gumbo limbo and my beautiful daughters

 this post is especially picture heavy and i think it's why i am soooo behind in my blogging. it starts with beatrix's birthday. the need i have to slow down time. it's one thing after the other from october 20th through christmas. every event seems monumental and important and large. i don't want to miss anything. so i snap away, then i download them all, and they just pile up on me. taunting me to edit them and do something with them. but i don't. and so they pile up more. but then there are mornings like january 5th, where it seems like with waking early, a new desire stirs to get caught up. clean up.
and so i post in 2013 about october and november and december of the year before. 

on this day early in november, a friend of mine and her 4 kids invited us to go to a nature park called gumbo limbo that also has a turtle sanctuary and a few aquariums. it was a gorgeous day and my daughters were looking especially lovely and so i bring you a picture heavy post. 

a beautiful butterfly garden greets you when you first enter the park.

we meandered down to the intercostal for a little rock throwing and wading. 

 these life size turtle sculptures are also at the entrance. 

my turtle lover was in heaven.

  penelope was just starting to stand at this time and take tiny steps. she thought the sea creatures were pretty great and i am pretty sure she would have been happy standing right in that spot for a while. 

 one of the two huge aquariums that had all kinds of fish, lobsters, sting rays and even baby sharks in them. we got there just in time for feeding. 

  after looking at everything the kids were starting to get hungry so we took a walk through the woods to a pavilion where we ate our lunches we brought. i stopped to take some pictures of this web. i thought it was so beautiful with the way the sun was shining right on it. 

  by the time we reached the pavilion penelope had had enough. she wanted out of her stoller.

 there were two men fishing where we were sitting and they caught several fish while the kids were eating. they even caught a porcupine fish, which is in the puffer fish family!

 after eating the girls ran over to this little "hill" and started playing with grass and laughing. 

  i decided to capture a few pictures of beatrix at four. since her birthday had just been the weekend before. i love when i do her hair like this. and she put her outfit together. 

 i walked back to where gemma was sitting with penelope and they were both having a nice time. gemma was enjoying just sitting and squeezing some baby chub, which is THE BEST and penelope was enjoying gumming a water bottle.  

  after we packed up and got the kids all rounded up again, we headed back to the nature reserve. on the way we stopped at a giant structure that had stairs going up to a platform. i stayed down below to nurse penelope who was getting very cranky and beatrix nervously went up with gemma and her kids. when she came back down i asked her if she loved it, she looked a little frightened. but when i got home gemma had emailed me this picture below and it brought tears to my eyes.
she looks beautiful above the tree tops with the ocean, blue in the distance.