Florida! This felt like our first big trip with four kiddos, and it was truly so much fun. I loved being in a new place with them so, so much. Seeing animals in the wild with my kids will always be my greatest moments and happiest memories I think. These kids are so much fun.
Our Florida video! The boys have watched this so many times.
Here's the breakdown of our trip by days -- it was just so much fun.
Day 1: Just Getting There :)
We literally almost missed our flight to LA last October. After an insanely long security line that we were not expecting, we sprinted through the airport with all these little boys and were last on our plane that was about to shut the doors and couldn't even sit all together. So we left earlier this time and found, no traffic, no security line, no rush, and plenty of time at our gate to watch airplanes and eat Starbucks breakfast burritos. Ha, you win some you lose some but you rarely know which will be which at the airport! The flight was smooth, a relative term when flying with a 16-month old, but really it was doable and we did the 4 hours. Then we had an unexpected almost 2-hour wait to get our rental car, but the boys were sweet to run around and keep eating snacks. So many snacks. We grabbed Chipotle on our way out of Fort Lauderdale down to Homestead, and stopped at a store for breakfast supplies. Both those experiences were sooooooo slow. We had entered the South :)
Early morning to DIA!
Such a handful age to travel with. Crawling on airport floors makes me skin also crawl, but, there's just no alternative at his age right now. Such a cutie though.
Watching Airplanes
These three were a dream on the flight. They loved their snacks and drinks, then loved reusable sticker books, then watched a movie together, then we landed. I just loved looking over at them. From the struggle row of me, Michael, Asher on our laps, and the guy who was traveling alone and looked really happy to be traveling alone.
Meanwhile Luna hung out with Bingley and we were grateful for our friends for taking some of her puppy days on! No small thing. Noooo small thing. One of my favorite parts of vacation was getting a little break from puppy mom life, I'll just say it.
Day 2: Biscayne National Park & Homestead
Somehow the boys woke up at 7am sharp this day, which was perfect for our plans but pretty baffling when you consider that's 5am Colorado time... Kids are crazy! We drove to Biscayne National Park and did a boat tour of the area and the Boca Chita Key and Lighthouse. The boys loved the beach there and the boat tour itself was really fun. Seeing dolphins is so happy every time! We were the only ones with kids on the boat, which we knew would happen a lot going into this trip, but the boys were awesome. Having lots of snacks on hand at all time kept things smooth. We actually forgot our little cooler at the Airbnb and had to go back for it even though it cut making our tour soo close that morning, but I just couldn't get on a 3.5 hour tour with four kids and a bunch of people with no kids armed with no snacks, haha. It ended up being just fine.
Asher is so happy splashing in water.
A lot of moments like this too :)
I gave Asher a nap at our Airbnb while Michael took the boys to Robert is Here Fruit Stand. They loved the animals.
Smoothie sharers. So sweet.
Westin was really into trying to pick coconuts that he found.
Dolphins by our dinner! We also saw a raccoon and watched it go on someone's boat. Then on someone else's. We were really entertained by this :)
Handful in restaurants too :) So many fries were eaten by this child on this trip because it was the only food of zero refusal. Everything else is a wild game of chance each time :)
Day 3: Everglades National Park & Drive to Islamorada
We ate oatmeal and mangos for breakfast and packed up our stuff to start heading South later that day. Seeing an alligator was the main drive behind this trip! Bennett has been super obsessed with gators for a while and all the boys love animals so much. So we planned this trip all around the Everglades and this part was really fun for them. We had no idea an agitated adult male alligator sounds exactly like a motorcycle. Camden is still talking about this. They loved touching this baby alligator and riding an airboat. We saw this baby and a large male in captivity there, plus two wild gators around the area. Then we went on a walk along the Ahinga trail boardwalk and saw so many turtles and gators and fish and birds. The boys really loved this part of the day even though it was super hot. Asher was pretty sad and tired but we had to see a few more gators! Then we stopped for lunch at the Everglades Gator Grill and shared some gator but mostly shrimp and chicken. We then had a totally wild drive down to Islamorada -- wild in the sense that I was sure everyone would take a nap but they were wired and loud and crazy the whole time :) Luckily I got a Dr. Pepper at our gas stop and it got me through, haha. We checked into our Islamorada hotel and played at the beach right there and just had some Subways for dinner because we wanted anything not greasy after that gator lunch experience.
Spot the gator!
Another coconut harvest
Spot the gator! They really are so sneaky
Turtle hiding here
Gators were thankfully not interested in Asher :)
Gator right off the corner
Asher was very into big kisses this trip :)
Tired brothers
These three did great sharing a room this trip
Day 4: Islamorada Kayaking & Playing
We had a slow morning while we let Bennett sleep in. Gator did not agree with him... can't blame him. Watching Paw Patrol in our bed in the mornings was one of my favorite parts of the trip -- just so sweet to be all together and not be in our busy routine. We went to Robbie's Marina around 9am and rented two big kayaks. Westin, Camden, and me in one with Bennett, Asher, and Michael in another. Asher is a daddy's boy in the daytime lately and I have to admit I knew we were getting the easier kayak combo. This day was a big ask of Asher but it was really so fun. We kayaked through Mangrove tunnels and it was surreal and just beautiful. Westin counted all the jellyfish he saw -- 776. Truly, seven hundred.And seventy-six. That boy is such a counter. Plus lots of fish, starfish, nurse sharks!, and the couple just in front of us said they had seen a crocodile just a few minutes before we came through. That would have been so incredible. It's the only area that both alligators and crocodiles live but we ended up only spotting gators on the trip. My biggest hope was to see some manatees, which happens really often in that area, but we weren't lucky there either. I told Michael if we had brought his dad then we would have seen all the things -- Grandpa has the best luck with wildlife! Asher fell asleep on the kayak ride back to the marina and I loved that we were all doing something together. A lot of our life has been divide and conquer with babies and doing adventures all together feels really happy. We ate a random lunch of apples, carrots, granola bars, cashews, etc. at our hotel so we could give Asher a good nap after the kayak excursion, and the boys swam with Michael. Then we went to a spot for dinner rated for the best Key Lime Pie. We walked along the docks after and saw nurse sharks hanging out with fishermen cleaning fish, and Westin was extra happy to harvest a plantain from a tree on our walk home. They also loved seeing iguanas all over. From our hotel we could see a large beached boat out on a sandbar, and we asked our waitress about it. She said it was a boat full of refugees from Haiti that had tipped there a couple months ago. Pretty wild to see that in person.
Portuguese Man O'War
Day 5: Fishing Day
Asher woke us up just before our alarms were going to for our fishing day. I think the boys were looking forward to this day more than any other. We were with Captain Ed, which was a good omen because I had just told Michael we needed more of Grandpa Ed's wildlife luck :) We had a fun boat ride out to sea then started casting. Westin loved trying but we didn't catch anything in this spot. We did catch a little starfish with a net and the boys loved holding it before setting it free. We moved somewhere else, and I learned how to cast then caught our first fish of the day! On what is technically the very first time I've ever cast a line, Westin was.... not so much impressed as just annoyed haha. But then everyone started catching left and right, and we even caught two nurse sharks. They were too big to bring in the boat but it was really fun to see them up close and touch them before sending them on their way. We stopped at a food truck with lawn games on the way home, then had nap time for Asher and Bluey/pool time for everyone else. Then we grabbed turkey sandwiches and a key lime pie and ate them at Anne's Beach, which was a low key, happy night.
Exploring Hemingway's boat
Baby chicks under our car!
Day 6: Explore & Drive Down to Key West
Vacation kind of hit hard today! Running on full days and few naps and the boys were troopers. Another slow morning of Paw Patrol, stopped at the store for picnic supplies, then a tour of the Turtle Hospital in Marathon. Asher was kind of miserable there.... there's nothing to do but let him crawl on the ground. It's in no way lost on me that that's gross but the further south we went in Florida the more we got judged for it haha. It was fine. He was fine. The Turtle Hospital was really fun to tour. We stopped at Bahia Honda State Park and walked up the railway bridge. I loved reading about it. Then we played at the beach there and ate our uncrustables and the boys loved playing with toys in the sand. That was the nicest beach we played at the whole trip. We knew we were not heading to a Cape San Blas experience but it was so nice to have a couple hours of really fun beach life for the boys. Then we drove to Key West, checked into our hotel, and they had an extra pack n play for us even though the website had said they didn't. That was so nice to have two pack n plays at our hotels. Camden just still does best in one. I request an accessible room when we travel because Pack n Plays always fit in those bathrooms and it gives Asher his own little dark space and we all sleep better. We ate the best shrimp tacos of my life that night and played ping pong and fussball on the grounds of our hotel. Then we sat on a bench all together for a while looking at the water, before walking around to look for lizards. We put Asher to bed at 6 because of an extra early wake up planned the next day. Michael and the boys went swimming then went to bed early too.
Not sleeping. Tantruming :) Bless this cute boy.
Day 7: Dry Tortugas National Park
I gave Michael a National Parks scratch off bucket list thing for Christmas, and this trip was already in the works but he didn't think our crew could swing Dry Tortugas. But after getting that checklist we decided we had to make it happen :) We actually had a totally smooth morning even though I had worried about needing to be out the door so early with so many tired little boys. Asher slept 6-6 without a peep, and our goal was to leave our room by 6:30. Everyone woke up on their own except our sweet snoozy Bennett, who needed a lot of help to get going :) We left our room 5 minutes early and headed to our check in at the marina. We were number 37-42 out of 175 people and the only family with little kids on the whole boat so I was feeling so proud of our morning -- how can we translate that to Sundays? Something about Sundays. There were no kids younger than Westin on the boat, except for our three children that are younger than Westin :) And really only one or two who looked maybe around his age. I felt a little intimidated but knew our boys could do it -- the intimidation just comes from worrying about people around us who don't seem excited to be around kids. But I'm getting better and better at letting go of that.
We gave everyone Dramamine while waiting to board. The boat ride out is 2.5 hours long, it's the most remote National Park. Westin got sick but didn't throw up -- he wasn't so lucky on the way back, which is probably because I gave him the dramamine too late, poor kiddo. He was far from the only one who puked. So many people had a rough time with the rough ride. I had Asher on my back in the Ergo and it felt like I was riding waves like a roller coaster, to keep him having a smooth ride and get him to sleep. I have zero problems with motion sickness and honestly loved the ride so much. Asher sleeping on my back while watching the waves off the back of the boat and steadying myself for a full hour of that was one of my favorite moments of my life. Then Westin puked :) I felt so bad for him.
Dry Tortugas itself was incredible. Such a unique place. And so beautiful! Especially the moat walk. The tour when we landed was fascinating and helped the Fort feel much less random and much more strategic in my mind, because up until that point I was just confused as to why it existed where it existed. I want to read more about it. The day was long for our sweet crew but they handled it. We got back into Key West at about 5pm, I picked up a lobster pizza a friend had recommended, and we shared it back at our hotel with all our other random fruit and veggies we had on hand. Key West did not look like our kiddos' scene but being in the southernmost point was pretty cool!
He fell asleep on my pony tail and my head was stuck like this for an hour. You don't wake a baby up for anything haha.
We look so rough haha. But I was proud of us!!
I'll dream about this pizza.
Day 8: Travel Back to Fort Lauderdale
We had a happy slow morning in our hotel, I wish we had more time to swim and play there! We drove back north and stopped at the Key Deer Reserve but didn't spot any little Key deer. We kept driving north, stopped for yet more Key Lime Pie from the Blonde Giraffe, and up to the Key Largo Fishery to look around the market and marina and eat lunch. We had a delicious lobster BLT and shared our pie, and saw even more nurse sharks off the docks. Spotted a sting ray, too. Then we kept going north, and Asher thankfully took a nap on the drive. He slept so little in the car on this trip. We took a detour through Miami Beach just to look around. We grabbed salads and burgers on our way to our hotel, Michael took the rental car back while I fed the boys and got us ready for bed, and we went to bed pretty soon with an early flight ahead.
Junior Rangers forever.
*just keep feeding me fries, mom, and everyone will be happy.
Day 9: Flying Home
Another early morning that was surprisingly smooth. I felt kind of crazy with how much I was trying to stay organized on this trip but the early mornings would have been miserable without that. We checked our bags and made it to our gate with plenty of time, but grabbing a little breakfast was so slow. That whole process of filling up empty water bottles, taking everyone to the bathroom, gate tagging the stroller, and boarding is just always surprisingly so much time. The boys sat on their own row again and did great, while Michael and I wrangled Asher. He did ok but it is constant, constant work to entertain him. We waited a while for our checked pack n play, waited a while for our shuttle, but still it wasn't even 11am when we started our drive home to Fort Collins. We left so early and got two hours back, so it felt like a full day had happened all before lunch :) A sweet older couple in our ward had us over for dinner that night, which was helpful with trying to get back adjusted to the time change, and they thought our kids seemed extra tired. I told them they'd been awake since 3 in the morning Colorado time and that explained it! The boys did so great.
This sweet little hand. Best travel buddy.
Tired boys on our shuttle to our car.
This trip made my heart sooooo happy. So happy. Florida with these boys was really such a great time. It would've been easier when they're older, but it was totally doable and we loved it.
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