Today is our last full day in the keys. I can’t believe we have been here almost a whole month. In a month’s time, this little guy has gone from just crawling to pulling himself up to cruising and is getting so much better at bothering his big sisters. The girls figured out that the couch is a Luka-free zone… for now.

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We really lucked out with the weather here in the keys. It’ been in the 80s with no real wind to speak of. Last time, the strong winds in the spring time kept us from enjoying the campground as much as did this time around. Today, Dan dragged us down to the marina to check out the boats that they have docked there. He loves the water. Surf, sail, you name it.

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I am super paranoid of the kids near dark deep water. I keep having recurring nightmares about it and I can’t help freaking out on the docks. Not sure how I am going to get over that fear. Maybe the nightmares will fade over time or maybe it is just the overly paranoid mama I am destined to be. Or maybe I need to get these kids (and me) more swim lessons under our belts.

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We ended up going to the visitor center once again to peek at the fishes. The girls loved gazing at a little white fish in this tank that would pop out of its hiding hole to check out what is going on every few seconds.

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One of our focuses this month for Ava’s homeschool is marine wildlife and we studied sea turtles, manatees and different types of fish. It was awesome to come to a place like this to check out the skulls and bones from the creatures we studied this month. It’s also great to see her actually connect what we learned at the dining table in the Airstream to educational material at the center.

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Dan was in charge of the camera today. Gasp! He was intrigued by the jaw of this lemon shark. And me? I was intrigued by the skull of a pelican which he conveniently didn’t take a picture of for me. Double gasp!

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Continuing on with our tour of the state park, I showed the kids that some trees have roots on the outside, too.

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Which make for great mustaches, too!

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Then it was off to the park where Dan appears to be pushing Mila as if he was going to serve the ball in volleyball. Haha.

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It’s about time Luka had his first trip down the slide. I sat him on my lap since there are no baby slides here.

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He loved it. But what he loved more is watching his sisters slide down. Oh the giggles out of this kid. I don’t remember the girls laughing as much as Luka does. But that might just be my memory going down the toilet.

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We timed our visit to the sushi restaruant just right today because they were open. Yeah.

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I have not had any raw fish since before I was pregnant with Luka… a year and a half ago! That is a loooong time for me. My mouth is watering just looking at this picture. A perfect night to end our stay in the keys. Tomorrow? The mainland, once again.

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the end,
marlene


4 Comments

LaneVids · January 14, 2013 at 9:56 am

My wife and I would love to do something like this. To be able to travel and homeschool. Seems like so much fun. At what age did you guys start traveling with your kids?

marlene · January 16, 2013 at 2:22 pm

The youngest age we started traveling with our kids was at 3 months of age with Luka on this current trip. Our oldest went out on short trips at about a year of age and our middle kid was 5 months when we started doing longer trips. They all adapted well and it was totally doable!

LaneVids · January 16, 2013 at 6:14 pm

We’re trying to find a way to make it happen for us. I think one of the things that we may have to look in to is WorkCamping. Have you guys met anyone who has done anything like that? If so, what were their experiences. Thanks for getting back to me!

marlene · January 19, 2013 at 9:35 am

We just met a couple who did workcamping for amazon. check out: http://whatsnewell.blogspot.com/

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