Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Florida Vacation Day 2 and 3

So as I mentioned in my other post, I was in the middle of a test group program for the company I work for: Beachbody. I was around day 65-70 of 80 day obsession. I had moved my workout calendar around to accommodate being on vacation. I did the heavier weight workouts earlier in the week and saved the cardio days and lighter weight days for on vacation (packed my loops, sliders, and a resistance band). So Thursday morning I decided to mash up my cardio and go for a run. It had been FOREVER since I went for a run, literally forever haha. I don't think I had run since before the girls were born. But since I have been working out it wasn't that big of a deal and felt amazing! I ended up running up to the beach and along the sidewalk. I stopped here to do a few rounds of cardio flow (an 80 day obsession cardio workout) It felt so GOOD! Wish this was my view every morning ;-)


I did just a few rounds then continued on a jog. Ended up going north on the sidewalk then cut through to the beach, took my shoes off and did sprints in the sand. Finishing up with some stairs and a jog home. 

After breakfast and Kyle got a workout in, we loaded up for a beach day!








After a long morning at the beach we came home for naps then decided to drive to a park across the canal. The kids weren't too impressed with the park (no swings) but it still felt good to be outside playing.




We had thai for dinner that night, beautiful weather!
Then hit up Target for some aloe and more groceries. Unfortunately the sun zapped my fair skinned family (Emma and I were the lucky ones) and everyone was a bit pink.


Friday we got up and had another beach day. That's what this vacation was for. Although this time we didn't pack the chairs, umbrella, or bring the cart. We learned that there were sturdier umbrellas to rent there and decided to buy a few days at a time and just use that.

We had our big beach blanket with us so we had plenty of space to sprawl out.


Thomas loved sleeping to the sound of the waves.



Lots of sleepy baby photos :)


Isaac loved the ocean!







Emma took this photo, this was at the point that we had lost Mary. She ended up wondering down beach and ended up at the lifeguard stand a little ways down from where we were. 



But we located her so all was well :)


We finished up at the beach and decided to go for a drive. We had hoped the kid would take a van nap, but that didn't happen.

We drove a little ways to a wildlife reserve area, over toward the Everglades. Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge






Our goal was to see an alligator. Luckily we drove to an area and saw a guy fishing. We didn't think there would be one there, but Kyle asked the guy and he said yes there was one up under the dock. So we got out to take a look. Sure enough he was just hanging out there.



We stopped for dinner on the way home and day three was a wrap.

Florida Vacation Day 1

Travel day was Wednesday, March 28th. We had a 7ish flight. Left the house about 5 am. When we arrived to the airport there were emergency vehicles all over the check in area, they had us pull down to the baggage claim level. The plan was for Kyle to drop us off with the luggage so we could check in curb side, then he'd go park the car. But because of the mess we just all went to the parking and hauled the luggage from there. Traveling with four little kiddos means four car seats (2 regular sized and 2 booster seats in 2 large car seat bags), 1 large checked back and 3 smaller carry on wheely bags. Lots of baggage!

We got all check in and headed to security, luckily it wasn't a horrible wait.

No time to spare, we headed right toward our gate and headed onto the plane. Not even time to fill up our water bottles. The kids enjoyed exploring the TVs on the back of the seats.






It wasn't long before we were airbound and everyone was busy watching their movies or playing on their ipads. Thomas did great, they all did great on the plane.


We arrived about 3:00 Florida time. It was NICE and warm! When we arrived we collected our car seat bags from baggage claim but our checked bag was no where to be seen. I checked in with the service desk and turns out it did not make the flight with us but would be arrived in a couple hours. They said they would deliver it to where we were staying later that night. Not the worst in the world and lightened our load a little for the taxi ride to the rental place.

We hopped into the taxi van... which had these crazy built in car seats. I was fine just wearing Thomas but this allowed for a nice photo op, haha.

He's like "what the heck is this mom?"

We got our rental van, a white Dodge Caravan. Pretty much like our sienna, many of the same features although it did not drive quiet as well. It had no get-up-and-go, and it rode really rough. But it ran and fit us all so that's what matters. 

We stopped at a little Brazilian eatery for lunch, where we got baked empanadas and an acia bowl. Isaac was a big fan of the empanadas.

After grabbing a bite to eat we hit the local Costco on the way to our vacation home. Their Costco was much like ours, when you're feeding a family of 6 and in the midst of a clean eating program, Costco is our best friend :-P We could have made another trip during our stay but ended up just hitting the grocery store a few more times later in the week, haha. 

We made our way north about a half hour to our little vacation stay in Deerfield Beach. We got settled into the house as best we could without our large bag. It was so great having a pack-n-play for Thomas there, as well as a stroller we used later in the week, a high chair, and sand toys for the kids. Of course beach towels and beach chairs for us to use as well. 


The kids enjoyed taking photos with my water camera. Emma is quite the photographer.



Luckily the swimsuits (well the kids') were in the carry on bags. We were going to wait for the bag which was going to arrive maybe 5:00 but it was not looking promising. So we changed and walked down to the beach.





But not until we got a family selfie :-) 


The beach was so nice and the kids had a blast!



We came back home and ordered take out from a local restaurant just a block away. We all stayed home in hopes the bag would arrive, and Kyle walked to get the food. Street tacos and sear ahi tuna for me. It was delish!

The boys were lucky in that all their clothes were in the carry ons. Me and the girls however needed the checked bag. We ended up waiting til about 8ish before just deciding to put the kids to bed with what we had. Which meant no clean underwear for the girls and they wore their swimsuit cover-ups as PJs. The bag did end up arriving that evening about 9:30pm. We were pooped and went straight to bed once it arrived.
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