Spring Break-The Keys Day 2

When the kids woke up (way too early) we headed out for Marathon Key to check out Sombrero Beach. It was beautiful. Sunshine. Crystal clear water. Beautiful white sand. We just soaked up that entire day. 

I drove over the ocean!!!!

A lot of the drive you are a tiny speck of road in-between huge ocean on both sides of you. It's pretty amazing. The GPS would show our little car surrounded by water, which I thought was so funny.

Look at that bridge we drove over! 

We are pretty fast at getting water-ready around these parts. But sunscreen? It took us thirty minutes every morning just to apply sunscreen to everyone! Then we would repeat in an hour or so. Luckily, only Sterling burned a little bit on the back of his calves and that was on the next day. So I guess all that time was well spent!

Just look at that water! SO CLEAR!  

Ruth was in heaven.

When we very first got there, a DOLPHIN was swimming RIGHT by the buoy in front of us!!! IT WAS INCREDIBLE! Unluckily, I thought it would swim right away so I didn't run for my camera. Then it kept swimming along the buoys away from us. I did eventually get my camera, but even more unluckily, when I was scrolling through pictures I thought they were just random photos with a random boy in them, so I deleted them. Ruff. But we saw a DOLPHIN!!!!!!!!

She really liked digging holes and Will really liked carrying water to fill them up. It was a great system.

She was a mermaid.

That umbrella behind us was our best pre-Florida purchase. Definitely need a break from the sun throughout the day and it is perfect. 

Baby toes in the sand. Nothing sweeter.

The beautiful beach. So I found out that every single beach on this side of Florida gets that seaweed washed up and that you have to go to the Gulf side of Florida to get pure sand. But this seaweed was a tiny little patch and the water was so beautiful I didn't even notice it. 

 A really nice lady took a family picture for us. Yay!

Oh I just LOVE that girl! The water felt a little chilly when you were all nice and warm and cozy on the sand, but she was ALWAYS up for a swim and jumped right in!

Pretty Molly.

They are pretty perfect. So happy they are mine.

A whole big ocean!

These two are the greatest! We had so many people ask if they were twins. I think it was just the matching hats and floaties.

We made a massive sand castle. This sand was seriously the GREATEST to play in. The kids sat there for HOURS.

The sun is too much.

On top of having beautiful water, white beaches, and perfect weather, this beach also had an incredibly awesome playground!

This is a giant netted merry-go-round! 

View from the playground. 

You can jump on the middle like a trampoline. 

I thought this dolphin was awesome so I had Sterling stop for a photo. Well worth it, I think.

We also stopped to walk along this big ol' bridge. It was actually pretty dirty and there was road on one side and telephone poles on the other, so it was less exciting than I had thought it would be. But the ocean water here---it is just so GORGEOUS. That perfect aqua blue because it is so clean and clear. I love it.

That's the road we were driving on!

 Then, because we had promised Ruthie, we stopped for ice cream. It took us about an hour to get from Key Largo to Marathon Key, so the kids would watch a dvd going and coming. It worked out really well.

This ice cream though, it was amazing. When we walked in we found out they were famous for their frozen key lime pie dipped in dark chocolate, on a stick. Sterling tried it out and was HUGELY impressed. I prefer my key lime sweetened a bit more, and dark chocolate is only so-so. But I can imagine it is divine. I did, however, get moose tracks with fresh fudge and whipped cream on top and it was to die for delicious. They were also a handmade chocolate store and when I walked in it smelled like Christmas at my mom's!

Everything on the Keys is this bright. No joke. Even the road medians are painted turquoise. It was like Miami colors on steroids, haha.

After dinner these guys basically just dropped to sleep. Poor Will didn't get a nap the entire trip and while he did incredibly well, he was wasted by the end of the night. They played so hard!!!! It was such a fabulous day. It literally could not have been better. I already want to go back.

Spring Break--The Keys Day 1

We had SUCH A GREAT TIME!!!!!!!!!

I put quite a bit of research into this and I am very happy with how our trip turned out. We had heard that the Keys are not incredibly family friendly and that they are also really expensive. But we wanted to experience the Floriday Keys while we lived here because we only live an hour and a half away. I am so very glad we did. First, we decided to camp because the cheapest hotel I could find (over a month in advance) was $400 for Key West and $200 for Key Largo (this is due in part to having three kids and that makes us have to pay for a bigger room, ruff) for one night. We tossed around the idea of driving home every day, but Florida traffic is miserable and that would make it feel like less of a get-away. We decided to camp. The only thing I would change is maybe next time I might camp closer to Key West. We talked with a few fellow campers and found that there is a KOA and another site by Bahia Honda Key and Ohia Key (much closer to Key West) that are very nice. Downside, they are twice as expensive as our campsite was, so I am still happy with our choice. 

The first day we decided to check out John Pennekamp State Park because we had heard it was fun and we couldn't check in to our campsite until noon. Ummm...I wouldn't recommend it. To anyone. I hear they have great glass bottom boat tours, which we did not do, but the state park itself was a pretty big letdown. I'm glad we had only planned a couple of hours there. Also, the mean lady at the desk told Ruth she was "too little" to answer questions (without even letting her try) and wouldn't give her a Junior Ranger Badge, which is our favorite thing with state parks. I was probably more disappointed than Ruthie, but really! Also, the mangrove trail we wanted to hike happened to be closed for repairs.

We did learn some interesting things though, so here we go! We went on the Grove Trail--which led us, predictably, to a fruit grove.

When pioneers settled here they had to blast the coral with dynamite to create holes to grow trees in. These are the remaining trees. Some mangoes, key limes, avocados, and I can't remember what else. It was a beautiful little grove.

Ruthie picked me a bouquet. So sweet.

Molly fell asleep with a death grip on the water bottle, haha.

 Then we went on another hike that gave us all sorts of information on the trees that grow on the key islands. One of which is called Poisonwood and touching it gives basically the same effect as poison ivy. It was growing right along the path the entire way and I had a heart attack pretty much every time my kids touched anything. 

Poisonwood. At least it's all mottled so it is easily identifiable.

We saw all sorts of cool trees, like this cinnamon bark, wild coffee, mahogany, that's all I remember.

Walking along a bridge.

 After the letdown of the state park, we were happy that our campsite was a huge success!!!!

We camped at Key Largo Kampground and everyone was SO kind and SO helpful and it was beautiful. We had showers, laundry facilities, grills, and a heated pool complete with a kiddie pool. Ruth was so ecstatic to set up our tent, it was adorable. 

Molly the escapist. I thought that seat would keep her contained, but boy was I wrong! She could twist out of that seat until her feet were standing, bend completely over, and grab a handful of rocks. 

Our beautiful little campsite. We didn't have ANY mosquitoes (yay!) and just a few noseeums (sp?) that hurt a bit when they land on you, but it goes away when you brush them off. No big deal. We did, however, live underneath a GECKO tree and I had no idea they made noise. Not only do they make noise, but it is LOUD! It was pretty cool though. We learned after the first night that rain fly's are heat traps and the second night we left all our windows open with the rain fly off. Much, much better. We even saw a tent where they didn't even have walls, just netting all the way around. Florida camping is definitely a new experience for us. But very nice. I feel like we didn't have to pack anything at all. The kids slept in diapers and on top of sleeping bags!

Truth.

After hiking, the kids couldn't get in the pool fast enough. It was gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. The water was warm and clean and just so perfect for the kids. We had a lovely day.

Our little slice of paradise.

I tried to keep Molly out of the rocks by putting her in the tent. Again, Molly the escapist. I thought it was hilarious every time I turned around and saw her little arm reaching out.  

Our campsite was also right down the street from a Publix and Kmart which was great for buying ice, milk, and of course some treats. The first night we gave up on trying to put our kids to sleep and just drove them around for twenty minutes until they all fell asleep and then transferred them. Luckily, they were all exhausted from swimming, so they fell right asleep and stayed asleep. It was a great first day! The kids asked for the pool every day after that, but when given the choice between the beach or the pool, the beach won out. That kiddie pool though, it was perfect for us!