Key West!!!

Cary and I got back late last night from Key West!  The past 6 days have been spent doing nothing more than eating, drinking, laying in the sun and enjoying each other's company.  Although it was a bit too long to be away from Carter and Brynn, we really just made the most of our time there.   We hadn't been that relaxed and carefree in a LONG time.  It was amazing. :)

We got in to Key West around 1:00 on Saturday.  After checking out the resort, walking through the pool areas, sitting on the beach for a bit, walking the entire 2 miles up and down Duval Street, and having dinner on a patio, we ended the night sitting on a nearly empty beach with beers in our hand and our feet in the sand.  What a way to start a vacation!

Saturday night - a quick stop at Mallory Square

The next few days looked a lot like this...

Our view from the beach...

Sitting by the pool and on the beach...

Since the majority of the night life was several blocks from our hotel, we ended up renting a scooter.  Cary's parents recommended it, and it really was the way to go.   Boy did Cary look hot driving it around town!  We laughed so hard when he revved his engine all macho-like at a lady walking down the street.  And he often referred to the scooter as his "hog."  :)

Oh yeah!! :) 

We ate at so many good restaurants that we both literally felt sick by the end of the trip.  So much rich, amazing food!!  One of the coolest places (and highly recommended) was Louie's Backyard.  It was a more upscale place right on the water.   One of our favorite stories from the trip happened there.   As we walked into the restaurant, the host (a man in his mid 60's) looked and Cary and made some reference to being from Iowa.  When we sat down at our table, I asked Cary if he'd told the man that we were from Iowa and he said no....and that yes, he thought that was strange also.  So awhile later, we asked him how he knew that we were Iowans.  With a grin (and maybe a bit of embarrassment), he said "Well because you're a big guy...you know, corn-fed."  Awesome.  :)  Not sure that Cary took that as a compliment really.

Monday we did the pool thing in the morning, and then took the scooter up to the Half-Shell Raw Bar.  Here's Cary and his oysters.  Gross.  I could barely sit across the table from him as he ate those.  He liked them though, so I guess that's all that matters! What did I have, you might ask?  Chicken strips and onion rings.  :)

From the Raw Bar, we boarded the "Cruzan Cat"...a catamaran holding 5 other tourists and 2 crew members. We signed up for the Island Adventure, which included snorkeling in the ocean, kayaking through the mangroves, having snacks and drinks on the boat, and then drinking champagne at sunset.  This day was so much fun!!!

This is the island we were heading to...about 7 miles away from Key West into the Gulf of Mexico.

I assumed we'd be snorkeling off the beach.  Wrong.  They anchored the boat in the middle of the water and told us to get out and snorkel there.  Although the depth was only about 11 feet (less in some places), this freaked me out a bit.  But, trying to act all cool and brave, I got in the water and swam away from the boat...into the (big) waves, squeezing Cary's hand so hard that it hurt.  I'm not gonna lie...I was scared.  But I was really trying to not ruin this little adventure for Cary.  All I could think about while I was out there was the movie Soul Surfer...which has sparked a fear of sharks.  So Cary and I are swimming right along, masks in the water, waves crashing against us, the boat quite a ways behind us....and I look down to see three huge fish.  Huge.  With lots of sharp white teeth.  So I squeeze Cary's hand in a panic and ask if those are sharks.  He said no, although a bit concerned that I stopped directly above them, and kept swimming.  About 30 seconds later I said I wanted to swim back to the boat.  So we did.  Together.  And once on the boat he decided it was safe to tell me that those fish were barracudas.  I couldn't have been happier to be back on the boat - less than 10 minutes after leaving it.  :)  After some convincing by me that it was okay for him to leave me and go back out for a bit, he did.  And I think he was glad that he didn't miss that part of the adventure.  I sat on the boat happily sipping my Corona....watching this:

Cary snorkeling like a pro!

The kayaking part of the adventure was our favorite.  The tour guide (named Christy Sunshine...an American Gypsy who likes Renaissance Fairs, and knows an insane amount of information about sea life and pollution), led us through the mangroves in the middle of the ocean.  It was sooo cool.  We had so much fun paddling through the crazy trees and bottoming out a time or two.  On our way back to the boat, Cary decided he didn't like that the two French guys on our tour were beating us.  (I'm pretty sure they didn't know it was a race.)  But anyway, we were paddling into the wind and Cary was taking this pretty seriously.  I, on the other hand, was not.  :)  Unfortunately, the Americans (Cary and I) took home the silver, while the French got the gold, and the Germans (yes, there were two German girls on the tour also) got the bronze.  Sorry...we don't really have a medal to show for our hard work.  :)

The next few days we really didn't do much.  We drove the scooter around the outside of the island and took a few photos.

And we sat at the pool some more.  And ate some more.  And read books and played on our phones.  And walked to the nearby Cuban place for a sandwich.  And had some drinks.  And listened to live music at some local bars.  And that was pretty much all we did during the day on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Listening to music at Willie T's

In the evenings, we made sure to hit up some great restaurants.  Blue Heaven was our favorite stop of the whole trip.  It is this funky, outdoor restaurant with brightly colored accents and chickens walking around your feet.  (Yeah - there are a lot of chickens in Key West.  A lot.  So that didn't seem weird in the restaurant.)  Anyway, we both devoured our food.  Like, almost licked the plate clean.  And then we both got dessert.  Bad idea, I guess, because we immediately went home and went to bed at 8:30 that night.  We were so stuffed we could barely get on the scooter to make it back. :) 

And that pretty much sums up our trip.  We did have one interesting night at a bar called LaTeDa.  We stopped there after the Island Adventure for a light and late dinner.  There was an awesome guy on the piano and so we decided to stay for a bit and enjoy the music.  Cary went up to request a song (he'd had quite a bit to drink by this point) and the piano player stopped the music and asked what he was requesting.  Everyone in the bar had their eyes on Cary.  Since I'm pretty sure he didn't even know yet what he was going to request, he said "Uh...she says she'd like to hear anything by Justin Bieber."  And I got booed....seriously, everyone started booing.  Except for the 50 year-old women sitting next to me who said they liked him because they are from Canada.  Way to throw me under the bus, Cary!  

All in all, it was such a fun trip. We couldn't have been happier with our hotel: Southernmost Hotel which shared amenities with Southernmost On the Beach across the street.  We had 3 pools to choose from, a nice pool bar, a clean room, a patio, and friendly staff.  Although our location was at the end of Duval Street, it felt like we were close to everything we needed.   We loved the Mallory Square area and the Wharf area.  We didn't eat at one bad restaurant, ever drink too much to be hungover, or ever get a sunburn.  It was just the most relaxing 6 days ever.  

Sitting outside our hotel the last day.

 Trying to find some shades for Cary.  What do you think about these?

The BEST dessert...white chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick.  Oh yeah!!!

A big HUGE thank-you to our parents who kept the kids while we were gone.  Carter's still telling us all of the fun things that they did with their grandpas and grandmas.  I'm pretty sure these two were spoiled rotten!  We definitely could not have gone on this trip without our parents' help!  And now that we're home, I don't need to go on a vacation for a long, long time! :) 

Saturday

It had been awhile since I'd done a photo shoot with the kids.  I was hoping for a good one of the two together.  Of course that didn't happen, but I did get quite a few fun shots of their individual personalities.

First pigtails ever!

Reading a book and sticking her tongue against her cheek - her new little habit. 

Love

these

two.  :)

Tickle!!!

Decorah

This past weekend, we made a trip to Decorah to visit Cary's brother, sister-in-law and nephews.  Kyle and Emily rode up with us, so that made it extra fun!  Plus - they were geat help with the kids in the car during the 3 1/2 hour drive! :) 

We didn't get there until after 9:00 on Friday, so we just let the kids run around for awhile and then all hit the hay.  Carter was so happy to see Davis and Bennett! On Saturday, we lounged around in the morning and then drove to a nearby town for some time at an indoor pool.  The kids loved it! Carter was a bit timid in the pool at first but warmed up quickly!  Brynn really liked the water too.  I'm not sure if she remembered swimming at all...so she had a ball!  And Tony, Kyle and Cary had lots of fun playing water basketball and having lap races. 

After fun in the pool, we had lunch and then went our separate ways throughout the house for naps, watching golf, and computer-time. On Saturday night, we had a babysitter stay with the kids while us "big kids" went to dinner in town. Lots of good food, fun drinks, and great conversation.

Once we got back from dinner and the kids were in bed, the boys had a little too much fun playing mini-golf in costume.  :)

On Sunday, we hung around the house, had Tony's famous french toast, went to church, and headed home.  Of course, we couldn't drive through New Hampton without a stop at the candle factory! :)  Here's a little taste of what was going on in the car on the way home.  Gotta love technology!

Such a fun weekend and so great to catch up with Tony, Kelly and the boys.  :)