Florida Vacation 2021: Jacksonville Beach

Our Florida trip started and ended on the beach.  After our trip on the AMTRAK we ended up with Grandma Jill, Darcie, and all of our cousins on the beach of Jacksonville Florida.  

For 3 days we just did the beach and ice cream every night thing.  It is so much fun to watch these kids grow up together.  The friendships that have forged through the years of family vacations is really something special.

Bob of course took his Uncle Bob role seriously again and spent all of his days in the water making sure all of the kids experienced boogie boarding and body surfing.  Lily and Nate have become consumate boogie boarders and they took turns riding the waves.

Evie and Jess spent most of their time just jumping over the waves and playing in the water and on the sand with Zachy.  

Our beach house was amazing and we had a blast snuggling together everynight for movie night.  

We had ice cream every night and all of the kids found italian ice's were the thing.  We were all sorts of different colors.  And yes....we brushed our teeth hard.

I played hard too the way I always do on the beach and our entire time was wonderful.

We were all no doubt exhausted by the time our big trip was up, but we played, and played hard.

Florida Vacation 2021: ZooTampa

Hey, hey, its almost September, WHAT?? and I still haven't finished our Florida trip.  In true Longmire fashion Fall is coming in like a super hyped up busy lion and we have been go, go, going like the dancers.  

After Fort Myers, we rented a car and travelled our way up to Tampa to visit Daniel, Laura, Ezra, and Emme, and to see Zoo Tampa!  If you haven't watched it yet, Zoo Tampa is a show on Netflix that is all about animal care the the zoo and honestly, we LOVE IT.  So of course we wanted to make this stop a must while we were there and it just so happens that Daniel and Laura live literally right behind the zoo.  Laura pointed at the bear paddock you can see from their backyard!

Our first night in we all went out for dinner at Kings State Pizza and it was delicious.  We had such a wonderful time connecting with this family that we don't see very often.

The morning that we went to the zoo we covered ourselves in bug spray and took the short walk to the entrance, Evie loved being the big kid while Lily enjoyed being  little more adult.

We of course were on the lookout for Manatees, which are Evie's favorite underwater mermaid.  The whole morning she anxiously awaited us finding the Manatees and lit up when we finally saw them!

We watched the Macaw fly over, a baby orangutan, all sorts of birds, a tiger. and of course the penguins and puffins.  One of the biggest highlights of the day was riding the water ride.....Twice!

And of course, no zoo trip would be complete without a merry go round ride......on a Manatee!

That night the 4 of us adults went out on the town and left our kids with an amazing sitter.  It was a really incredible time to connect and talk about the work that Laura is doing advocating for the marginalized.  I deeply respect her work and feel grateful to know her.

Our trip to Tampa was short lived but so wonderful and the next day we introduced our girls to the AMTRAK as we headed up to Jacksonville to meet the other cousins.

Bob and I are all about adventures and trying new things and the train did not disappoint!

 The consensus after we arrived?  "Mom, can we go on a train for my birthday?"  I think it was a hit.