FlOrIdA

Yeah for Florida!! We were sooooo excited to take this family trip down to see Mark's sweet sister, Emily, and her family. Darren, Emily's husband is going to school there in Naples for a few years to become a nurse anesthetist (ok typing that word is so much easier than saying it!). We decided to take advantage of the opportunity at hand and booked our flight. Twice.

We got a great deal on airline tickets only to have them call a few weeks later and tell us they are no longer servicing Boise. We got our money refunded only to turn around and book another flight at a higher cost. Gag! I hate the airlines! But hey, it's better than walking to Florida!

 

Our flights there were a headache to say the least but I'll just say that having to catch a flight by 5:30am makes for some interesting events including the whole plane trying to sleep while my boys are saying at the top of their high-pitched voices, "Mom look! Another airplane! Mom, Mom, are we going to Florida?!" and Jared crying because he doesn't want to have his seat belt on. We were the flight cabin favorites by the end!

We landed in Tampa which is about 3 1/2 hours from Emily's house. We rented a car and really enjoyed the scenery along the way. The kids were so excited to see each other and Emily and Darren live in a great condo.

Emily was so great to have everything planned out and we didn't feel like we had wasted a minute! Even if we felt like doing nothing, it was totally fine and I never felt like I had to do anything. But we did do almost everything planned and had a fantastic time.

Day 1 was spent at Barefoot Beach which was about 15 minutes from their house. It was kind of windy and cloudy but it made it so the waves were fun to play in and we didn't get baked. We had bought 3 new sets of snorkel gear for the trip and Makayla and Emma both lost the goggles within 5 minutes of each other. Grrrr! Oh well.

That night we drove over to Fort Meyers to walk around on the pier. It started to rain a bunch so we had dinner in a little pizza place and walked through a few shops. Our plan was to go shark fishing but the rain drove them away. We cast our lines anyway and the girls danced in the rain. They were soaked! The great part is that the rain is warm and the air is warm so they played forever!

Day 2 we spent at Clam Pass Beach by a really nice hotel (which had gators swimming around in the pond).

 Emily has all the great stuff for a perfect setup on the beach including a huge shade umbrella, games and beach toys. She said there are usually hardly any waves when they go to the beach but we came when it was kind of stormy. Again, it made for fun waves to play in and we all played for hours!

Later on Emily, Darren, Mark and I went to a fun restaurant called Coconut Jack's. We had delicious food and sat overlooking the water. It was fun to go out as adults.

Day 3 was Sunday so we went to church. The building is nice but in kind of a scary part of town about 25 minutes away. Afterward we went back and ate a delicious dinner Emily made. We decided to go to the ritzy section of Naples and drive around the nice houses. Um, nice is an understatement. They were amazing! Emily said this isn't where the millionaires live. It's where the Billionaires live. I probably couldn't even afford one of their doorknobs!

                      I couldn't even fit a third of this yellow house in my camera lens so this picture doesn't do it justice!

Emily made me laugh when she said, "When we first moved here everyone was talking about Bentley and Maserati. I thought Bentley was some guy and Maserati was his girlfriend. Then I found out they were talking about ritzy cars people drive around!"

After driving around and reaching the kids' breaking point, we went down and walked along the beach and waited for the sunset. It was worth the wait! The kids found a bunch of conch shells with crabs living inside. It was fun watching them move around.

Day 4 we rested and relaxed. Much needed!

Day 5 was one of my favorite days. On our way down to Key Largo, we went to gatorland!! I was so excited to see the gators.

We stopped at one of the many gator places and rode the swamp boat out through the everglades. I learned that the everglades is not a swamp. It is wetlands and basically a river running through everything. We saw soft shelled turtles, cool birds but barely saw a gator.

When we got back to the park, we went to the gator show. It was really cool to see the guy in there with all these huge gators lounging around. He was smacking them and messing with them and they could of cared less.

At the end we all held a baby gator and got pictures. I loved it!



We then walked around the park and saw a bunch more including a really aggressive one that kept trying to get through the fence to the kids. He kept hissing and biting at the fence. It was creepy at first and then the kids started harassing it with sticks and yelling at it. Probably not the greatest thing we could do and I'm really glad there were 2 fences between us.

We made it down to Key Largo after a couple of hours and checked in to our awesome hotel. Right when we got out of the cars, we spotted a huge iguana running across the boardwalk. Of course the kids jumped out and chased it down. We all got up really close to it and took some pictures. He was really nervous and kept stamping his feet at us. I took some fun pictures of him.

Later that night we tried out snorkeling at John Pennekemp Beach. The kids caught on so fast and we all took turns snorkeling out to some old cannons and an old, big beam from a ship.

Day 6 We rented a 26 ft. boat to go out and snorkel on. We rented it for the whole day. I knew the boys wouldn't be able to snorkel and would get bored really fast on the boat so while everyone else went out on the water, I took them to Theatre at the Sea. We watched a dolphin show, a bird show, a sea lion show and walked around and looked at lots of different animals and fish. We had such a good time! The boys loved it and Derek even got to participate in the dolphin show. He got to pet the dolphin while the trainer talked about it.

About mid-day, Emily and I traded. She took the boys and her baby, Gabe back to the hotel to rest and I went out on the boat with everyone else. It was funny watching Darren and Mark navigate the boat in the middle of the ocean with a GPS they could barely work and all the while trying to avoid the 1 and 2 ft. coral areas everywhere. Apparently I missed all the real action when they took it out the first time. I guess Mark was a nervous wreck and we're lucky Emily and Darren didn't throw him overboard!
Snorkeling in the middle of the ocean was amazing! I thought we were going to be so deep because of how long it took us to get out there. I thought there was no way we were going to see the bottom. As soon as I put my head under water, it was a whole new world! The water was probably between 5 and 15 feet deep and there were so many amazing things to see. Lots of different kinds of fish and coral everywhere. When my head was above water, I was really nervous and felt like I was going to drown. As soon as I put my head down, it was soothing and I felt calm. I couldn't believe it! The kids were in and out and were like experts :) They were fearless and dove all the way down several times. We even saw a barracuda a few times. When I was in the boat, everyone started coming back in really fast. They had all seen a huge barracuda and decided it was time to go.

Our trusty navigators

Preparing to launch

yup. that's a black tip shark.

A lovely barracuda

gorgeous!

These fish hung around the boat. No doubt waiting for scraps.

I thought they were our welcoming party, actually.

Even Emma dove way down!

My awesome brother-in-law, Darren

I love this picture Emily took



My studly husband!

 Darren showing his sweet diving skills

 

I pretty much stayed near the surface :)

Later that night the adults went out again for dinner. We went to a really fun restaurant right on the beach. While we were waiting for our dinner, we walked along the back porch/dock. There was a bucket of fish to feed the giant Tarpan fish swimming all around. It was really cool watching them jump out to get the fish. As we were standing there watching, a manatee came swimming right up to us! It was so cool and he was huge! He was just looking around for food and we got some cool pictures and video.

The friendly manatee more fondly known as the "sea cow"

Day 7 Mark and Darren took Paul and Makayla out early to go deep sea fishing. They had a fun time with an interesting boat captain. Mark was like, "Man, you'd think he could at least put on a clean shirt and shower once in a while!" They caught several types of fish and Makayla caught a cool needle fish. The fishing line got caught around the nose and pretty much took off his face when they tried to untangle it. Gag.

The kids with the trusty captain

Ships ahoy!

Paul caught some pretty ones!

Mark with the barracuda

Makayla with her needle-less, needle-nose fish

We found a really fun seashell shop and bought a bunch of cool souvenirs to take home. It was sad leaving Key Largo and we had a great time.

Day 8 was really sad packing up and saying our goodbyes. We could have stayed another week! I'm sure Emily was glad to have her house back but we had such a great time. It was one of the most memorable trips we've ever had and I would do it again in a heartbeat. In fact, I've got major ocean fever again!