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Keys Vacation 2015 Day 7: Home Again

Today was the final day of our vacation if you include going home as an actual day. Everyone slept great last night. Will actually did 3 hour stretches all night so that was good.

We got up around 7:40 this morning and went down to breakfast. Kenzie didn't eat to eat again but we got a bit of food into Will. After breakfast we went back to the room and got everyone ready to head the pool for a bit. The hotel has a great pool that even has a waterfall. 

The kids loved the pool again. Kenzie and Daddy went under the waterfall. I tried to take Will both the force of the falling water was a bit much for him. He wasn't a fan. Either way the water was cool and awesome.





We had a bit of an issue again getting Kenzie out, but nothing like the pool in Marathon. When we got back upstairs we all changed and started our final packing. It wasn't too bad and we had the car loaded pretty quickly. Somehow we are leaving with less than we came with, it seems. I think it is because we used diapers and food while we were here and those took up a bit of room. 

We were on the road by about 10:30. We stopped for gas and lunch in Fort Pierce again. We were home by about 3pm and the sky opened up shortly after our arrival. We made it just in time to beat the rain. We are now unpacked and resting. Will has already been put in bed. He is having a difficult time going to sleep and I imagine we will have this issue for a few days as he re-adjusts to being home. No worries. I have faith we will have our routine back soon enough. =)

I figured since this was a super quick post I would recap a couple of things we leaned traveling with two small children. Some of what we learned is beach trip specific, but not all of it. 

-If you can fit it, having some food items from home can be good. You can usually always find a grocery store, but we use the items during the drive down a lot and we like certain brands of some things. 

-When you go to the beach with small children, less is more. We spent 20 minutes repacking the car before we left to fit in our chairs in but they never left the car because all our time was spent in the water. If we were going to a beach at home we would bring them but on a traveling vacation with other things planned, they weren't necessary. 

-if you plan to picnic, buy a cheap styrofoam cooler at your destination. Saves room and is cheap so you don't feel bad tossing it at the end of the vacation. Like we did. :)

-When possible, get a suite. You can put one (or both) kids in another room to sleep and not need to worry about tiptoeing around them once they fall asleep. (We highly recommend Embassy Suites.)

-If you have kids like ours, find a place with free breakfast since they likely will refuse a lot of food towards the end of a vacation anyway. Less money spent on food they didn't eat. Haha! 

-Don't worry if you don't get to do everything you hoped to. Skipping the sunset festival wasn't a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. The kids still loved Key West and we can do it when they are older. 

-Take pictures but if you forget to take one... Don't worry. It's about the memories. Not freaking out to get the perfect shot. 

-Enjoy it. They are only this small for a short time. They are only so easily amazed for a little while. I loved seeing their reactions to different things and hearing Kenzie's take on the world. Such as the "dancing" jellyfish and her informing me that she was going to teach the gators to "chomp chomp" so they can all chomp with her. :)

We had an amazing time. I think we were both a little nervous for this trip but the kids did so well and everyone had a blast. I can't wait to see what we can come up with next year. 

This is the end of The Beaches and Picnic Tour: Keys Vacation 2015.  Hope everyone reading these had fun following along. :)

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