This year, our family traveled down to Naples for a great weekend. We left Friday afternoon as soon as Kate got out of school (her last day of Kindergarten). This time, we stayed at the Doubletree Suites in North Naples - right around the corner from Gaga's place. The kids love the fountain out front.
Since we arrived late Friday night, we didn't see Gaga until Saturday morning. We started off the day with a quick breakfast at Chick-fil-a and headed over to see Gaga and play Bingo. Aunt Linda, Daddy and Mason also joined us and we won a total of 13 games! Several of the residents were getting aggravated at our constantly winning table. We walked away with $3.25 that morning between the six of us - big money!
We both got Bingo at the same time!
I won double Bingo with this card...had no idea that was even a possibility.
Each time you win, you are given a smiley face token, which is cashed in at the end of the game for a quarter (each).
Mason started off playing with this trucks...
but then he decided to play too!
We had a lot of fun! After Bingo, we went to lunch with Aunt Linda and Gaga at a delicious café called Blueberries. They serve breakfast all day long, which is one of my favorite things! After lunch, we drove Gaga around Naples for some sightseeing. We ended up driving by the Naples Botanical Gardens and decided to go check it out. We pushed Gaga around in a wheelchair (to save her energy) and had a wonderful time exploring the gardens.
Playing in the treehouse in the children's section of the gardens.
Next we went into the butterfly exhibit - I love those!
Some of the beautiful trees we were admiring:
Royal Poinciana
The kids also had fun playing in the Cracker House
And we took a couple pictures before we left...
After the gardens, we went to Aunt Linda's house to visit and then we all went out to dinner at Fernandez and the Bull - one of our favorite Cuban restaurants. It was a busy day!
Sunday, we went out to Pa's house after church to spend the afternoon/evening with him. Aunt Mollie and Uncle Bill came out and Aunt Linda joined us to for dinner. Cousin John cooked some delicious BBQ chicken with homemade sauce - yummy!
The kids and Aunt Linda
The kids with Aunt Mollie.
On Monday, we had the honor of accompanying Gaga and Aunt Linda to the Naples Memorial Gardens (where Justin's Grandfather and Uncle are buried) to attend their Memorial Day celebration. Typically, we leave early Monday morning to travel back but we decided this year to stay and I'm so glad we did. It was a very moving ceremony as we remembered all of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. I recently found out that Gaga is the oldest Gold Star Mother in the state of Florida. There are Blue Star Mothers (son/daughter currently serving), Silver Star Mothers (son/daughter injured while serving) and Gold Star Mothers (son/daughter killed while serving). I am so thankful we were all able to attend this special ceremony with her.
We had reserved seats right on the front row:
I was very proud of Kate and Mason - they were very well behaved during the (hot) ceremony.
After the ceremony, we stopped by the grave sites of Justin's Granddaddy and Uncle.
One of my favorite pictures from the weekend:
We had a wonderful weekend and I'm so glad we were able to make the trip down. It's always well worth it - we made some wonderful memories! The drive back went very smooth (better than the ride down) and I couldn't resist taking these two pictures on our drive back:
Happy Memorial Day!
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