Florida Tourists: The Everglades

After our visit in Ft. Lauderdale, we were headed to the Gulf Coast.  We were going to cut across Florida through the Everglades, so, what do Florida tourists do in the Everglades?? Take an airboat ride, of course!  Aunt Chrissy, Noah, and Emilee joined us on our mid-morning airboat tour.  The ride was beautiful; however, apparently it was too hot for any wildlife to be out.  The only alligators we saw were the ones in captivity at the Everglades Safari Park. 

After our airboat ride, we said our goodbyes to Aunt Chrissy, Noah, and Emilee and then continued west for our next stop, Marco Island.

{a dragonfly landed on me right before the airboat took off at top speed—then he held on for dear life the rest of the ride!}

{a little frog landed on jonathan.}

Florida Tourists: Ft. Lauderdale

Jonathan flew in to meet us in Ft. Lauderdale so all four of us had the chance to visit with Aunt Chrissy and cousins Noah and Emilee.  We missed Uncle Chris and Jacob, but at least we got to see them over spring break.  Chrissy took us to her aunt’s condo in downtown Ft. Lauderdale where we got to enjoy the rooftop pool.  What a beautiful view of the beach and all of the canals in the downtown area and boy did we feel like high rollers.  Afterwards, we walked along Riverwalk by the Tarpon River and admired the ginormous yachts docked along the river, chased some iguanas (they’re everywhere), and had a picnic lunch in a park.  Thanks, Aunt Chrissy, for showing us around Ft. Lauderdale!

Florida Tourists: Cocoa Beach/Kennedy Space Center

I lived in Florida for nearly a quarter of my life (preschool/kindergarten and then again in college), I’ve vacationed in Florida plenty of times (Key West, Disney, etc.), and Ella, Jack, and I have spent many weeks visiting family in St. Augustine, Gainesville, Bradenton, and Orlando.  Yet, there are so many top Florida tourist attractions and experiences that I have not seen.  We had decided not to plan a big trip over the Christmas holidays (like we’d done for the previous three years), so I decided to incorporate a trip we had been meaning to make to visit family all over Florida (Ft. Lauderdale being the main goal because we had yet to make it down to Chris and Chrissy’s house) with also hitting a lot of the big sights around Florida.  I even did nearly my usual amount of research I do leading up to our big trips.  Even though we have spent so much time in Florida through the years, we called this trip our #floridatourists trip and we had a wonderful time doing as many uniquely Florida activities that we could fit in.  We first drove down the east coast of Florida, stopping at Cocoa Beach and then Chris and Chrissy’s house near Ft. Lauderdale (Jonathan joined us for this part of the trip), drove through the Everglades to the Gulf Coast and stayed on Marco Island for a weekend.  After dropping Jonathan off at the Fort Myers airport, we headed to Parrish (near Bradenton) for a few days at Casa de Slaton (my parents’ house) and then finished our trip in Orlando with Jacqui and Randy.  I loved seeing so much of our family and enjoying so many new Florida experiences with Ella and Jack—and we’re glad Jonathan got to fly in to spend some of it with us, too (once I told him I wanted to reserve a few nights at a Marriott resort on Marco Island, he made it happen).

So, the first day of our trip, Ella, Jack, and I drove down to a beachfront hotel on Cocoa Beach.  We had all seen those Ron Jon Surf Shop billboards scattered up and down I-95 for years, yet we had never been to Cocoa Beach (not even in college for me).  We drove down A1A, checked out the surf shops, took a few walks on the beach, spent time at the hotel pool, and then ate dinner at the hotel tikki bar where Jack enjoyed his first virgin strawberry daiquiri.  We were officially Florida tourists. 

The next morning we were up early to head up to Titusville, Florida to visit the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral.  It was awesome!  I had no idea how much we would enjoy exploring this facility.  The Atlantis exhibit was by far our favorite and we spent most of our day there.  A bus ride also took us around the grounds where we saw the tallest one-story building (the Vehical Assembly Building, where they build and work on the space shuttles/rockets), the SpaceX launch pads, some manatee, and then stopped at the Apollo / Saturn V Center to learn about the early history of the space program. 

Once we had gotten our fill of the Kennedy Space Center, we headed south on I-95 to make our way to South Florida by early evening for our first visit to Chris and Chrissy’s house.  Unfortunately the timing worked out that we were only able to see Aunt Chrissy, Noah, and Emilee as Jacob and Uncle Chris were out of town, but it was nice to have the quality time with these three.  I picked Jonathan up at the Ft. Lauderdale airport that night so he could join us for a long weekend of our trip (he flew directly from some work travel). 

{they’re touching a moon rock (jack’s pretty excited).}

Instagrammin’ in July

July is full throttle summer!

i finally got to try out a grass tennis court, with tennis friend yvette. | jack’s eagles camp team won the championship game. | ella loves teen art camp. | jack and noah week | aaaaahhh—kicking off hhi week right at hudson’s | i was pretty quiet on instagram during hhi week this year—beach, biking, cousins, mamma mia, and donuts (you know, the highlights). | ella, jack and i traveled around florida for the last week of july and the first week of august, acting like florida tourists and visiting family.  | first stop, cocoa beach | vacation means tikki bars and virgin daiquiris. | evening walk on the beach | three musketeers at the start of our florida trip | florida trip day 2, we visited kennedy space center. | kennedy space center was amazing—definitely recommend! | next stop on our florida tourists trip, ft. lauderdale to visit aunt chrissy, noah, and emilee (uncle chris and jacob were away at a camp in georgia). | we enjoyed a ft. lauderdale rooftop pool. | and picked up jonathan while we were in town. | on our way out of town, aunt chrissy, noah, and emilee joined us on airboat ride through the everglades (too hot for alligators apparently). | a drive through the everglades—panther crossing | next stop, resort life for just the 4 of us on marco island on the southwest coast of florida. | after the living the high life there for a long weekend, we dropped jonathan off at an airport and headed to nonni and papa’s house (mexican train wreck). | nonni and papa’s house is like a resort, too.

HHI Beach Portraits

We waited until our very last night during our week in HHI to do our annual beach portraits, so there were no do-overs.  The forecast called for sunny skies, so it seemed like a safe bet.  When we walked out on the beach from between the trees lining our path from the house, we were immediately hit by a wall of wind.  It was by far the windiest evening I have ever experienced on the beach there.  These were not the hair-flattering slight breezes one would welcome for having pictures taken—I think some of these images might look like we’re commentators for The Weather Channel during a hurricane.  We were fortunate to have another washed up tree on the beach (like last year), but the wind just wreaked havoc on our hair, blew air into our clothes or flattened them against us, and definitely got sand in every crevice of my camera and lens. 

Okay, enough of my photographer rant!  These photos are always so special.  It’s fun to look at the photos from each year side by side to see just how much the kids have changed.  Jake was Drew’s size when we first started going to HHI together and Tracy was pregnant with Ivy.  We’re so lucky to have such a wonderful family—on both sides (we’ll get to see our Williams fam by the end of the month)! 

Hilton Head Island Week!

A huge thanks to Nonni and Papa for another week of fun and family bonding in Hilton Head Island!  2017 marks the 5th consecutive year we have spent the week of 4th of July in HHI with my parents and my sister’s family.  We all cherish this time with each other, at one of our favorite vacation spots no less.  Every day life can seem so busy and trips to visit each other have gotten harder and harder to fit in to our kids’ overscheduled lives, so this concentrated week together with everyone on vacation is pure gold. 

We try to fit in a few new activities each year—this year we went to see a super-fun community theater production of Mamma Mia and also biked out of Sea Pines to Duck Donuts—but for the most part each wonderful day consisted of beach time, bike rides, and down time (games, puzzles, crafts, and movies)…plus lots of great food and great cocktails!  One of my favorite weeks of the year!

{in addition to creating tie dyed american flag shirts, the craft this year was painting sand dollars.}

{papa gave each grandkid a flight jacket and they took turns selecting squadron patches.  i had no idea my dad had so many.}

Instagrammin’ in June

With June comes the end of school and the stat of summer.  This year the end of school marked the end of an era for us—8 years of having a kid in elementary school came to an end with Jack wrapping up 5th grade.  Next year we’ll have two middle schoolers!

jack’s last field day | UF women’s tennis won the national champs and my friend angie (who’s son was being recruited by gators basketball) sent her this pic of us with the UF tennis team. | jack received the gold presidential education award. | congrats to jack! | ella’s last day of 7th grade | jack’s official last day of 5th grade | water gun tradition—ella and i soaked jack when he got off the bus. | hangin’ with baden and ilse | go karts! | ilse won. | day spent in greenville on our way to atlanta | ella and jack loved exploring falls park on the reedy. | and goofing around in downtown greenville. | summer adventures are fun. | we visited aunt tracy and cousins drew and ivy in atlanta—they even took us to the six flags water park! | we dropped jack off for another week of davidson soccer camp. | great team with great friends this year at davidson soccer camp | both kids were vbs teen helpers this year! | ella and jack both swam on the swim team, too. | charlotte eagles soccer camp for jack