“Mom, do you know two reasons I’m glad to be home? Not having to wear sunscreen all the time and knowing what kind of flies are here.” -Ivy
But the sunscreen was worth it…
John in the pool
Jane’s first time in the gulf
Ivy and a sea star
Clara
Jane at the beach
budding movie star
And, as much as Ivy hated those biting flies, braving a few strange bugs for this kind of wildlife?
wood stork
snowy egret
indigo bunting
osprey
dolphin
brown pelicans
baby barred owl
anhinga
alligator
Not a problem!
Thanks Granny and Gramps for a trip full of great memories!
Now we’ll do our best to warm up the weather for you before you get home!
Behind the Willows 
It’s always touch and go what kids will remember about a trip. When my youngest was nine, we rented a flat in Paris one summer, and saw everything from the Louvre to Versailles. We took trips to London and Edinburgh too. When school started next September, she wrote an enthusiastic “What I did on my summer vacation” essay about the little local carnival with a bungee jump.
It sure is. My own memories of some vacations we took when I was a kid that sound like they were pretty spectacular are rather sparse. Heck, my current memories of things are rather sparse – hence the blogging. Did you know I can read my old blogs and laugh like it’s a new story because I don’t even remember it!?!
Photos of everyone but you. The doom of the photographer: ever seeing, never seen. Hope Michigan was warmer than northeast Iowa when you returned home.
Yup- I’m starting to get John behind the camera, but not much yet.
It was a balmy and sunny 77 the day after we got home. Then this morning I started up the woodstove again since it was 39 and sort of sleeting or maybe raining or snowing, or hailing… with high winds. April in WI at it’s finest! 🙂