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!

Pastries, the park, & The University of Florida

The day after Christmas, we started out by making Danish pastries.  This is a Martin family tradition that Ryan's dad's parents always did and it has gone down through the generations.  It is a family recipe and Ryan told me that when his mom went to his dad's house for Christmas, she wasn't allowed in the kitchen while they were being made because they weren't married yet and it was a secret recipe. Ha! This was the first time that any of us made it without Ryan's parents and they have always done the hard part.   We ended up skyping Mark while making them so he could help us a little bit.  Isn't technology awesome?!  They turned out soooo good, so we must have done it right!

 Skyping with Marc during the process:

 Bennett's job was spreading the beaten eggs on top of the pastries.  He loved his job and did it well (sometimes a little too well... Rachael joked that she got scrambled eggs on top of one of her pieces. haha! But it really wasn't that bad).

It was amazing weather again, so we hung out outside in the backyard for a while swinging in the tree swings and letting the girls drench themselves at the water table.  We then took all of the kids and headed over to the little community park across the street, where we discovered how much the little girls all loved the slides. :)

Lucy loved the slides!  Every time Ryan would sit her down at the top of the slide, she would start to go down and immediately turn over on her belly to go down.

 This picture cracked us up because Lucy is being smothered and hating this, and Lynnlee is totally oblivious to that and just loving it.  haha.

 When we saw this picture of Stella later on, we realized that Ryan was positioned perfectly through the other side of the playground.

Later on in the evening, we headed over to visit the University of Florida.  We first checked out Marc's office at the dental school, and then we walked all around the football field, which happened to be open.  As an Ohio State fan, this was not a team I would cheer for, but it was still fun to see around the field!  While we were there, the weather turned freezing cold and super windy, so we found ourselves racing back to the car by the end.

This is Marc's very own room (forgot the proper name for it) and his own equipment.  He's a real doctor now.

The view of campus from the dental building:

It was a beautiful evening to walk on campus... until it turned freezing cold right about here.

In "The Sawmp"

 This picture was not staged at all.  They all pointed at something at the same time (and no one could remember what it was later), even Stella.

 Craig just practicing his "Tebow" on the proper field.

 The next Heisman winner right here.

Christmas Day

On Christmas day, the kids were up bright and early and we all got up to open presents.  It really is so much fun seeing little kids with such anticipation and excitement!  Lucy's santa gift was a blow-up princess ball pit that seemed to entertain the little girls pretty well.  All of the new toys kept the kids busy for a while.  A few hours later, we headed over to a park that has a bunch of wildlife, but mainly alligators.  Once you enter the gates of the park, there is a path to follow, but the alligators can be anywhere.  Most of them were down on the banks by the water, just off the trail.  It was so pretty and tropical looking with all of the palm trees and spanish moss everywhere.  We did the whole walk, which was 3 miles round-trip.  Because it was such nice weather that day, a lot of alligators were out and about as well as tons of birds, which Lucy liked.  It was a good way to get out for some fresh air on Christmas day.  Later on after the kids went to bed, we all did a workout video together and then stayed up watching funny youtube videos online for a long time.  It was definitely a night filled with lots of laughing!

Here are the kids coming out for Christmas morning!  Lucy was still sleeping and we didn't want to wake her up since she had been up coughing for a while that night and was sick and definitely needed the sleep.  However, about 30 seconds after everyone came out and was super excited, she woke up, so I guess it didn't really matter.

Here I just got Lucy out of the laundry room where she slept to head out into the living room where all of the other commotion was.  We both look pretty rough... Lucy in a more cute way though.

 As soon as she saw this blow-up princess thing, she got so excited and dove out of my arms for it.  We had blown it up once at home to make sure it worked and also so that Lucy could see it once and would recognize that it was hers on Christmas morning.  Our plan worked.  This ended up being something fun that all of the little girls liked playing with over the rest of the break.

 Jackson was SO great with the little girls.  He was always playing with them and trying to find things to entertain them and help them.  Even when they were bugging him (like when they were messing up his new legos), he very nicely asked them to stop and helped them find something else.  Such a nice boy.  Here he is, just after checking out his Santa gifts, helping Lucy pull out her stocking gifts.

I love this cute face of Lucy's when she got another cuddly stuffed animal.

A few hours later, we headed over to a park that has a bunch of wildlife, but mainly alligators.  Once you enter the gates of the park, there is a path to follow, but the alligators can be anywhere.  Most of them were down on the banks by the water, just off the trail.  It was so pretty and tropical looking with all of the palm trees and spanish moss everywhere.  We did the whole walk, which was 3 miles round-trip.  Because it was such nice weather that day, a lot of alligators were out and about as well as tons of birds, which Lucy liked.  It was a good way to get out for some fresh air on Christmas day.

 All Lucy wanted to do was run around out of the stroller.  Not that great of an idea when there are alligators all over.

 Craig got this U of F Gators football from Jackson and Bennett for Christmas and wherever Craig went, that ball went too.  It was appropriate to take a picture with the gator and the gator.  This also came in handy because Lucy loved holding the football and it helped keep her in her stroller.

 Bennett grabbed Lucy's hands and started dancing like crazy with her, which she loved.  It put her in a silly mood after that and I loved all the faces she made, so I put them all in.  I'm sure no one else cares about them, but I do, and it's my blog. :)

Once we got home, the kids all settled down and watched a movie... which lasted about 2 minutes for Lucy.  Then, we gave the girls a bubble bath together but couldn't manage to get a decent picture of the three of them.  Two refused to stand up, one refuses to sit down and turn around, etc.  It was pretty funny.  Thankfully we got two of the girls out before the third one pooped in the tub. haha.  

Later on after the kids went to bed, we all did a workout video together and then stayed up watching funny youtube videos online for a long time.  It was definitely a night filled with lots of laughing!

Ryan was so tough he only did one-armed push-ups the whole time.  Definitely not just for the picture. ;)