Thursday, August 12, 2010

Family Vacation Part II

Venice, Florida

My heart belongs to Venice. We moved to Venice, FL December of 2004 so Ryan could begin law school. Though he went to school more than an hour away - Venice was our home. I love Florida (yes, even in the summer) and if we could live there again I would do it in a heartbeat. I guess the reason I love Venice so much is because we grew up there as a family.
Audrey and Elysse enjoying sister time.
Elysse's first dip in the pool.
Audrey and Nathan at the south jetty. We were so lucky we were able to see not only dolphins playing we even saw manatees. It is so incredible to me to be able to see such beautiful, miraculous creatures in their natural habitat.
While on vacation Elysse really started smiling. This is as close as we have come to capturing it in a picture. (I can't figure out how to rotate it for my blog post).
Some friends of ours invited us out to their horse farm. This is Nathan's second time on a horse - first was at a zoo in Michigan.
Audrey's first ride on a horse.

We were only in Venice for four days - much too short for my liking but we had a great time. We also visited Siesta Beach in Sarasota. We had an incredible experience there as well as two manatees came into the swimming area!

We weren't able to see or visit all of our friends there as we were there for such a short time and many of our friends were also on vacation. We did get a chance to attend church while we were there and it was wonderful. There is something about being in the Venice Ward building that is so energizing to me. I immediately felt like I needed to be busy....

3 comments:

Unknown said...

You know I couldn't agree more. Venice ROCKS! Yes, even in summer.

Lee said...

Sorry we missed you--I really wanted to see you guys--we were gone three weeks!!!!!!!!

maureen6545@gmail.com said...

Actually Nathan had a pony ride in Miami when the girl next door had a birthday party and invited Nathan to have a ride around the cul de sac. I'll bet it wasn't as good a ride as with the Gilliam's tho. Wish you did still live here!