Spring Break – St. Augustine Beach (April 3)

On our last full day in St. Augustine Beach, Ella, Jack and I headed out to a little adventure at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park.  For as many times as we’ve been to St. Augustine, we’d actually never been to the Alligator Farm.  The kids loved it (especially Jack who has aspirations to be a herpetologist one day).  Highlights of our time at the Alligator Farm: Maximo the giant croc, albino alligators, watching the alligators get fed by the zoologist, and feeding alligators themselves.  Definitely a fun and unique morning, an excursion I would recommend to anyone visiting the area.





{maximo}




{feeding the alligators.}



After our morning at the Alligator Farm, we headed back to Fort Matanzas to eat our picnic lunch.  Ever since visiting the park a couple of times this week, the kids were just itching to climb those magnificent trees at the park.  They had to finish their healthy lunch before they could climb hence the fewer pictures of Ella, a.k.a. the slowest eater ever.







{more acting from ella—the hammed up pose above with ella responding to jack’s head in an alligator’s mouth was her idea, too.}

That evening we were back to the beach.  After some more boogie boarding, they were all about the wrestling and sand throwing.  And, fortunately, they both came away still smiling.













Awesome Spring Break!  Thanks for hosting us, Aunt Jacqui and Uncle Randy, Uncle Chris and Aunt Chrissy, and Nana and PopPop!  We all need to get in the picture more this next trip over the summer—wish I had more pictures of everyone.

Spring Break – St. Augustine Beach (April 2)

On Tuesday of our Spring Break, the weather cooperated (actually it was such a beautiful, clear-skied day—rare for this year it seems) and we were able to take a morning ferry over to Fort Matanzas National Park.  We’d been to the big old fort in old St. Augustine, but we’d never even taken the kids to the beautiful park across the intercoastal waterway from Fort Matanzas.  It was a fun adventure—especially getting out on a boat and we all learned about some of the history of the area, too (matanzas means slaughters in Spanish, btw—a lot of bloodshed in its heyday defending St. Augustine).



{you can see the fort across the matanzas river from this spot.}

{after the ferry ride, headed to the fort.}




{you’d have to ask jack what poppop was pointing out to him here—the problem with blogging about april in july, you just can’t remember everything!  :) }




After our excursion to Fort Matanzas and saying our goodbyes to Aunt Jacqui and Uncle Randy (so thankful they took a couple days off of work to spend with us), we spent the afternoon at the beach.  The kids had a ball again, paying no mind to the temperature of the ocean water.  (But notice, again, how far away the pictures are taken from…should’ve brought the zoom.  :) }

Spring Break – St. Augustine Beach (April 1)

After a few days in Orlando over Spring Break week, we headed to Nana and PopPop’s house in St. Augustine Beach for a wonderful Easter dinner and then spent a few days hanging at the beach and pool and checking out a few St. Augustine attractions we’d actually never hit before.  The day after Easter we spent some time enjoying the beach and then in the afternoon, after getting rained out at Fort Matanzas, we went to a wine tasting in St. Augustine (the kids tried native-Florida grape juice) and then walked historic St. George Street.  Most of that was documented via Instagram, but here are a few pictures from our morning at the beach.



{this is aunt jacqui’s reaction to how cold the water was.  yes, it was fuh-reezing.  the kids didn’t seem to mind at all.  but, i kept thinking i'd go out into the water a little further to get better pictures, and then the water would hit my feet and i was out.  notice how we seem to have the beach to ourselves.  ha ha}

Spring Break – Easter Activities & Cousins

We stayed in Orlando for most of Easter weekend, heading up to St. Augustine on Easter Sunday.  We spent our time in Orlando hanging out with Jonathan’s brother’s family at their house outside Orlando and then at an Easter festival.  Aunt Chrissy helped the kids dye Easter eggs—which was great because we had done a sum total of zero Easter activities leading up to Spring Break—but, mostly the cousins just loved having time to hang out together.  The coming week after Easter, our kids’ Spring Break, was not a week of vacation for cousins Jacob and Noah, so these few Easter weekend days were the kids’ chance to hang out.  They didn’t skip a beat.  [No pictures of actual Easter Sunday in St. Augustine here—I think I got in one on Instagram, though!  :) ]








{two peas in a pod, these two—jack and cousin noah.}


{just a week after wandering off near our house, gator tried to pull the same disappearing act here once a gate was left open.  not to be trusted.}

{aunt chrissy and uncle chris took us to a fun Easter festival at an orlando-area church on saturday morning.  the kids made a killing in the egg hunt and had a fun time burning off all of the sugar in the bounce houses later.}


{it’s actually emilee—the kids got their nametags to participate in the egg hunt.}

{back to playing in the backyard.}

{ella loves playing caretaker to sweet little emilee.  guess she never got to nurture her little brother much.}