A trip without the kids

If you're ever able to take a trip away with your husband without the kids, I highly recommend it! We went to Naples, FL for 3 nights while both of our moms stayed with the kids. We had a wonderful time together and it was very relaxing. It was so nice to sit out by the pool or beach and know that I ONLY had to be responsible for myself - I could sit back and close my eyes and not worry about my kid being too close to the water or eating sand or to hear a kid say "mom" and know that I didn't have to respond :-) I DID miss the kids greatly - it started almost immediately - as in, we were in the airport in Chicago and I cried because I saw a little boy about Jack's age sitting in a stroller with his hands in his mouth like Jack does - Brian told me I needed to get my emotions under control!
The last time we went to Naples we stayed in a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom condo because we went for a week and we had Olivia who was still taking naps, but this time we got a simple hotel room right on 5th Avenue - it was magnificent!

Hotel Lobby

Rooftop swimming pool, hot tub and sun deck

We spent two evenings out at the pier watching the fisherman and the sun set. The pier is approx 1,000 feet long and extends out into the Gulf of Mexico - it's beautiful to stand at the end of the pier and watch the sun set - or as Olivia says, "ssssssssss" (sizzles when it touches the water).

There is so much wildlife to look at from the pier - you can watch dolphins jump out of the water as close as 10 feet from where you are standing on the pier. I tried to get some pictures of them, but these are the best I could do

There are lots of fisherman on the pier as well and although I do not like to fish, it's fun to watch them. They catch them and then just throw them on the pier and let them flop around until they eventually die - it's kind of sad, I wanted to go along and kick them back into the water. Here's a little gut who wasn't so lucky!

I also didn't know that people catch stingrays and eat them. I had to take a picture of this guy who was in disguise.

There's lots of pelicans who like to hang out by the pier - this one swam right into one of the fisherman's lines and got hooked.

This apparently happens quite often, one of the other fishermen got this huge net that they lowered down into the water to pull the pelican out. A couple of guys held it down while the fisherman untangled him and got the hook out.

random picture of a bird - I liked it's Shadow

Horatio Ignatius Crustaceous Sebastian

I had to take video of him also


We sat outside and had some drinks after dinner on Saturday and people watched - we had so much fun playing silly games like "will he? or won't he?" - wondering if the next guy to walk down the street would step on a penis straw that a bachlorette party had left behind, or "thong or no thong?" everytime a girl (and sometimes guy) would walk by in white bottoms - I'm amazed at the people who don't know what to wear under their white bottoms - a white thong is not the way to go people!!! We honestly laughed until....well, I peed my pants a little - JUST A LITTLE!!!

We discovered Historical 3rd street - it's another hot spot for shopping and dining located downtown Naples - we never even knew it existed - probably a good thing since we wouldn't even be able to afford a pair of socks at one of the boutiques!

Sunday afternoon We took a jet ski out into Gulf of Mexico - I was scared to death! I figured Brian would get a little carried away and I would fall off only to be eaten by a shark - this obviously didn't happen - he was very cautious and didn't get carried away - we both stayed on the entire time. The most amazing part was a dolphin who was showing off about 50 feet from us - it kept jumping completely out of the water - like they do at the zoo!! It was amazing!!

Here's a picture of the clouds on our flight back to Chicago

This is my favorite picture. I love that our shadow is in the sand where I wrote "Shawnie 'hearts' Brian

We had an incredible time - thank you so much honey for surprising me with this little getaway - you're the best!