It was definitely time for a break. The kids were needing a break from school and we were all needing a break from the stresses of life in general. We decided to tackle the long drive this year and head down to Englewood Florida. The drive seemed endless but out time there was just the best. Perfect for us right now. The slower life and not having to look at clocks or schedules was so refreshing. The kids ditched the electronics and we all enjoyed the outdoors and time together. This is the life for us! The whole school institution and race of family life thing was gladly thrown out the window and we all learned plenty, without the stress. A nice change in our life for a bit-although I am wishing it could have lasted a lot longer. Our days consisted of the beach and the pool with lots of exploring in between. The kids found tons of shells, sharks teeth and never tired of looking for either. The last morning we managed an early walk as the sun rose- a couple bigger shells but no huge finds. Best day was getting the kayak out and being in the water along side a dolphin as is swam in front of the house-I think my excitement matched Becca's!
Brayden was either surfing in the water and laying in the sand finding sharks teeth...I think he found over 1000 at his last count. He would take them back to the house, dry them in the sun then sort them by size and count them.
The girls were into finding cat paw shells and little flame augers...spiral pointy shells. After the first full day of sun non of the kids minded having a mask of zinc oxide throughout the day!
The first day the beach had huge waves. The boys had a blast. As the week went along the waves
became smaller which made for not quite as fun boogy boarding but Andrea loved it a bunch more.
One sunset on the beach. We had a lot of foggy, misty days or evenings...not a big deal but the sunsets were not anything great.
The girls were forever finding key limes and lemons, squeezing them and then trying to get us to drink them. We did managed on pretty tart keylime pie.
The dock was just the best, the kids did a ton of fishing-lots of hours before fish were caught but those couple just keep them going.
This was daring each other to touch a clear blob thing they found in the water...along with starfish, hermit crabs, sea urchins, conch shells.
They loved eating outside.
Kayaks got plenty use. Ron and Brayden made a little mini exploration to an island one morning.
We spent one morning hiking along the shore called Stump pass-what a morning hiking with the mist-really kind of cool.
1 comment:
Wow, that post makes me want to go to Florida again! So glad that you had a wonderful time. I can't believe he found all those sharks teeth. My girls like to find those cats paw shells too.
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