dyingwaterbuffalo: Where I've Been...

I'm one of those people who never wants to come home from vacation. For someone who loves being home so much, I still have trouble fathoming wanting to come home from any vacation that's under at least a month. (And we never get away for a whole month so maybe if we did, I'd still want more.)

{I'm proud of my little guys for carrying all of their own things through the airport and everywhere- Christian (5) and Justin (3)... Justin got slower at the end but we got no complaints!}

We spent the past week in the Keys (Islamorada) and just had the most relaxing time. My goal (and Dave's too!) on this trip was to try to "get bored." It didn't happen though. I've realized I just don't think I'm capable of boredom any more. When I was a little girl, my grandmother never let me say the word "bored." She believed (and I now agree) there's always something that could be done and that there's no excuse for being bored. She'd say, "Don't say that word!"

{We stayed here- The Cheeca Lodge and I've never loved a hotel/resort so much!!}

I flipped over the shower... (below) Do you see that the back wall is a sliding glass door? You could open it up to the private balcony for showers.

Heaven.

And on the private balcony was this tub:

The water for the tub came from the ceiling in a really strong (hose-like) stream (not ike a shower head but a totally solid stream of water)... It was insane & so beautiful. I loved looking out at the tropical foliage. The curtains could zip close if you needed privacy. We used the tub when Justin got stung by a man-of-war and the poor guy had to soak in scalding water to release the poison. I felt bad that he had to endure the hot water so I did it too and I kept saying, "We're going to to this together. Mommy's here." and he finally said "Mama, why do you keep saying that??"

There was lots of quality family time, which we so needed... Our house and life are so full all of the time, so it was really important for us to be able to just focus on spending time with each other.

We lazed around the beach and the boys really bonded...

We basically just wandered around with each other, ate a TON, read, swam and relaxed:

I loved the tea stand Cheeca set out every morning....

We had some windy days and I loved being in sweats on the beach with my tea & my man:

The baby (Luke, also known as "Louie" or "Lulu") pretty much stuffed his face with crackers the entire trip:

{His favorite toy is a wooden chicken drumstick... I don't get it}

I loved getting to be with my family 24/7 for a full week.

We felt like were alone most of the time which was what we wanted more than anything... We had a spot on the beach or lagoon to ourselves on most days because the resort is so spread out.

We explored the tiki torch-lit nature trails at night & I loved how they made these palm trees grow: