New Year's Eve/New Year's Day

On New Year's Eve, Lucy and Lynlee were both sick and went to bed at about 6pm (party poopers).  So around 8 or so, we celebrated early with the rest of the kids.  Michelle made a countdown video which we watched, followed by poppers, noisemakers, and a little dance party in the living room.  Then we went outside and played with sparklers and watched people's big fireworks that they were already setting off.  We ate lots of good food that night too and had a ton of snacks and appetizers out for everyone to eat.  This was about the day when everyone started to really get sick though, so many of us went to bed at about 10:30ish, myself included.  Ryan, Michelle, Rachael, and Jon (I think?) stayed up and at midnight they had a "silent party" where they ran around the living room and whispered their cheers and drank martinelli. :)

New Year's Day was our last full day there, so Ryan and I spent a little bit of time packing everything back up and getting ready to drive home.  Later on in the day, we went back over to the University of Florida campus and walked around Lake Alice.  This is a lake on campus that has a bunch of alligators in it.  It was really pretty when we were there- it was at sunset and the lake was as smooth as glass.  After walking around the lake, we crossed the street to the bat houses they have there.  Right at dusk every night, the bats all leave the houses at the same time, so you will see one, then two, and then hundreds all swarming out at once for the night.  It was cool to see.

And that was the end of our trip.  We got up at 4:30am the next morning and were on the road by 5am. It was a long ride back, especially since Lucy was really sick.  We took her to the doctor the say after we got home and found out she had a sinus infection, and was cutting about 5 teeth all at the same time (all 4 molars, plus another one!... yikes!).  But now we're back and trying to clean up and get back into our daily grind.  We already miss being around family so much though!

New Smyrna Beach

The manatees were on the Gulf Coast, and once we were done with that excursion, we drove to the other side of Florida, over to the Atlantic coast.  Jonathan's (brother-in-law) family happens to own a condo on New Smyrna Beach, which is right by Daytona where we stayed from Thursday night until Sunday afternoon.  It was so much fun!  They really have the best condo in the whole huge building because it is on the first floor and faces the ocean.  You really walk out and down a few stairs and you're on the beach.  Amazing!  The condo only had two bedrooms, but it was really nice and we still made it work comfortably.  The first day there was really nice weather, but it was a little cooler so we mostly stayed in jeans/sweatshirts, etc. but still got to go out and enjoy the sand and dipping our feet in.  It really warmed up for a couple hours in the afternoon, so we played a lot of shuffleboard, which overlooked the ocean.  It was fun.  The next day though was definitely the best.  It was warm, and so we went out in our bathing suits/shorts and about a half hour into that, a storm blew in and it was a downpour of rain for a little while.  It was really pretty though and the men were out surfing and swimming in it when it suddenly happened.  I was with Lucy and Jackson on the beach, and since it came on so quickly, we decided to just have fun and go running all over the beach in it.  Once the rain blew over, the sun came out and it was a really warm, beautiful day.  There was a lot of surfing, fishing, playing in the sand, searching for seashells, exploring the beach, throwing around the football, etc.  The beach was really open and didn't have any gross seaweed and junk like California beaches have, so it was awesome to let Lucy roam around and do whatever she wanted without me having to worry about what she was going to put in her mouth- which she loved!  During the evenings, we stayed up late watching movies, talking, and eating (yeah, definitely a theme here).  Sunday morning we packed back up and then left in the afternoon right at naptime so that all the little girls could nap on the way back to Gainseville.  These pictures all uploaded in such a random order and there's too many to organize.  Also, I got a bunch of pictures from Rachael from this event but can only find like half of them for some reason!?  So here's some of our trip at the beach. :)

 I love these three pictures below because it looks like the three girls are totally having a great conversation together. :)

 Everyday Lucy started out with a lot of clothes on and as the day went on, she gradually lost layers until she was either just in a diaper or a bathing suit. :)

 Again, Jackson was so nice to Lucy.

 These next two pictures are so funny to me because Lucy did not like her hands getting dirty in the sand.  Anytime she fell over while walking, she would push herself back up with the sides of her hands and avoided getting her hands messy as much as she could.  She probably got that from me.

 Now water was a different story... she would gladly splash around in any bucket/puddle of water she could find.

 Beach bums...

 Lucy got away with Craig's football yet again.  Sorry/thanks, Craig! :)

 This was just before the downpour.  Pretty ominous, huh?

 Lynnlee was totally happy to be inside when she could color with her ginormous pen.  I just thought this picture was funny.  She is actually a great little artist for her age... even with a ginormous pen!

Swimming with manatees

A few weeks before we went down to Florida, Michelle found a great Groupon deal for swimming with manatees!  Apparently there are several places where manatees swim to during the winter to stay warm and this is the "busy season" when most of the manatees come each year.  We got a boat all to ourselves and were able to take all of the babies too, as long as we split in half and took turns watching them.  The boat took us to a popular spot where we docked and then we swam into the springs.  Once we got into the springs, the water was crystal clear and there were a TON of manatees.  Those suckers were HUGE... some even the size of small cars.  I had never really snorkeled before, but it was so cool to do it in such clear water because you could really see all of the manatees.  Definitely a cool experience.  The worst part was that it was a really cold, windy day (50 degrees outside) so when we got out of the water (that is always 72 degrees no matter what) we froze to death!!  Totally worth it once for the experience though.

A funny note, those Floridians are nuts about their manatees.  They have all of these rules and the manatee-excursion companies are required by law to show us a video about how to swim with the manatees before going out in the water.  When we were out on the boat, there were several state workers full dressed in their brown wildlife uniforms with boots paddling through on paddleboards right with all of the manatees.  The one by us yelled at me and Michelle for touching a sleeping manatee (he wasn't sleeping though)... but they give our serious fines for violating such small rules!  Crazy.  I'm pretty sure those manatees were more protected than humans!