Christmas Vacation in Florida - Part 2

And now, more from the Christmas trip down South (where I'd really rather be right now instead of in -30 to -40 degree weather). Based on the number of photos left, I expect there to be one more entry in this series.

Our starting theme is "Fun with Statues". My dad has this little stone turtle (man, that makes me hungry and only a very few people will catch that reference) out in front of his house, and Lucas took a liking to it the first time he saw it. Seeing a recurring theme here with the inanimate animals? Anyway, after hugging it...


...and then petting it...


...I guess the next logical step was to sit on it.


Ok, sit on it twice.


Down the street from my dad, one of his neighbors has a couple of statues of a Dutch boy and girl about to kiss. While my dad and I talked to the neighbor, Lucas felt the need to get in on the action.


Later that day (Dec 27), we walked to a nearby pond where there are a town of ducks and geese, as well as some swans. They're pretty friendly since a lot of people feed them so we brought Lucas to do the same. He's kind of weird around animals. He absolutely loves them, but he's so overcome with excitement that he freaks out around them and can barely interact. In the 2 pictures below, he is having fun but somewhat reluctantly. This weekend, I'll try and remember to upload the video I took so you can get a better idea of what the experience was like.



I don't have a picture of the incident, but the funniest thing that happened during the bird feeding is that Lucas was looking one way but had his hand lifted in the other way. One of the geese came over, and thinking he had some food, nipped at his finger. It didn't hurt him at all, but it scared the hell out of him and he cried for oh, a good 10 seconds. Ok, so it wasn't the funniest thing to him, but we got a chuckle out of it.

That evening, we went to a nearby playground that was just fantastic. It had three different play structures, each being suited for a different age group. Most of the ones in our area here are geared toward one age group and then throw a bone to the other age groups by throwing in a swing or something so it was really cool to visit one that got it right. Man, I just realize I'll never be cool again since I got excited about a playground. Sigh...38, here I come.

This first playground picture is pretty poorly shot, but the way it came out amused me. He looks thrilled, what little of his face you can see.


Chilling on the slide.


For dinner, we went to a Mexican restaurant, something that is almost impossible to find in Ottawa (I'm not counting Tex Mex, I mean real Mexican). At the end we posed for a picture. Of course, Lucas was too cool to look at the camera with the rest of us.


And finally, a few pictures of Lucas and my brother hanging out (and 1 more with my dad). As I said above, expect another entry this weekend that will close out the trip, including our visit in Atlanta with one of my friends and her 3 boys.