Yeah, it has occurred to me that you might notice that I refer to South Florida and the Keys as two separate places despite the fact that the Keys are technically more South and still Florida... but for anyone that has ever visited the Keys, you probably know that they seem almost like a land of their own. Everything is crowded and hectic in South Florida a lot of the time but the Keys run on island time. No hurries. No crazy amounts of people (most of the time... there are some exceptions). So, that being said... we almost forget that they are still part of Florida sometimes. We had to explain to Kenzie that we are still in Florida despite being in the Keys.
The night spent at Mike and Sevi's was great. The kids slept really well. Kenzie ended up on the top part of the daybed and I slept on the trundle on the bottom. In reality, we could have lifted the trundle up even with the daybed and slept in a king size bed, but I enjoyed not having her on top of me as she usually is when we share a bed. Will slept on the small blow up mattress. Once, around 2 am, he woke up and wanted me to cover him. He also insisted on switching up his positioning and moved his pillow to where his feet had been but once he was settled and covered, he went right back to sleep. Will started stirring in the morning right around 7 am. I think if we had been home and he had been in his own bed, he would have slept in but there are no blackout curtains in the guest room (understandably) so I think the sun coming in around the blinds finally woke him up. I ignored him though and he stayed in the bed until closer to 7:10 when Kenzie finally started waking up. When she sat up, so did he and we were up. I decided to keep them in the room with me for a little while so that everyone else could sleep longer. Steven was out on our blow up mattress in the living room and I didn't hear anyone else stirring yet. I tried to give the kids something to watch on my phone but Will decided it was way more fun to leap off the trundle bed and onto the blow up mattress while saying, "3...2... 1... Go!!!"
Sidenote: Our kids sleep so heavy that I can take pictures of them complete with flash and neither of them even stirs... I wish I could sleep like that. They make wake up early, but at least they sleep well when they do sleep, I guess.
We heard everyone making sounds after that so we headed out. We had some breakfast and the kids played before we all get ready to go. We wanted to hit up Target while we were in town because we were back in Dolphins country basically and Steven wanted a new hat. Much easier to find when it is the local team. We also managed to find an awesome pair of "running shoes" for Will on clearance. Poor Kenzie wanted shoes too but they didn't have much in her size on the clearance. Cartwheel had extra money off so that is why we were even looking for shoes on vacation. After Target we went over to an Italian place that we have been to before (just a different location) for lunch. It was really yummy. They have an awesome lunch special. It has a soup or salad, piece of pizza, and half sub. Really good.
When we were done eating, it was time to get back, pack up, and head out to Key Largo. While we were excited to get to the Keys, we would have loved a bit more time with friends. We will be visiting again on our way back through at the end of the week. We weren't on the road for more than a few minutes and Will fell asleep. Perfect! Exactly what we were hoping for. The drive wasn't bad. We did hit a good amount of traffic shortly after we got on US 1 that lasted all the way to Key Largo, but it wasn't terrible and Will actually slept through most of it. Kenzie was upset that we wouldn't play Moana for her while Will was sleeping but we think she has seen it plenty of times before so it wasn't a huge deal. Once we started seeing boats and water, she was fine anyway. She was just bored and really, we can't blame her. We insisted that she remain quiet somewhat. Not only because Will was sleeping (though her noise doesn't bother him) but this was also down time for her as she doesn't nap anyway and otherwise would be going non-stop.
Eventually we made it to the hotel. Grandma and Grandaddy were there before us so they had us all checked in and we made our way up to our room. The hotel is super nice. The rooms were pretty and clean. If we had more time, this hotel would be amazing for a longer stay. The facilities are great and everything is beautiful here. I'm also biased because I'm in the Keys. I get Keys vision or something and everything is perfect.
We got a bit settled in and then decided to head out to Publix to pick up chicken for a picnic dinner at Pennekamp. Steven considering "complaining" that he had to have a picnic dinner for his birthday but then it occurred to him that he got to have his birthday dinner in paradise so he was okay with it. We picked up chicken, a couple of sides, and a birthday cake that Grandma and Grandaddy ordered for Steven and headed over to Pennekamp. We have our state park pass but found out tonight that there is actually an extra surcharge to use it in Monroe County state parks so we decided to go ahead and spend the $5 to get the MC surcharge paid for the duration of our annual pass term. It will basically pay for itself on this trip alone and if we manage to make it back down any time within our year, it would still be good. Bonus was that they let us get Grandma and Grandaddy in with our pass. We have done it before with other people at other parks but they seem more strict down here and usually don't allow it. I think it helped that it was nearing the end of the day anyway. Their entrance fees are significantly higher than most of ours too. This pass is going to more than pay for itself this year. We weren't able to get the original picnic bench we were hoping for but we found one near the water. I wish we had been closer though because Will was amazed with the boats. It was the evening so just about everyone was coming in for the night. Dinner was good and we had a piece or two of chicken left over so Grandma and Kenzie tore it up and put it down for the kittens we saw running through the woods behind where we were eating. They all came out a few minutes later and gobbled it all up.
After dinner we brought out the birthday cake. Grandma brought candles for it but it was just too windy and we couldn't get them to light. If we did get one to light, the wind blew it out almost immediately so eventually we gave up. We sang Happy Birthday and then Steven and the kids "blew" out the unlit candles. Mainly for effect. The cake was super yummy and we managed to keep both kids relatively clean so it was a win win situation all around. Steven opened his gift then from his parents which was a Garmin running watch. He has been wanting one similar to mine for a while so this will be good for him. No more having to use his phone on runs which is seriously a pain after a while. #firstworldproblems
We cleaned up after that and walked over to the water to check out the boats. We saw the dive boat coming in earlier but wanted to check and see where the snorkeling tour boats were for tomorrow. We have to be there so early to make sure we get the tickets we reserved so we wanted to make sure we knew where to go and what to do so we would be on time and not risk our tickets being opened to walk ups. We asked someone cleaning one of the snorkeling boats if these were the ones they used and she said it was one of the many. She asked us what tour we were going on and we told her the first one. She then told us that we might actually get to go out to the Christ of the Deep statue since we are the first boat of the day. We assume that is because our weather is better and it is a bit farther out than the other reefs. I am so hoping we make it out there. That would be amazing. We are super excited either way though.
We then decided to head back to our hotel because we knew there was a small beach on the property which faces the west so we would see the sunset over the water. We made it back in plenty of time and the kids enjoyed the beach. Will tried to play some corn hole by himself. He didn't have a partner because Kenzie and Steven were too busy swinging in hammocks. He wasn't as sure about a swinging bed so he wouldn't try one out. Not a bad way to end a birthday, really. It wasn't too long though before both kids were in the ocean. Fully dressed. Nothing new really. I also might have prompted it because I stepped into it to see how the water felt (which was perfect by the way) and they followed suit. The difference was I stepped back out and never got my clothes wet... them? Not so much. The water at this beach is like glass. Almost like a big pool so the kids were super excited to jump right in. Neither of them remember Pennekamp from our trip two years ago but they should be excited tomorrow as well because the water is like that there, as well.
Finally we decided it was time to get back to the room because we knew the next day was coming early. We have to be out of the room super early to drop the kids off with the grands before we head out to the snorkeling tour. I got the kids all showered off while everyone else went down to switch over car seats and grab a few things out of the car. The kids were relaxing in bed watching Toy Story 3 by the time everything was said and done. Once the movie ended we started attempting to get them to go to sleep. And that is what we are up to now. I have Will in bed with me and Steven has Kenzie. This is the one night that we have two beds in lieu of one king bed and a pull out sofa bed. Every other night the kids will be together on the sofa bed. Kenzie has fallen asleep at this point but Will is still romping around some. The fact that I am using a computer next to him probably doesn't help but this is Will. When he is ready to sleep, he will. Nothing is going to stop him. He is just pretty amped up with the entire day so he is having more trouble getting there. Shouldn't be long though and then before we know it, it will be time to wake them up and head out to the snorkeling tour! We are so super excited. Can't wait!
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