Summer Vacation 2015

A few weeks ago, our little family headed south for our long-awaited eight day beach vacation.  Earlier in the year I had been stalking the travel websites until I found tickets that allowed all five of us to fly to Florida and back, non-stop, for about $1000 total.  There couldn't have been a better way for our bunch to get to the ocean, so after securing those tickets, I looked for a house to rent in the area.  We prefer to stay in houses rather than hotel rooms because it gives us more space, privacy, and the ability to cook our meals.  Again, we lucked out with an affordable-to-us place that was about 450 steps from the sand, nothing fancy, but perfectly suitable.  When I spoke with the owner about accessibility and safety due to the special needs in our family, he was so moved by our story that he took 25% off the weekly rent to give us a break.  Kindness still flourishes in some hearts!

Our game plan was to swim, play, eat and sleep and that's what we pretty much did with two exceptions: 1) we had some time to kill before we could check into our rental, so we went on an air boat tour in the Everglades and 2) Emilia seemed to be running a low grade fever one day, so we opted to stay out of the heat and visited a local museum.

Here are lots of pictures.

The Everglades

We saw a few alligators.

Emilia playing at the museum

The trees were trimmed on the street we stayed
so we got to explore the foliage up close

Local wildlife was our daily companion

The king on a poolside break

Laid back mornings

Ella on the waverunner

Rex on the waverunner

Here's my version of other people's vacation photos
where pretty painted toenails hang over sparkling blue water

This vacation was summer's last hurrah for us and just two days after returning home, the girls started school.  We're thankful for the no-stress week we got to spend as a family, free of the demands of our everyday life in the Midwest, leaving us with hours upon hours of fun, relaxation, and togetherness.