Aunt Jackie Comes to Florida

The highlight of the summer was a visit from Aunt Jackie - Jake and Sydney's favorite aunt!! They have way too much fun with her. We played a lot while she was here - Disney World, area beaches, walks, and the funnest part - a road trip to Miami and the Florida Keys. We had tons of fun. We were sad to have her go. I love it when my sister comes.

DISNEY WORLD
A full day at Magic Kingdom

Video from the famous tea cups. Dizzy!


AREA BEACHES AND WALKS
Of course, we played a lot on our area beaches and went for walks in nature reserves.

Playing with Jackie on the beach

Alligators and Sea Turtle - was so sad when a dead sea turtle floated to shore when we were playing at the beach!

While we were sitting on the beach, some dolphins came up pretty close to us. Tried to grab my camera and get them on video but it was really hard.


ROAD TRIP!! MIAMI AND THE FLORIDA KEYS
First stop - Miami
Welcome to Miami - Bienvenido a Miami!!!

South Beach

We have way too much clothing on to be taking a walk on South Beach!

Playing at the Park on South Beach. Beautiful area!!

My little monkeys

Eating Cuban food on the left. Walking down Espanola Street - great atmosphere.

Left - the famous Miami Ink - tried talking Jackie into a tatoo. Ha Ha!!
Right - walking around Biscayne Bay - another great atmosphere! Enjoyed walking around watching boats dock to get off and eat dinner and listened to live Latino music.

Final Destination - Key West
We had a great time in the Florida Keys. We stayed in Key West. It was an extremely relaxing trip!! Beautiful area!!

We spent a good portion of the time just hanging out on the beach and snorkeling. The water was like a bath tub and was really clear. We spent most of our time floating on our bellies with goggles on our head looking at the beautiful plant life, colorful fish, and other sea life. Mike and Jackie even came upon a shark. When they came running and back to shore fast, I knew something was up. Who knew the sea floor was so beautiful!!

Jake loved how the sand on the sea floor felt like clay. He gave Jackie a great facial!!

We got a bunch of these to bring home while snorkeling. They were alive on the sea floor. Once we learned how to spot them under the sand, we looked for them and dug them up. Beautiful shells.

Left - Southernmost point in the U.S. - only 90 miles to Cuba.
Right - Relaxing in Key West on Duval Street. That pretty much describes the trip - relaxing!!

Making funny faces while waiting to watch the sun set.

Enjoying the sunset

Jake and Sydney loved all the many street performers that were everywhere just before sunset.

On the way home we stopped and fed the tarpon. We bought a bucket of fish. We would dangle the fish just over the water so the tarpon could see them. They'd literally jump out of the water and get them. Huge fish with huge mouths!! See the videos below. Quite funny!

Jackie

Jake - he and Sydney just threw them in.

Kendra - I wasn't too good at it. Too scared. For the record - Mike wouldn't even try. He was too scared.

The last video is of a random girl there that was much more daring than us. Crazy!! She even had bloody knuckles from where their teeth would get her.

Sad to be going home - time for the 7 hour drive back. Only 7 hours - we'll definitely be going back.