FLO RIDA

Sometimes giving in to peer pressure is a good thing. Like, when your sister tells you she is going to spend a long weekend visiting another sister in Florida at the end of April and suggests that you go too. Once the idea was out there I couldn't get it off my mind. Thanks to a slew of variables falling into place we spent almost five days on the Gulf Coast of Florida and had a great time.

We caught an insanely early flight to Pensacola and then drove about 45 minutes to Melanie's home in Navarre, arriving around 11:30am. The kids were incredibly excited about waking up "when it was still dark."

Luckily they caught a little shut eye on the plane.

We were excited to see Leah, brand new cousin born February 17th, and see the area that Melanie and Andrew call home these days. We ate lunch and then were off to the beach!

We had such a fun afternoon at the beach! It was the kids' first time in the ocean and they loved it! I was worried it was going to be a letdown, we'd been talking about going to the ocean a lot in the days and weeks leading up to our trip, but they both had a total blast wading into the waves and playing in the sand. We only left because we were all exhausted and starting to wilt.

Even though we rinsed off in the ocean, then again in the showers on the dock, we still found ourselves covered with sand when we got back to Melanie's place. We all took a bath or shower, slept, then enjoyed a relaxing evening with the Staritas. The boys played baseball while the girls watched Tangled. Will was excited to find tiny frogs on the outside windows as it started to get dark.

We all slept well that night.

We started the morning off slowly and then headed back to the beach. The only unfortunate part of our stay was that thunderstorms and rain were in the forecast at least part of every day we were there, meaning we had to plan our beach trips around them.

 Lojo was a little too nonchalant for my liking around the jellyfish we found washed up on the shore.

Another great day at the beach! It was much hotter than it had been the day before, and the lost sleep was starting to catch up with the kids, so after a few hours we headed home.

It rained quite a bit that afternoon while we clean up and rested.  Lauren never liked to be far from Leah's side. She often referred to her as "Melanie's precious baby" during our time there.

Then Melanie and I headed to the airport to pick up Jill and then everyone went out to eat some delicious barbeque.

(A picture from their practice session)

Sunday we went to church and Melanie and Andrew treated us to an inspiring musical number. Our kids went to primary AND attended their classes. They are shy enough I wasn't sure they would go without knowing anyone in their classes, but they did. Melanie is in the primary presidency and she took this picture of the kids getting the "Hello Song" sung to them. Lauren still talks about people singing hello to her.

After Sunday naps and dinner we went to the beach with the intention of taking a gorgeous evening walk along the shore. Turns out it is harder to keep the kids dry at the beach than I thought it would be.

 I just can't believe this is a 5 minute drive from Melanie's house?!?!

Root beer floats in over-sized containers and visiting rounded out a fun night.

The forecast for Monday was pretty bleak, so we headed to the beach right after breakfast. We only saw 3 other people the entire time we were there.

 

The water was perfectly warm, but it was breezy enough outside you had to commit. Once you got in the water you pretty much had to stay in it because the wind cooled you off pretty fast. Will opted to never submerge and had great time. Lauren went straight into the water and then suffered in a towel the last half hour we were there. We heard thunder and lightning while we played on the beach and finally decided we better head back.

We were really hoping the storm would pass quickly and we would be able to go on a harbor cruise in the afternoon. Unfortunately once it started the rain never really stopped. The kids played with Leah and worked on puzzles while we decided what to do. We decided to check out the National Museum of Naval Aviation and headed to Pensacola for the rest of the afternoon.

By the time we got there we only had about 45 minutes to explore. You really needed a couple of hours to do the place justice. Will was fascinated by all the jets and asked tons of questions. 

The rain cleared up while during our drive home and as it was our last night we decided to check out the Navarre Pier.

 

According to Wikipedia, the Navarre Pier is the longest pier in Florida. We saw lots of cool sea birds, fish and even a sea turtle swimming off the side. There were tons of fishermen and we saw two reel in King Mackerels. The kids were both fascinated and a bit horrified.

That night the kids played with Leah, we ate some delicious homemade pizza, played nertz and had one last round of root beer floats.

Our flight was scheduled to leave Tuesday night, so we had one last chance to get on a cruise. Many thanks to Anthony and his diligent efforts in tracking down the ONE dolphin/shelling cruise that left and returned in time for us to clean up and make our flight.

Due to the storm we didn't see very many dolphins. Luckily there were just enough that the kids were able to see them.

The unexpected highlight of the cruise was the shelling excursion. Tony and I were silently wondering if the price we paid was worth it until we were able to get off the boat and explore the tide pools off of Okaloosa Island. To say the kids has a blast would be an understatement. Though initially nervous, Will very quickly got into hunting for hermits crabs. He ended up finding over thirty! Lauren loved basking in the sand and shallow water, calling herself both a sand monster and a mermaid.

 25 week bump

Hermit crab race once we were back on board.

After the cruise we headed back to Melanie's to clean up and then head to the airport. We were not excited to be leaving, but at least we had a great time! Many thanks to Andrew, Melanie, Jill and Leah for making our trip a smashing success!

Bye, Florida!

As with most of our trips to visit family, we always wish we lived closer together. But, having family live around the U.S. is giving us reasons to explore parts of the country we don't see often. Will in particular is very interested in United States geography and wants to visit every state ASAP. So, Minnesota, Utah, Boston, Michigan and North Carolina--we're coming for you!