Allied Insurance trip to Florida!

April 11th - 17th Jerry and I left were able to spend a week in Marco Island, Florida without any kids!! It was WONDERFUL, of course!! Here are just some of the highlights of the trip. . .

Our hotel was right on the Gulf of Mexico. So we got lots of beach time!

This is the view from our balcony.
We spent hours just reading on the beach! So relaxing!

One of our VERY favorite parts of the trip was parasailing!! So fun, and not at all like we had pictured.

We spent 1/2 a day at the Naples Zoo. Here we are riding the camel at the Zoo.

One of the evening events that Allied put on was a dinner at the NGALA wildlife reserve. This turned out to be SO fun! Here we are posing with one of the stilt dancers.

The fire dancer

One of the coolest things about the wildlife reserve was that they let you get up-close-and-personal with the animals. Here we are feeding carrots to the camel and giraffe

The rhinoceros

One of the days we took an airboat tour of the Everglades National Park. Those boats are seriously loud and they go REALLY fast. Turned out to be so fun.

Here are some pics of the wildlife we saw in the Everglades

This bird rode on the front of our airboat for a while.

This picture is a kind of hard to see, but if you look really closely you can see the pinkish outline of a Manatee in the water. We had to track her for about 20 minutes before we got close enough to get this shot.
After the airboat ride, we got to hold a baby alligator. (I don't mind telling you this was not one of my favorite parts of the adventure).


For our final night in Marco Island, Allied put on a beautiful dinner and dance. Here we are before dinner

Here is everyone dancing up a storm!

Now, I can hear what you are thinking. "That looks like lots of fun, but WHERE are your FIVE kids while you are in Florida relaxing and having your adventures?"

They were having a blast in Fresno playing with Grandma and Grandpa Coleman!

Jim and Carol, you were such good sports to take on all five kids for a whole week. Thank you, thank you, thank you!! :-)