As I was downloading photos from our vacation in Longboat Key, I noticed a reoccurring theme:  jumping. There was A LOT of jumping. Not by me, but by you-know-who. Emily jumping in the waves, jumping in the pool, jumping in the sand. Jumping, jumping, jumping.

I would say swimming in the pool was Emily’s favorite part of our vacation. She would have stayed in the water from sunup until sunset if we would have let her. When we were not in the pool or playing in the sand, it was fun to get out and about. If you’ve been to this area in Florida, you know St. Armand’s Circle is a fabulous place to enjoy great food, shopping and exploring. We often find ourselves taking a seat at the outdoor patio at Venezia. http://www.venezia-1966.com/index.html Because we eat dinner fairly early, there’s usually no wait for a table. I love that they serve the pizza on these big empty tomato sauce cans.  During this visit, Phil and I ordered the Quatro Formaggi pizza to split.  I paired it with the spinach salad with bacon and it was wonderful! We took a lovely walk after the meal and visited some of our favorite shops. Emily picked out the perfect stuffed animal to bring home with her, sized up nearly every palm tree we saw and… even spotted a mermaid 😉

On the fantastic recommendation from a friend, we did eat at a new restaurant this trip: Station 400 in Sarasota. The restaurant is housed in an old railroad depot that was disassembled in Indiana and brought to Sarasota. It was put back together and restored to reflect how it would have looked more than a hundred years ago.  http://www.station400.com Not only is the building itself really neat, but the food was fantastic.  I had a fried green tomato BLT with a side of parmesan fries. REALLY GOOD!   Also in Sarasota, we finally stopped and got an up close look at an iconic statue we’ve driven past on numerous occasions.  I think that’s what’s really neat about returning to a place you love.  You know what you’re getting, but always discovering something new along the way.  As always, my favorite photo from this trip is the one I take of Emily on the beach to see how much she’s grown.  My second favorite photo is the one of her taking pictures of Phil with her camera. I LOVE that she’s taken an interest in photography! It’s such a fun way to explore and stop and really look at the world around you.  I see lots of photos and scrapbooking in our future 😉