Block Leave-Sanford

The rest of our time in Jacksonville was pretty laid back.  Thursday morning Mara and I visited a fun area near the river.  There were a lot of small shops and we ducked into a few.  I got a few pieces of chocolate and Mara got a stuffed hippo at a local toy shop.

I thankfully was able to talk her out of this one.  My girl loves stuffed animals!

On last day of the conference we also visited a community outreach center on post.  Mara got to get up close and personal with a few animals present there on the base.  There were some small turtles, fish and lizards.  They had some taxidermy exhibits as well.  Mara really enjoyed looking at all of it.

Checking out the animals with Daddy

I believe these were fish

With the conference over, on Friday we headed down to Sanford.  Josh's parents live there and we were excited to spend a little time with them before all heading further south to Orlando.  Our travel day was slow as we packed up and grabbed a quick lunch before pulling into their retirement community.

That evening we enjoyed catching up and relaxing.  Mara loved walking outside with her Daddy and Papa.  The community has a large population of birds and she is always quick to point out them to whomever is with her.

Oh just driving to Nana & Papa's

The next day we had a slow morning, lunch and nap.  Afterwards we headed downtown to explore a local festival called, Pints and Paws.  Again Mara was in heaven.  Dogs everywhere!  Honestly I have never seen so many dogs in one place.

We didn't participate in the beer festival but really enjoyed walking around the area.  We visited the local booths and grabbed a few pints from a local place.  Mara and I even shared a large chocolate ice cream cone to cap off the day.

Although our time in Sanford was short, I'm glad we were able to stop by for a few days.  We love getting to spend time with Josh's parents and Mara is always ready to entertain her Nana and Papa!

She has mad skills