Balenas came to stay

A few days after we returned from our Keys trip, the Balenas came to stay.  It was such a treat to have them come to our house. 

We took them to our favorite ice cream spot.

We ate waffles and whip cream together almost every day.

We had 2 great days at the beach with perfect weather and waves we could swim in. 

 All the cousins got along famously!

We took a night to roast hot dogs and endless marshmallows.

 We mostly just played in a sea of toys with an occasional sword fight or weapon war.

Doug tried all week to win this guy over.  He finally got him to come to him willingly the last day.

 Doug had to take them fishing of course so we headed to the bridge for our final evening of together.

Mer was so happy to have Liz around

We miss you more than ever Balena family! Cousins are the best!

The Keys

I know you have all been anxiously awaiting this recap. We had so much fun in the keys last week. It was a little bit of heaven, a little bit of craziness, and a LOT of fishing.

The kids pretty much fished way past bedtime and began the day with fishing before breakfast.

 We rented a house that was on a canal so we could dock the boat and have easy access to it all week. It turned out to be be perfect. 

It was a learning experience as well. We learn that it is very important to tie down EVERYTHING on the boat while transporting it.  I drove the van and followed Doug and the boat. We had to pull over about 5 times to retrieve large items that flew off, save the tail lights, and reconnect them when they stopped working. It was definitely an adventure.

Ya Ya and Pa came to join us for a couple of days.

I'm  told this was not the biggest fish Pa caught, It's a Lane Snapper

A barracuda bit this one in half while Max was reeling this one in. Barracudas are sneaky and huge.

10" Gray Snapper or Mangrove snappers. We ate these for dinner. YUM.

12" Lane snappers. We were going to eat these but we accidently left them out and they spoiled oops.

Striking a pose wherever possible.

More Lane Snappers

We also had the opportunity to go snorkeling at Looe Key twice. It was amazing and beautiful.

We saw sharks, eels, goliath groupers, tarpon, barracuda, amazing parrot fish in every color, along with a ton of other beautiful fish.

Luke stayed out longer than any of the other kids. He couldn't get enough of it.

Key Lime Pie is everywhere and we were on a quest to find our favorite. the Key West Key Lime co. was maybe our favorite.

This one was from Blue Heaven and was probably our least favorite but most spectacular looking.

Grandpa put up with a lot of funny business.

Mischief at Bahia Honda Beach

Lunch at Bad Boy Burrito in Key West. Excellent!

Chickens and roosters are on the loose all over Key West. Who knew?

 We caught a needle fish off a bridge. It was quickly snapped up by another sneaky barracuda.

And Ya Ya and Luke caught another gray snapper.

Our 2nd snorkeling trip

We saw a pod of dolphins on the way home. 

All in all we had so much fun. Doug already wants to head back next year.

over and out!