Florida Beach Trip -March 2016

Capi and Gigi invited the family to their wonderful beach house in Marathon, FL. We were so excited to accept this invitation, and then ended up selling our house and closing on both the old and new house the week we were scheduled to leave! So, poor Barrett decided to stay back and finish getting us settled/ moved, while the kids and I took off to the beach! We missed Barrett so SO much, but so glad the kids got their promised beach trip in!!! 

The moving truck pulled away from our new house at 11 pm on Wednesday night, we slept as much as we could, and then at 8 am on Thursday morning, the kids and I were loaded on their plane ready to go to Florida!!! We have been so excited about this trip for so long, and after a long and crazy moving week, we were running on pure adrenaline!!! 

Bed head and all... no stopping us! 
Ellie was, well, should I stick with 'opinionated' about where she sat (and not sitting for too long!). But she definitely wanted to be with her Gigi over Mama! 
And we got to fly with Bill and April, and their precious dogs, Bella and Rex! This was Bella's first flight (the one on April's lap), so she was a little nervous too. But they all did great! 
Rex... kids talked about the dogs the rest of the weekend! 
We dropped Bill, April, and the dogs off in northern FL, and stuck around the airport a little while to stretch our legs and eat lunch! 


Then we got back in the plane and headed to Marathon! 
Evan was ready for his nap! 
Ellie resisted! 
LJ powered through!!!  We got there, unpacked, and headed to dinner. Long day of travel, but so excited to have made it!!! 
  
Our first morning in FL began as it should- in the pool before eating breakfast! The boys went for a swim while the girls got the food ready, and they had a blast!!! 



After breakfast, we went to a place called Aquarium Encounters. So many cool fish/ animals to see and feed!
 Ellie loved staring into the big aquarium!!


 The first thing the boys got to feed were small turtles!




Boys holding fish to feed the sting rays! 
Petting the sting ray! 

And then we got to feed the big turtles!!! They ate carrots and kale- healthy!! 


He loved LJ's carrot! 


Evan gave him kale!

 'Lady and the Tramp' turtle style! They chomped up the piece of kale until their mouths met! Hah!!
Ellie finds her brothers and inserts herself right between them! 
The chin was cracking me up!
Gigi's turn to feed the sting rays... 



Ok, this one seems nice enough... 



And then his friend came... a little more aggressive!!!! 
Where did Gigi's hand go!!!???? 
Another view at a big tank! 



Petting star fish ... 

Inserting herself again!! 
Gigi and Evan found a bean bag toss!

Capi and LJ enjoying the ocean view... 
Ellie found a sand box where you could dig up shark teeth!!  She refused to get out of here!


And before we left, one more feeding in the big aquarium with all the sharks! 
Full fun morning! 
Lunch at a fun restaurant! Don't think Evan realized he was the mermaid! Haha! 
 
Post-nap swimming!! Ellie hadn't been swimming this year yet, and she LOVED it!!! She is as crazy as Evan in the water and just leaps out at you whether you're ready or not! Crazy little fish!

The only way to get LJ to nap... drive somewhere! 
Movie night, part 1! We watched the first half of Tarzan (Disney). None of us had seen it, and we all really enjoyed!! 

Day 3 (Saturday) 
Breakfast... we all enjoyed Gigi's delicious smoothies! 

The boys had been begging for the BEACH! Ready to go!!
It was a little windy, but we made it!
Ellie was obsessed with her Gigi this trip!! 
Pure. Joy.






They had SO MUCH FUN!!! 
Evan finds a stick everywhere we go, and LJ is my rock (or treasure as he calls them) collector! 


They were laughing and playing and running and jumping.... heaven!

Ellie was more into observing and playing with the sand! 







Rest time back home... Evan and Ellie passed out while LJ and Gigi did puzzles! 
They begged Gigi to swim with them!
Movie night continued- we had to see how Tarzan ends! 
Ellie was way more into laying on her Gigi than watching the movie! Hah! 

Day 4: Sunday
Breakfast! 

This little face just melts my heart sometimes!

The boys planned to go fishing, but it was raining!! So LJ and Evan played 'Firefighters' in the rain for about an hour! 
Very serious as they find the fire... 

"Come on, LJ!!! The fire is this way!" 

Putting one out... thanks guys! 


Then Gigi, Ellie and I went shopping for a few hours, and when the rain stopped, the boys fished! I got these pictures from Capi! They caught one!! They named him Charley but called him Chuck! 
They tried to keep him alive in the cooler, but his cheek was hurt from the hook. So when I got there, they introduced me to Chuck! And they showed me how they tried to give him pretzels and fish to eat to make him feel better! 
The fishermen!!!! 
Then during rest time, Capi and I took off on their awesome paddle kayaks... this was SO MUCH FUN!! I want one! 

Boys sending us off! 
Sunday afternoon, we attempted the Marathon Sea Food Festival, but unfortunately we showed up a little too late and missed most of the festival! We were given hats as soon as we got there... 


Then we headed to dinner on the water... and we got to meet the big iguana that lived outside the restaurant in this cage! He was stinky!! 



Dancing girl! 
Boys across the water from our table on the dock... what a view! And great last night in paradise! 

But the fun wasn't quite over yet... we made Capi and Gigi play Pie Face with us! They were reluctant... but we had some good laughs!!! 
Gigi got away with no whip cream in her face!
Poor Capi did NOT! He got whip cream on his very first turn of the handle!!!! 

Hahahah! 



And I have probably turned this thing 50 times, and I finally got hit with the whip cream! Ah!!! So weird how fun this game is!! 


Monday we got up and got to the plane! Not sure if we were ready, but time to get back to our new house to unpack!!! 
Ellie stayed very busy taking Evan's shoes on and off of him!! 
Thank goodness the kids can move around on this plane.... we had a loooong flight home due to a strong head wind, so it took us almost 4 hours! 
We got to see a 747 fly by us! 


Thank you so very much for such a fabulous vacation Capi and Gigi!!! We had an absolute blast and love you so much!!!! 

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