Newman Family Reunion

We just got back from a great trip to Sanibel Island. Kim's family had their first family reunion in over ten years.

We woke up on Friday at 4am and left ~5am. Kim agreed to drive first. The girls and I all fell asleep before we even left Tallahassee. When I woke up we where in Tampa. I couldn't believe Kim had driven that far without asking me to take over and/or the baby waking up. At some point we all woke up and I did have to drive for the last two hours.

Kim thought it would be a good idea for us to pack a cooler with bread and lunch meat. I tried eating a sandwich but it just didn't hit the spot for whatever reason. The sleep in the car was not a very comfortable sleep and I did not feel very well rested when I woke up.

We showed up at our hotel around 2PM. A lot of Kim's family was already there and hanging out at the pool. I was both tired and hungry. I was also pretty crabby. I went to diner and grabbed something and then took a nap. When I woke up I felt much better.

At the pool Aurora was having a great time playing with everyone and showed little interest in me. So Athena and I had a great time hanging out around the stairs. She also used a floaty that her cousin rejected. She loved the freedom of running around the pool in the floaty.

Kim's family is always extremely nice, and they were all loving our new baby. Unfortunately for Kim, Arianna was interested in Kim only. She wouldn't even let me hold her. Kim spent a large portion of the time in Sanibel couped up in hotel room taking care of Arianna.

At night the sand fleas became very much unbearable.

Dinner was grilled out near someone elses' hotel room. There were plenty of burgers for the taking. I really wanted to do more, but after dinner I was beat, and I didn't want to spend the following day tired because I didn't get enough sleep so I knocked out as soon as I could.

The next day I started off at the pool and then took Athena to the beach with her new beach toys she had been dying to try out.

The sand at Sanibel is very shelly. It is roughly 50% sand and 50% shells, seriously. We made our sand castle and Athena said we where making oatmeal, because of the consistency of the sand. So we spent over an hour making oatmeal.

Sand fleas grow from very tiny bugs that will bite the crap out of your leg to these large one-inch bugs. I caught a few of them and through them in the bait bucket. They apparently make great bait. The crazy thing about them is that as babies that are practically invisible and very aggressive. As adults they are fairly easy to spot and when you catch them they just play dead.

After lots of beach and pool time we had a cool crab boil. Large shrimp that had not been sprayed with pesticides was mixed in with corn on the cob, pork, sausage, and potatos. After filling up, and then eating some more, I took Arianna so that Kim could get some decent rest for the night. Arianna fell asleep in my arms and I hung out at the pool some more to chat with various people.

I eventually went to bed to make sure that I also got enough sleep.

The next day we ate breakfast and headed home. The girls and I had a great time. Kim and Arianna were pretty much stressed out. Arianna was stressed because she was out of her routine in an unknown place. Kim was stressed because Arianna was crabby and only wanted her. So Kim was not able to spend as much time with her family as she was hoping to.