We just got back from an amazing week in Florida.  Monty has been wanting to take a family vacation for a while, but I was worried about taking the kids out of school.  However, about a month ago I had one of those moments when I thought...WHY NOT!!  Life is way to short to not drop it all and go play.  And boy did we enjoy playing! 

We left early on September 11th.  The boys were pretty excited about going on a plane.  It was a good thing they were excited because we got them up about 3:30am to leave for the airport.  It was kind of humbling to fly on September 11th.  I made sure the boys all wore patriotic shirts and we talked about that day a little.  When we landed in Florida we got our rental car and were ready to enjoy our adventure. 

Makai is so big-- getting into the car on his own.  It was nice to take a trip without a baby.  Well, an little baby.

Happy to be in Florida!!:) 

When we got off the plane we were pretty hungry so we went to get something to eat.  Tyler ate a fish sandwich which was very surprising, or should a say mature.  He said, "We'll you can't be this close to the ocean and not try some fish."  Monty and I agreed with him. The three of us enjoyed some fish that night.  Then we found our hotel and went for a swim in the pool.  The water was so nice and warm and we had the pool all to ourselves.  After swimming we decided to go get some dinner and take a walk around Coconut Cove Florida.  It was a fun little town.  Kyle however didn't enjoy it very much.  He wasn't feeling so good.  Poor guy.  Later that night he got sick.  Of course.  We can't have a vacation without 'a bug' tagging along.  It's like a curse.   

Day Two:  After waking up it was nice to hear Kyle say he was feeling better and wanted to eat.  We all got in our swim suits and headed out for a fun filled day.  We decided to have breakfast at a bakery in Miami.  Miami is full of fun little bakeries with tasty treats.  Monty and I had a Cuban type breakfast with black beans and some type of beef on a corn meal type bread.  Then we went to Key Biscayne.  That is when we fell in love with the beaches of Florida! 

Just as we got there we saw this Iguana. 

Then we saw a wild Peacock!

The boys were in Heaven.  After all, they LOVE birds and animals.  Kyle also found this coconut and thought it was so cool.  He kept it with him for most of the trip in fact.  I think he even named it. 

The water was amazing! First off, it was WARM! Second the waves were not crazy strong and you could go out rather far and still be just waist deep.  I went out with the older boys a good distance from the shore while Monty stayed closer to the shore with Trey and Makai  and they jumped the little waves. 

Trey found this piece of coral in the water.  Pretty cool!

The boys were so excited by the birds they had never seen before, but read about it books.  I was so surprised by how many birds they knew! 

 We wanted to find a place for the boys to snorkel, so we went to a different place on Key Biscayne. 

Here the water was even warmer and so calm.  Not a wave to be seen.

Tyler getting his snorkel ready.

  It wasn't the most amazing spot to snorkel, but a good place to gain some confidence.  While there we saw some schools of fish, a crab, sea urchins and Tyler and Kyle saw a shark!

Kyle loves to snorkel.

Kory loves to float!  Monty told Trey if he learned to float he'd get him a snickers bar.  Interestingly enough that's all it took.  Before too long Trey was floating like a pro in the water. 

I thought it was so cute that the boys were snorkeling and Makai was playing in the water.  This shows how shallow the water was and we were pretty far off the shore.

I could have watched the boys play in the water forever.  It was a perfect afternoon!  

 After I put the camera away Kory and I went out for a snorkel.  I loved the moment when we came up for a break and he said, "Mom, I'm swimming!"  He was doing so well I had totally forgotten that a month ago Kory couldn't swim.  Now he does great and was even snorkeling!  It was a tender moment to float side by side with him and point at fun things we saw in the water. 

On the ride to the hotel we had some tired kids!  Kory was a good sport!

While driving to our hotel we discovered that Tyler had left his glasses on the beach in Key Biscayne.  NOT COOL!  It was a good 30 or 40 minute drive back to the beach to get them, but thankfully the tide was not strong.  They were a little hard to find, but we found them.  A blessing for him. Also,while driving back to get them Kyle saw three Macaw's on a roof of one of the buildings.  That was pretty neat.  Oh, and that night dad did deliver on his promise to Trey.  However, they decided to get Krispy Kreame donuts with milk instead. (That night I didn't feel so good.  The bug continued it's trip.)

Day 3:  I felt much better the next morning, thankfully.  We got up and got some breakfast.  Monty did some work that morning which was fine because Tyler wasn't feeling so well as the bug joined attacked him AND it was storming outside.  This was our Everglades day. 

It was raining SO hard it was as if you were in the shower when we got here.

Tyler--not feeling so well.  But, for the record I gave him a granola bar just after taking this picture and he felt much better.  Since, I'd had the bug I knew how it worked.  Once you threw up you were fine so I knew he just needed some food. This is a good photo for the reason that it does show it was cold.  Or, I guess I should say cool. 

There is something a little chilling about taking a walk and coming across this!

 

 

 

Totally clueless!

Felt a little safer around this guy!:)

All the boys took there turn trying to climb a tree. 

None of them were very successful.  They all blamed it on...

the tree being wet from the rain.

But Makai didn't have a problem!

The Everglades were not Monty's favorite.  For some reason Mosquitoes LOVE him!  He was getting eaten alive by those bad boys.  We were going to take a boat ride in the Everglades, but Monty just wanted to get out of there.  I don't blame him.  They loved Makai too, so it was good to leave.  We just went back to the Hotel and went to the pool.

 

 

 

 Day 4:  Day 4 we drove down to Key Largo.  I've heard of Key Largo since I was a little girl and listened to the Beach Boys sing about it, but never knew where it was until we started planning this trip.  We drove around and learned about the 'Keys' this day.  We were all kinda tired and had a low key day! We found a fun little beach with a lagoon and a park.  The older boys did some more snorkeling and Makai played at the park.  We had some pizza that night in the hotel room and watched a movie.  After dinner I couldn't find Trey, but then found him...he was smart and had put himself to bed rather early. It was a perfect hotel room with a washer and dryer so we were able to get our clothes clean.  We also reserved our boat for the following day.  

The older boys watching a movie.  Kory being a good sport again!

Day 5:  We got up early to get to our boat.  Monty got a good orientation on how to drive a boat and we headed out to sea.  This was a new experience for all of us. 

Ahoy there!

Our caption and his first mate.

Makai wanted NOTHING to do with the life vest.  Until the boat started to go.  Then he stopped crying and held on!

I thought the boat ride was so fun, up until we stopped the boat.  It was rocking back and forth and suddenly 4 hours seemed like a REALLY long time!  Kyle jumped into the water with Monty.  Trey and I were sitting on the side of the boat looking at the horizon trying to hold on to our breakfast!  I was proud of the three older boys for jumping in and if I would have let him Makai would have been in the water too.  He kept saying, "I go in the water with Dadda."  They all really wanted to snorkel, but the water was not good for it.  At this point I was ready to take the boat back.  I kept looking back at the land and longing for it.  We decided to change locations and asked Kyle to get back in the boat.  Just after he got in Monty saw a shark.  That's when I was sure we need to go to a new spot.  This is when I learned about a new thing called a 'sandbar'.  Hello.  I will forever love the sandbar!

Out in the middle of the ocean is a piece of sand.  We just threw down the anker and jumped into the water. 

The water was about 5 feet to 6 inches deep on the sandbar.

Smiling because the boat was no longer rocking!:) 

We had to watch this boy like a hawk!  He was so content in the water and would just walk around and wonder.  Sometimes he would walk into water that was just a little too deep.  He was so happy in the water.

Enjoying snorkeling!

Always finds something cool.

Headed back to land.

A boat is a great way to get a kid to sleep!:) 

  After our boating adventure we got lunch at a place called Craig's I think.  They claimed to have a world famous fish sandwich.  They said you could get it with 'dolphin' or some other fish.  Then we found out dolphin was really mahi mahi.  And it was a pretty good sandwich.  After lunch we headed to Naples.  Driving through Florida you realize how flat it is.  Seriously...flat as a pancake!  However, it's also really green and really wet.  Beautiful.

Day 6:  Sunday.  We started the day having a little devotional in the hotel room.  We had each of the boys share something about the gospel and sang a few songs.  Then we decided to go collect some shells on the beach.  Napels beaches are full of shells!  I've never seen so many shells in my life!  We also saw two bald eagles flying which surprised all of us.  However, we later learned that Florida is the second highest state for bald eagle sighting only second to Alaska.     

Something funny happened while we were at Napels.  All of the sudden Trey screams out, "AHH!!!"  I take him to shore and we discover he'd been stung by a jellyfish.  I know because I got stung too.  Trey is our dramatic child and was screaming, "I'm going to die!!  I'm going to die!"  People were staring at us.  I was trying to tell him he was going to be fine and wasn't going to die, but he wouldn't have any of it.  He was convinced he was going to die.  Finally I told him, "Okay Trey, maybe you will die and I guess so will too because I got stung. Surprisingly this caused him to stop crying.  He told me I wasn't going to die and that convinced him HE wasn't going to die either.  Trey!  Then we drove to Sanibel which is where we spent the rest of our trip.

Day 7:  Our goal for the day was to find a shark tooth.  Our neighbor had told us you could find shark teeth on Sanibel Island and we wanted to find one.  We spent the morning hunting for one, but had no luck.  We took a break and went to the pool.  As fun as the ocean was, pool water is always a little more refreshing.  Maybe because there is no sand.  On Sanibel we found a pretty fun Wildlife refuge and took a tour of it.  We thought we'd see a few more birds than we did, but when we ran into a fellow bird watcher he told us the winter is when the birds are most plentiful.  I guess we'll have to go back!;)  We ended the trip with a nice walk along the beach.  We never found a shark tooth, but Monty found a full horse shoe crab which was a pretty cool souvenir.

Thanks Florida for an amazing vacation!!