Camping Trip in the Keys 11/19 - 11/23

We took a vacation with the Sprinkle family down in the Florida Keys.  We camped for four nights at Bahia Honda State Park.  We had a campsite that only had water, a grill, and a picnic table...i.e. no electric.  We slept in our tent...definitely recommend blowup mattresses for this campground since the island is completely made of coral (very rocky).  We had a lot of fun.  Just outside of our tent was a cove coming in from the Gulf of Mexico that had a drop off of 30 feet.  We saw lots of cool fish, birds, a sea turtle playing one morning, and even an octopus.    The first day we got there, we went over to the Nature center after we got our tent all setup.  Then we walked along a trail that took us to the old bridge.  We ate hot dogs and kielbasa the first night for dinner.  It was yummy!  We brought a fire pit where we had a fire every night and roasted marshmallows.  It was amazing at how many stars could be seen each night, including shooting stars and satellites.

 The girls enjoying coloring and puzzles at the Nature Center.

 The view along the trail.

 On the bridge.

The second day we got up and made eggs and bacon for breakfast for everyone.  Then we enjoyed fishing at the cove in front of our campsite.  Then we went snorkeling after lunch.  We went to the grocery store to pick up some chicken and we made chicken, corn on the cob, and rice for dinner.

 This bird was at the cove every morning and didn't seem too frightened of people.

 

This was a cool spider hanging from the fence along the cove.

 Kaylyn and Shelby played the entire time and did not fight once.  They truly are good friends!

 Kaylyn snorkeling in the water.

The third day we hopped in our cars and drove 30 miles to Key West.  We spent the whole day, where we visited the Key West Aquarium, the Shipwreck Museum, and rode on the Trolley to see all of the Keys.  We ate lunch at Red Fish Blue Fish, and we ate dinner at The Conch Republic.  It was a lot of fun...we got back around 9:00 pm and we all crashed for the night.

 Is this Sponge Bob ???  LOL!

 This sea turtle had her arm amputated.  But, she's thriving at the Aquarium.

 Nurse Shark Feeding.

 Touching a live baby nurse shark.

  Feeding a shoreline shark.

 Another sea turtle.

 Ashlyn holding a horseshoe crab.

 Mommy holding a conch.

 Kaylyn holding a star fish.

 Kaylyn petting a kid gator.

 Lunch...need I say more!

 $5 margaritas!

 Our actor for the Shipwreck Musuem tour.

 The kids climbing the tower at the Shipwreck Museum.

 Here we are at the Southernmost point of the Continental United States.

 Hemingway House.

 Sunset at Mallory Square.

The fourth day we lounged around on the island again.  The Sprinkles made us all eggs and bacon for breakfast.  The kids played around the cove for awhile.  Later on we went over to the other end of Bahia Honda State Park and hike a nature trail to a secluded beach on the Atlantic Ocean.  Then we walked back along the beach, ate lunch at one of the picnic tables on the beach, and went back over to the Gulf side and snorkeled some more.  That night, the Sprinkles made us yummy tortellini, sausage, and zucchini for dinner.

 A tiny baracuda swam in the cove in front of our campsite everyday.

 There were lots of beautiful fish located in the cove in front of our campsite!

 Lots of beautiful flowers and plants on the nature trail.

 

 A type of apple that grows by the sea and tastes like licorice when ripe.

 

 Moray eel hiding in the coral...hard to see.

 The old bridge.

 Another beautiful sunset as seen at our campsite.

Our final morning, we woke up and packed up most of the stuff.  Then we headed over to the beach where a ranger took us on a nature walk along the Atlantic Ocean side of the beach.  We saw lots of neat stuff.  Then we headed back to the campsite, finished packing up, and headed home.

 Pretty yellow butterfly.

 Kaylyn holding a type of tube sponge.

 Ashlyn holding a type of algae.

 Oatmeal algae.

 The girls holding a vase sponge.

 The ranger showing us lots of cool things that were found along the beach washed up, including garbage!  We picked up the garbage to be disposed of as we went along.

Lots of Portuguese Man of War found washed up on the beach.

 This little guy was right up against the rock at the cove in front of our campsite.  It was really neat at how close he was.

 Here's where someone scared him, he inked, and swam a little bit away.

 He settled right back down.

Colonial Day, Ocean Diorama, & Historical Museum

November 4th, Ashlyn's class had Colonial Day.  Unfortunately, Jason and I could not attend since we were trying to save some vacation time for our upcoming vacation.  One of the moms was nice enough to send me some pictures from the day!

The 2nd grade had to make a diorama on a habitat of their choosing.  Ashlyn chose to do the ocean.  She wrote a report on the ocean and its inhabitants after a little research (and making a main idea web with details).  She actually did pretty well on this.  She only needed a little help when she made the conclusion.  She will have to do an oral report on this next week, so we will need to prepare her for this.  The teacher said she's improving a little bit each week on her comprehension skills and writing skills.  The tutor, the teacher, and us are working very hard with her to try and get her at the right level with this and it's slowly paying off.  We are very proud of her for working so hard.  Here's her diorama:

On November 11th, the 4th grade had their Historical Museum.  Kaylyn presented herself as Princess Diana.  All the kids represented a historical person and they all did a wonderful job.  The school was allowed to come through and see the museum and if a person rang your bell, you had to go through your life's history in less than 2 minutes.  They did a report on their person and made a presentation board.  Kaylyn did a really good job on her report!  I'm very proud of her.

October 31st Halloween & November 5th Volleyball Game

Halloween is here once again and Ashlyn gets to enjoy her second time trick or treating.  She loves it as Kaylyn always has.  I love to see them laugh and be happy as they go from door to door collecting candy from neighbors.  Now that they have all this candy, we need to go through it and pick out the candy that's no their favorite and give away so it doesn't stay in our house and go bad.  

Kaylyn had her second Volleyball game at Holy Trinity Lower School on November 5th.  They lost the 1st round easily, but the 2nd round they were pretty close.  I can see an improvement in Kaylyn's game.  The kids need to work a little on getting more confidence and going after the ball.  A lot of times the kids would just stand there and the ball would hit the ground next to them.  Hopefully they will work on this at practice.  Kaylyn actually hit the ball over a couple of times successfully.  She's also getting closer at being able to get the ball over the net on a serve.  I think this will be her 2nd best sport following swimming.