a puck that he had picked up while cleaning the ice.  Again, so cool and so nice!  Even later a third puck was given to our adorable boy by the usher that was near our seats.  Dieter had a good night!

 This is my boy!  I love popcorn and so does he.  Popcorn was a life saver.  It kept him busy until the end of the game.

Christmas 2013

 We woke up late-I got up in time to see a few gifts being opened and then promptly went back to sleep until Dieter was up.  He's still not sure what Christmas is all about. He ripped off a little paper and then had help for with the rest of it from eager cousins.  We had a fun filled day playing with the new Christmas toys.  Maybe next year Dieter will get the hang of things a little better.

Not sure what to do with this wrapped package.

Ice cream and playground shenanigans

On Christmas Eve we all went for an ice cream cone (crazy to think that it is warm enough somewhere on Christmas Eve to have ice cream!)  Dieter loved it.  Notice he is eating a chocolate and key lime ice cream, yet his face already has the remnants of the orange and vanilla ice cream cone he ate earlier!

 

 

Zoie and Dieter got along famously.  Dieter loved to steal her headband and put it on himself. 

He loves the park! 





Bros.

family pictures

 It's been a long time since we were all in the same place at the same time, so of course we had to officially document it with a family photo. 

 Our little family...Dieter is definitely the star of the family!

 These are some out takes that we took while the photo shoot was happening.

 Dieter was cheering everyone on as the pictures were taking place.

 What a nice smile!

Dieter thinks Zoie is the coolest!

Hockey

We went to the Florida Everblades hockey game one night while in Fort Myers.  Dieter had so much fun!  He spent his night mostly looking for the Alligator mascot Swampee and spent the rest of the time trying to grab the players hands (We were sitting directly behind the opposing team's bench with only plexi-glass between us.  Dieter tried to grab pencils, candy, water, etc!)

 

 

The proud owner of his own hockey stick.  I don't know what we were thinking! He is going to think everything in our house is a puck. 

downtown fort myers

 One day we decided to head to downtown Fort Myers.  It has changed a bit since we lived there and it is kind of hip and cool now.  The Caloosahatchee River (I'm always perplexed by this name since hatchee means river so it is really Caloosa river river?...I digress) runs close to the downtown area and they have tried to incorporate it more into the downtown feeling (another perplexity...why did the city managers of yore think to do this earlier.  Again I digress).  Dieter loved being around the water.

 He was showing of his mad dashing skills!

We went to the new-ish restaurant downtown, Ford's Garage.  What a great place to eat a burger.  The decoration are cool too.  Look at the picture below.  It's the restroom sinks!

 

 
 

 After lunch we took a little stroll downtown.  Dieter wasn't happy that I was telling him to stay by me.  I think we already have some talking back issues and he doesn't even pronounce words yet.  He is an independent spirit and wants to do things the way he wants to do things.

 



Dieter's first trip to FLORIDA!

 For a few months leading up to traveling to Florida I was anxious.  I didn't know how Dieter would do on that long of a flight plus we would be away from home for practically a month.  My anxiety was put to rest soon after take off.  He was a champ on the plane and settled in nicely to Nana and Papa's house.  He had never seen so many toys!  He was in heaven. 

Dieter and I flew out on Dec 7.  I went to work in the Florida office for a week (it was a great way to go on vacation without paying for my airfare!).  Elaine took care of Dieter for the first few days until Wes arrived on Dec 11.  I had never been away from Dieter for that many hours in a row and it was so weird.  We both survived!  I'm sure he did better than I did.  It was so nice to get such big hugs on arrival from work each day.  I'm glad he missed me a little.

Wes and I went to my company party on our first Friday night there.  The next morning we packed up and went to Ozona (Tampa area) to visit his brother and sister-in-law and family.  Dieter was finally going to meet his Opp cousins!

 The Sunshine Skyway is my favorite part of the drive from Fort Myers to Tampa.  We stopped at the causeway to snap a few pictures.

 Our first stop was in St. Petersburg at the Salvador Dali Art Museum.  He has some interesting pieced of work!

 I don't think Dieter has ever really experienced gusts of wind before.  We was hilarious to watch as the sea breezes came through. 

 Outside the Dali Museum.

 Once at Jim and Tiffany's house, we decided on spending the evening walking through downtown Dunedin.  They had a Christmas festival going on.  Complete with sledding, snow, and other Christmas activities that just seem a little out of place in 80 degree weather!  We had lots of fun and ended the night with an ice cream cone at Strachan's.

 On Sunday we went to church and then had a relaxing afternoon of walking through Ozona.  The picture above is the house where my mother-in-law grew up. 

 On Sunday evening we went to "A Night in Bethlehem" put on by the Tampa Stake.  It was done really well.  We walked through Bethlehem-ish gates and welcomed by a guard that told of the counting and taxing of the people.  Inside the gates there were all sort of activities for everyone to participate in while we waited to go on to the program.  The program was very well done with beautiful music.  Afterwards there was cookies and hot chocolate in the Stake Center. 

 Dieter got to run around in the gym and Aidan was so nice to let him play with his sword.

 On Monday when the kiddos went to school, Jim and Tiffany (and Logan) joined us for a little trip to Tarpon Springs to walk around and grab a bite to eat.  Tarpon Springs is a Greek town and their livelihood is made from diving for sponge.  We of course ate at a Greek restaurant.  Notice the background...the décor is so Greek!

One last picture before we headed back to Fort Myers.