Spring Break 2015 -- South Florida!!!

We had a wonderful Spring Break trip this year.  Sam planned a trip to see the parts of Florida we hadn't seen yet -- mainly a tour of South Florida.  We had a great time exploring so much of that beautiful state.

We drove down on a Friday, and that evening made a quick stop in Orlando to have dinner with the Nelson Family at their hotel before we made our way to Tampa for the night.  The Nelson's were finishing up their Spring Break in Florida, and we were grateful our trips overlapped just enough that we could see each other for a few hours!

We woke up Saturday morning and spent the day at Legoland.  We wanted to hit an amusement park that would be geared more towards our younger children (we were visiting Universal Studios later in the trip), and it was a bit of an early birthday celebration for Cal, who turned three the next day.  He really enjoyed Legoland -- we all did.  It was a fun day and a great way to kick off the trip.

The Safari ride particularly wowed Sam!

This Fire Rescue ride was a bit silly, but Cal enjoyed it, and Sam got into it!

Campbell struggled with the cars that the bigger kids were supposed to drive, but Bennett and Elle and Reagan enjoyed it.

So then we took Campbell and Cal to ride the little kids version.  Campbell was too old but they took mercy on her and let her ride it.  It was more her speed for sure.

Will was with us too.  He didn't get in on a lot of the action but we were glad he was with us anyway.

Cal was excited to see Emmett, but clearly a bit nervous as well.

It was HOT and we were grateful for rides that helped us cool down a bit.  

Everyone loved the LEGO models.  Bennett could have spent all day looking at them.

All in all, we had a great day at Legoland!

Sunday was Cal's actual birthday.  Here is our cute new 3-year-old at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater where we got to see Hope and Winter, the dolphins featured in the Dolphin Tale movies.

Reagan and Campbell holding replicas of the prosthetic tale.

A beautiful view of the bay from the aquarium.

There's Will!  He doesn't make it into a lot of pictures, so I feel like I have to post the ones he is in.

We brought Alli Trano's Flat Stanley with us, and he LOVED the aquarium too!

Our next stop of the day was DeSoto National Memorial -- a site run by the National Park service in honor of the explorer DeSoto.  The kids enjoyed the exhibits, but it was HOT so we didn't stay too terribly long.

Neat Skybridge between Tampa and DeSoto.  Sam has never driven over a bridge he hasn't loved -- or wanted to take a picture of!

We finished Sunday and Cal's birthday celebration at the beach on Anna Maria Island.  We had heard from several people during our three years in the South that Anna Maria Island is one of the most beautiful beaches in Florida, so we had to check it out for ourselves.  Cal was nervous about the sand and the water -- I'm not sure he thought it was the best way to spend his birthday!  But the rest of us had a good time.

Our cute and uncertain birthday boy.

Cal warmed up a little eventually, and we tried to help him have fun in the water.

Cal and Sam are such good buddies -- I'm so glad they have each other.

And there's Will!

We hope that sweet Cal enjoyed his birthday.  We do love that little boy!

Monday was a full and fun day.  We drove through Marco Island on our way to the Everglades, but it was pretty fancy and so we didn't even stop anywhere.  We made it to the Everglades, and Sam took the five oldest kids out on an Airboat Tour of a swamp/gator park.  It was LOUD and fast and fun -- the kids were all smiles when they got back, although I don't think they saw many gators!

Our next stop on Monday was Big Cypress National Preserve.  The kids made up for not seeing many gators on their airboat ride -- there were plenty to see here.

Our next stop was Shark Valley along the Alligator Alley.  Here we saw a lot of gators as we walked along the board walk!

A view of Shark Valley -- the kids eating push pops to cool off.

 The girls and their Shark-tooth necklaces.  I'm not sure what the relationship between alligators and sharks are, but somehow they were connected!?

From Shark Valley we made our way to Key Largo and checked into the motel we would stay in the next couple of nights.  It was the most expensive place we stayed in on this trip, and also the grossest/most ghetto!  So we didn't want to stay there long and headed out to Robbie's of Islamorada to feed the giant Tarpon fish.  They were honestly the biggest fish we had ever seen, and this ended up being one of the highlights of the trip.

Tuesday we were up early to make the trip down to Key West.  Sam enjoyed the drive down the Keys and took photos of the scenery to prove it.

Once in Key West, our first stop was the Ernest Hemingway home.  It was expensive to tour, and we were fairly certain it would be lost on the kids, so we just took a picture outside and Elle went in and bought a book in the gift shop.

From here, we walked down to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park for the kids to play on the beach.  We had been told that there aren't really any great beaches in the Keys for kids, and it turns out they were right!  This was the best beach in Key West we were told, and it was very rocky.  The kids made the most of it and cooled off and played around for a bit, but we didn't stay too long.

From there, we went back into town to take a picture by the strange obelisk type statue that marks the closest place in the US to Cuba.  We had to wait in line for 30 minutes for a turn -- and then were very rushed taking our pictures and were frustrated a bit that others chose to forgo the line and stood behind us and photobombed our photo.  Oh well.

From Key West, on our way back to Key Largo, we stopped at a beach that Sam had heard was the best beach in the Keys.  It was called Bahai Honda State Park -- it is supposedly the only sandy beach in the keys.  The water was beautiful and warm and we all had a great time spending the afternoon there.  

Our motel in Key Largo was pretty sketchy, and yet still expensive.  But it did have a nice view, which Sam memorialized in photos before we checked out Wednesday morning.

Once we checked out, we headed North.  Our first stop on Wednesday was the Tavernier Bird Sanctuary.  It was free and we saw a lot of neat birds.  Worth the stop.

 Then we went to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.  Sam bought a few snorkels and the kids attempted to snorkel in the shallow coral.  Elle caught (and got stung by) a jelly fish.

Our last stop of the day was Biscayne National Park.  Cal was asleep so I drove around with him in the parking lot while Sam and the other kids explored the visitors center.

We then drove to our hotel in Weston, a NW suburb of Miami, where we would stay the next couple of nights.  We got dinner at Chick-fil-a and then Sam took the kids swimming while I did laundry.

Thursday was our day in Miami.  It was delayed a bit because right when we got on the road we got a low tire pressure warning.  We happened to be right by the biggest Honda Dealership in the world, and we pulled right in to the service department where we hung out for over an hour while they patched the multiple nail holes in our tire.

After our car was fixed, we hit up Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park.  Another day -- another beach. Cal was super sad and pretty much stayed in his stroller under the umbrella the entire time.  But Will finally got in on the action and got in the water which was fun!

After the beach, Sam took us on a driving tour of South Beach and we saw some beautiful Art Deco hotels and buildings.  No pictures as proof, but we can all say now that we have been to South Beach.

Then it was back to our hotel to get cleaned up for our fun evening plans.  Sam was very excited that the Boston Bruins were in town to play the Florida Panthers, and so he got tickets and took Elle and Bennett and Cal to their first NHL game.  The Bruins lost, but the four of them had a great time, and Cal loved the atmosphere and did really well during the game.  I took the little girls and Will across the street from the arena to a movie theater and we saw the movie Cinderella.  It was a great movie, but way too sad for Campbell, who cried and sobbed during several scenes.  Sweet girl -- she has such a soft heart.  I think we all had a very fun evening.

Friday morning we checked out of our Miami hotel, made a stop by the temple to get a picture,

and then drove to Boca Raton for one more beach day.  We thoroughly enjoyed all of our beach hopping on this trip.  We thought the kids would be sick of the beach at this point, but we spent hours at Red Reef Beach.  Cal even finally warmed up a bit a played in the sand and the water with the kids, which was wonderful!

Friday night we slept outside of Orlando.  We woke up Saturday morning early and headed to Universal Studios.  This was the grand finale of our trip.  We thought of this trip as our farewell tour of  Florida, and since we had done Disney World as a family, Sam thought it would be fun to take the kids to Universal Studios.  It was HOT, and this was day 9 of our trip, and so we were all very tired, so I'm not convinced that we got the most out of our day there.  But I hope the kids had fun.  It was one of those experiences where you keep thinking about how much money it cost to be there and you aren't convinced that your kids are enjoying it enough to make it worth it!  Oh well.  We can always tell our kids we took them to Universal Studios and Harry Potter land if they try to tell us we never did anything fun with them.

Long lines -- we waited for ever for the Dispicable Me ride.  Forever.

But it was one of only a handful of rides that Cal went on our enjoyed, and he loved seeing the Minions afterwards.

Pretty sure these kids have no idea who Woody Woodpecker is.  But they know Curious George!

Harry Potter World was a highlight, and the Butter Beer.  Reagan was nervous to go on the ride (she hardly went on any -- too scared) so Sam went with the big kids and Campbell the first time, and then I was able to go back through with them again a second time without having to wait again, so that was nice.

And here we are with our selfie stick taking one last picture as a family before we left the park.  We called it quits around dinner time -- we were all exhausted from this amazing trip.  We feel so lucky that we were able to see so much of Florida in a relatively short period of time.  Sam is quite the trip planner!