Bravo for Birthday Pictures

Took our spring/birthday professional portraits today.  LOVE them.  Great cooperation with our awesome photographer and adorable subjects!

From Snow to Sand in 3 hours and 9 minutes

Loving JetBlue's in flight entertainment

Fun Flight

Welcome to our hotel balcony and summer clothes

First steps on the beach since August

Pure joy

Gorgeous Sunset

Happiness

Beach view Starbucks at the Westin Ft. Lauderdale

On the water taxi in a tank top

At the Riverfront

He loved playing in the sand.  Could have stayed for days

This is a sand boy

Loving the beach

On the duck tour

Thanks to our great tour guide on the duck tour for this photo

Happy Boy at Oceanside Starbucks with his smoothie

Loves to find shells

Happy on the balcony in the warm weather

Digging again

Eating fruit

Swimming with Daddy

Walking across the drawbridge

On the water taxi

Water taxi to the beach

LOVES the beach

The Oasis of the Seas leaving Port Everglades

Enjoying the water taxi

Beautiful Ft. Lauderdale Beach

Cruise ships leaving port. 

Oldest building in Ft. Lauderdale

Loving the Hollywood Beach Playground

Super fun sliding

Walking and touring Old Fort Lauderdale and Riverfront Park

Oh, the beach

We took a winter weekend escape to Fort Lauderdale and what a nice surprise.  It had beautiful beaches, upscale shopping and restaurants, lots to do and see, and sun and warmth.  We had perfect weather and San Diego like skies.  I definitely want to go back.  We traveled between two snow storms and safely made it there and back and had a wonderful 4 days in paradise. 

We took the first flight out and arrived at 10:30 a.m.  We changed, had lunch and took a beautiful walk to the beach.  Then we came back and freshened up for dinner and ate OUTSIDE at Seasons 52.  The next day we decided to tour an take the water taxi to Las Olas, Riverfront Park and Hollywood Beach.  It was splendid and we to to ride through Port Everglades, the largest cruise ship port in the world and see the ships depart.  It was awesome.  We got the see the Oasis of the Seas, the largest cruise ship.  Then we went to dinner at Bahia Cabana where we ate outside again. 

The next day was our beach/pool day and it was glorious and so uncrowded.  First we got a surprise visit from my blogging buddy Amy, who has been following our blog since Savannah was born and she was my first secret blog pal.  It was such a great treat to meet her in person.  Then we walked down to the Westin, had Starbucks overlooking the beach and spent the day hanging out under a palm tree.  Seth loved the sand and dug and played for hours while Savannah collected shells and dipped her toes in the ocean.  Then we went back to the hotel and enjoyed the heated pool and manmade beach by the intercoastal waterway.  We went to dinner at a great local Italian place recommended by the front desk.  YUM!

On our last day, since our flight was at 7:50 p.m., we decided to walk to Beach Place and take a Duck Tour.  We got to see more sights and yachts and mansions and ride around the city while quacking and being entertained by our tour guide.  Then we had a late lunch/early dinner at Casablanca overlooking the ocean with homemade pasta and gelato before catching our shuttle to the airport at 5:30 p.m.

Ft. Lauderdale is really a best kept secret and truly is the Venice of  America.  It was hard to come back to a 2 day storm and 2 days off for Savannah from school again.  This winter has been brutal, but at least we got our getaway and the groundhog did not see his shadow so hopefully he knows something nobody else does and winter will wind down soon.