Florida Keys Vacation

Let the holiday partying begin! In celebration of Thanksgiving, the Dove-Slade-Stephens crew headed to Islamorda, Florida. The weather was fabulous every day but one. It was mid 60's at night and 80's during the day. The one rainy day allowed us to take a Slade family drive down to Marathon and drink daiquiris in the afternoon before taking a long afternoon nap! Our house was totally equipped with everything from a hammock under palm trees to a "mac daddy" blender!
We left from St. Simons at 3 am on Saturday, arriving around 2pm. (Here is Turner, modeling his pj's, checking out his first coconut at our house's private beach.) Thankfully my best bud loaned me her GPS because the darn Florida turnpike is confusing! The trip was great and the boys did excellent. We stopped three times and let them run around parking lots. The videos and vanilla wafers definitely helped, but the biggest plus was the treats that I bought from the dollar store. Party favors, BOYS! The boys enjoyed throwing balls attached to paddles at my head and playing with their new clappers til they broke them!

One of the many ocean views from our house....

Coconuts! We loved throwing them toward our mommy, clunking our brother on the back and throwing them in the pool!

SAND!! What fun we had....

Day 1 in the sun....sunscreen, diaper and castle making with our cousin John 5!

Taylor learning the ropes of building a castle from his big cousin John 5.

Cousin Savannah and Taylor: Best buds!

Lounging on the beach....

More lounging...

Taylor enjoying his first orange...any entertainment so Ben and I could enjoy a quiet lunch with our Nanny!

This was "Happy Turner" before "Hysterical Turner" appeared. Our Baby A is usually not this difficult. This was the first time that nothing calmed him. Maybe it was the rotten food? Maybe the pelican that was glaring him down for his lunch? We thought the fabulous view, a sippy cup and cookies would calm him, but no. Poor daddy ended up walking him him home so Nanny, Taylor and I could finish our brunch!

Nothing like a cool pool to cool off a temper tantrum!

Slades: Mommy, Daddy, Taylor and Turner (14 months)

Gan and Taylor

" The snake!" And to think about how innocent John sounded, as he calmly came upstairs to announce, " there is a snake under my jumpy thing." Boo thought he was kidding because she saw nothing. Good thing, because Boo would have died if she would have looked in the playroom to find this big ole thing....all 7 inches of him!

BREAKFAST!! Why don't kids know that vacation means sleeping in?

Our view from OUR BEACH.....loved it!

Taylor checking out the captain's chair in the boat at the Islamorda Fishing Store!

Mommy and Taylor posing in front of the Tarpins...poor Turner missed the fun because he was napping in the ole faithful Bob!

Gan and his boys with Boo's hat on....poor Boo. No photos with her because she was cooking and cleaning the whole time. Poor Boo deserves a real vacation now! Thank you, Boo! Now, i am 5 pounds heavier too...

Our little Turn loved the beach!!

Daddy and Uncle John fishing off the beach.

T and T hanging out in their beach couch.

T and T playing in their pool.

The gatherers bringing food home for dinner...fresh fish! Thanks daddy and Uncle John!

Playing in the hose with our daddy....we loved it!

Taylor's new hobby: "Playing Gimme 5" with Nanny

Savannah (9 months) and Aunt Caroline

We walked every day. On this particular day, we walked to The Trading Post to buy key lime bars for dessert. Nice, I know! We walked 1 mile to then go home and eat 500 calories worth of a bar!

Taylor sitting with Gan, his favorite pasttime!

"WHOA".....goofing off on the couch with daddy after dinner.

Dinner, yum, yum! Gotta love that view!

Whoever doesn't laugh at this must be sick. Here is Taylor running off with his cousin John's CLEAN underwear on his head.

Boo and Gan's family holiday card photo. Yes, it was over 80 and we had the little munchkins dressed up for the occasion!

The boys....checking out Nanny, who was suppose to distract them with a bag of vanilla wafers for the photos! Notice, Taylor was smiling because he had his wafers in his hands.

T and T....standing on the chairs and loving it!!! They have heard, " No standing. Bottoms down", so many times, that they were dancing with joy.

Turner helping clean up the house, as his daddy uses the real vacuum to get up some sand!

T and T heading out for their daily walk with Boo and Gan.

Wildlife was everywhere! It started off with a scorpion in our bedroom, then a salamander in our room (I know, why my room!), then a poisonous snake under John's jump castle , then this huge and mean (and fast as Heck as gan chased it into the jungle) iguana. YUCK!

T and T's pool.....

Turner playing in the big pool and LOVING it!!!

Taylor riding the dinosauer in the pool while daddy froze trying to protect him from drowning. The water was so cool, despite the warm weather because it was in the shade.