Thursday, January 19, 2012

BIG OL RV TRIP Days 13-18 ..IN THE KEYS!

Good news for YOU!! After this post... YOU ARE ALL CAUGHT UP!!!

We are now spending our 6th night here at THE SUGARLOAF KEY KOA. It has been THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WEATHER!! Between 75-80 degrees every day. When we wake up each day it is already around 70 degrees! I'm LOVIN IT!!! Below is our first glimpse of the ocean as we entered the KEYS!

Witnessing God's beauty as we were surrounded by water on both sides of the highway! 

It was SO NICE to arrive at our destination! We are LOVING this place!
Before we got here I made ONE FINAL Wally World run and stocked the RV with what I AM HOPING will be all the food we will need for 13 days EXCEPT for eating one meal out. This takes a LOT of logistical planning due to the extremely small freezer and fridge.
The sign welcoming us, surrounded by palms..AHHHH! 

Our site once it was all set up the next day. It is smaller than what we had at Disney but still very clean and adequate room for our tribe. Instead of being on blacktop, we are on tiny gravel. Its not bad. We have trees around us and LOVE the sunshine in the mornings and shade in the afternoons.

We had our own church service in the RV on Sunday a.m. with some praise and worship and then headed to GUESS WHERE? LOL! Right after we got there we witnessed something cool that ALL the kids (to include our new friend Wade) couldn't keep their eyes off of.. 

I guess maybe I should have paid attention to the sign with THE BIG IGUANA on it as we pulled in to the campground.  YEP, these ladies and gents roam freely and don't mind swimming with you in the hot tub OR the pool. It can get flat freaky! They only hang around for a bit though and trust you not to hurt them. We did witness a little fighting between to males and that was NUTS! More learning, learning, learning on this trip! 

They have a REALLY AWESOME little fenced in dog park here at the KOA for Pixie and all her friends to hang in! 

She really dug it! 

The pool is very nice and always kept clean and heated year round! 

Monday morning school was IN SESSION! We have done our school each day since we have been here to keep caught up. We are NOT where I wanted us to be but I am trying not to stress it. They are learning SO MUCH with life experiences that I focus mostly on the 2 older ones and making sure their lessons are done. It IS nice to have a routine.. EVEN IN PARADISE!! 

There are a couple crafty dudes that live here in the campground during the winter. The fella below weaves hats and bowls (modeled by T) in about 20 minutes. MAN they are cool. I will share his friends talents in another post.

Here is the view of all the RV's lined up from the Marina. Ours is the very farthest one away. We have no neighbors on one of the sides and it is nice. 

Most of us love to fish and couldn't wait to fish in the ocean for the first time. ALL KIDS have caught a fish before except MyMy so our focus was on her catching on on our first trip. 

The Captain snagged our squid for bait from the marina right here at the campground and we headed UP! 

To this fishing bridge. It was a short walk up the hill to the top. 

Awbell was the first one to snag a fishy! 

And strangely enough she wanted to give it a smooch before we threw him back in! 

Leave it to me to catch the poisonous, snorting, 4 toothed PUFFER FISH..EW! Super ugly dude! Bit But wondered why the little fish had "BOOBS" OH MY! LOL 

We go to the pool every.doggone.day and LOVE IT! We have had ZERO rain or cold! 

Yesterday a BIG THING Happened in our lives.. Bean turned into a teenie bopper right before our very eyes! He is FINALLY old enough to have his first virgin Pina Colada! I know its rough but someone's gotta have their birthday on the beach!

He wanted to go out to the beach and jump on that water trampoline in the background. The kids did some exploring on the beach first. The beaches are not like the sugary white ones we love but they are rocky and have coral and lots of fish! STILL A BEAUTIFUL SITE! 

Here most of us are out on the tramp! The ocean water was pretty cold! 

Had to share this precious random cuteness! 

He wanted to go out and eat REAL seafood for his birthday so we got dressed in something other than our swimsuits (which by the way for some of us are FALLING APART from overuse) and headed out to dinner! 

There were EXACTLY 13 of us out to dinner for the 13th b-day at MANGROVE MAMAS. Our family and the Holmes family from Cape Cod! Their son Wade and our kids have become fast friends! The dinner was amazing! ALL LOCAL SEAFOOD!

Our new friend GEORGE gave Bean a big gift! 
(Its REALLY his business card..FOOLED ME!)

He enjoyed his Mahi Mahi and LEGIT Key Lime PIE!!! 


Us and the teen! 

And today is Bit But's "WHOLE HAND" birthday.. We started out by trying to get MyMy her fish.. 

Bean got one....I got one... 

Then PRECIOUS MYMY got HER BABY FISH named fondly after her.
She examined ANNMARIE then sweetly threw her back in the ocean!
SHE was SO GENUINLY happy, twas sweet to see!
 

Bit But chose to have his 5th b-day pic taken by a boat!
LOVE! 

He got a kickboard, squirt gun and a little tub of play doh for his big day..... $15
AND he got to spend his JANUARY BIRTHDAY AT THE POOL.....
PRICELESS!


I made a cake for the boys to share and we had it tonight!
SOME HOW I lost the candles I packed!
SO THANKFUL that MYMY gave me this candle for Christmas that served as their birthday candle! 13 &5!  

Bits thought it was super neat to go to WAL MART (aka the tiny convenience store here at the campground) and get all the kids a surprise push up pop to go with the cake! He however, chose a Hagen Daaz chocolate ice cream bar for himself-my kinda guy!! The kids all SCREAMED when he got them out of the bag!! 

Here we are with our BABY BOY on his 5th birthday! HE is SO ORNERY! We told him to hold up 5 fingers for his picture and he held up 2! We laughed SO HARD when we saw this picture!

SO.........PEACE OUT until my next post tomorrow~!
WHEW..I'm so happy to be at CATCHED UP!!
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2 comments:

The Anglin Family said...

Happy birthday to your boys!!!;))
I'm loving all these posts, living vicariously through you, ha! I am a teensy bit jealous;) looks like y'all are having such a blast! I love love the keys...and the weather!

Chicory Blue said...

Glad she caught a fish! Was going to suggest lshrimp as bait if she didn't. Works every time