Miami and the Keys part 1

As you know we went down to Miami last Wednesday. We had done two days of school and it was time for vacation :-) Honestly, I would have waited to start but one of our coops started while we were gone so we had to make sure we were keeping up and therefore started a little early.

We had some friends who came down to Miami for a couple of days and also stayed with farmor and farfar so it was a full house!! We had a chance to go out on the boat a few times. 

One day we went out to a sand bank outside Miami to just chill. Notice how much David liked to float around in his giant life west!!!

Alex's brother Cory and family are moving back to Miami from Texas so we got to see the cousins and Felicia!! So much fun! Farmor threw an early birthday party for Noah, so much fun!! Noah might have gotten the perfect Lego set from his cousins 😉

After a few days in Miami it was time to go south to our rented cabin in Key Largo. It was such a cute beach cabin and the place had it's own beach. Farmor and farfar came down, too, and stayed with good friends from Miami, just a few minutes from us. We were able to leave our boat parked by their house and use their pool, which we were so grateful for. So perfect!!

Day 1 in the Keys. Little windy and cloudy. Marlee and Rafael got sea sick. Farmor came with us in the morning and kept David in the boat while we were snorkling on French reef. We had planned to go to Grecian reef but couldn't find it... We should have learned the GPS a little better before heading out...🤪

Back for lunch and another nap for David. He stayed on land with farmor and farfar during our afternoon boat tour.

During the afternoon we went to a shallow area next to Rodriguez Key to look for lobsters. We found two but they were way too small to keep. 

Rafael has a fun way to snorkle for lobsters 😂 maybe he trying to look like one!?

Out first day in the Keys were over and we had a delicious taco dinner by our cabin with farmor and farfar. We all fell asleep very early! 

Reunited with our boat and Swedish lunch date

Alex, David and I left in the morning to go to the swedish consulate in ft Lauderdale to register David, and make him an official Swede :-) The plan was to pick up the boat after since it was about 90min farther north of the consulate. The appointment went well and we talked with the lady at the consulate for a while. She is very sweet and helpful. She told us about a Kräftskiva in Orlando in September!!! And also about s swedish restaurant in West Palm. We ended up going there for lunch. It was so delicious!!! Smoked salmon, meatballs and Kexchoklad. We also got some deserts to bring home to the boys and some baking ingredients that I can't find here normally. 

The rest of the day we spent picking up the boat, driving through Miami in rush hour... Dropping the boat in the water in Matteson hammock park, swimming in the pool and test driving the boat a little. Dinner and bedtime. Now I'm feeding David and then sleep! 

we made it to Miami but the boat did not...

Today we started our last summer vacation trip, down to farmor and farfar in Miami, and the keys. After packing and hooking up the boat to the truck we left Ormond this afternoon. Alex had a speech in Stuart on the way down and I had looked up a few parks that me, the kids and Bubbles could go to during his speech. The weather was beautiful but hot.

Our plans changed abruptly when one of the bearings on the boat trailer got over heated. Luckily Alex caught it in time and we stopped at the side of the highway. Some kind of "highway helper" stopped to check what had happened. We were in a hurry to get to Alex's speech so we would not be able to wait for a tow truck. The "helper" did not think it was a good idea to leave the trailer right by the road for someone to steal (not sure how likely that would be since it would not go very far with the bad bearing) but he suggested to "hide" it behind some palm trees in the (very deep and wide) ditch. So that's what we did. We drove down the hill slowly and realized when we got down there that it was very wet, very wet, more like a swamp... We did not make it all the way to behind the trees but decided to stop where we were and unhook the trailer. 

Bye bye boat...

Back on the road again, but without the trailer, we called our insurance company, towing and a mechanic. While arriving at Alex's speech (very late) we were still on the phone with one of them so i took over the phone call and Alex left. It all seemed to work out pretty good. The trailer was supposed to be picked up and taken to a mechanic in West palm beach (closer to Miami) and we could pick it up tomorrow. The kids were starving and the park had to be seen another time. We got some food in a drive through and then started driving back to the boat. They prefered if we were there when they got there to tow it... Time was short and on our way there we suddenly saw our boat and trailer on a flat bed tower on the other side of the median. Great! They got it without us and our bost was going to the mechanic!! We turned around to go pick up Alex. On the way there my large lemonade from the drive through fell on the floor, broke open and made it very wet, right were bubbles is sitting. She did not like the cold, wet lemonade and tried to get up on the seat 😂 We did not get one sip from the lemonade but i bet the carpet on the car will be nice and stocky tomorrow... 

Alex got done from his speech and we drove by to check on our boat before going to Miami. Tomorrow we are going to the swedish consulate in Fort Lauderdale to register David and from there to pick up our trailer. Farmor and farfar were still awake when we arrived and helped getting everyone to bed. Things turned out pretty good in the end. Now sleep is what I need!

Sweet brothers

Recent videos worth sharing :-)

https://youtu.be/u_ZBdYIJ2HI

Rafael did not know that i was filming him...

https://youtu.be/jRzjFk7fDxw

Back to school!

Despite the vacation week we plan in south Florida in a few days, we (I) decided to start school today. It was time to get back to some routines and get things done :-) This year we have made some changes to our normal set up that consists of two different coops. All kids are part of one of the the coops but Marlee will not do Classical Conversations this year. He needed a change and together with Marlee we ended up picking the Robinson Curriculum for him instead of CC. We will do our own version of it but it will make him very independent and responsible for his own work. Of course I will be available when he needs me and i will check some of his work but he will work in a very different way than before. 

Gabriel answering questions about the text he just read about the horse Bess. 

Rafael finishing up the last pages of a book he started last year. 

Noah taking a break from his math.

Marlee doing math. He is doing Saxon math this year instead of the Strayer-Upton. He had the option to change so he did. Noah stayed with Strayer-Upton. Gabriel will do a combination of Horizon and A Beka. 

Gabriel started this school year by finishing our basic reading curriculum. When they do that we give them their first own proper bible so it was Gabriel's turn today. I was so happy to see how excited he was to read it :-) 

Doing two math puzzles for the CC memory work.

We had a good last week of the summer break. One birthday party and some sleep overs with friends. It is a little sad that the summer is already over but i must say that we have had a wonderful summer even though we couldn't go to Sweden as planned and despite my appendicitis that prevented us from doing some thing. We still have some vacation left in the Keys and we are leaving in s few days!!!

At the birthday party, which was at one of the gymnastic facilities here in Ormond. 

Surf competition for 3/5

The past week we have spent more time at the beach than we have during the whole summer, I think. The summer has just been busy with camps, appendicitis, school planning and preparations, and road trip, but now we have been home a while and prioritized the beach. Or maybe it is because it is the only thing you can do if you want to be outside because of the heat!? :-) Either way, it has been great and the boys have had fun with friends and also had a chance to practice their surfing :-)

Today was a big day, it was zgnselyCharlie's surf competition and Marlee, Noah and Gabriel participated. It was a great day!! Hot, intense, exhausting, but so much fun! 

Gabriel was the first one in the water of the three. It was his first surf competition and Alex was in the water wirh him to push him into the waves. He was a little scared and did not really catch any waves, but he said it was fun when i asked him after wards. 

Next was Noah. I honestly don't remember of it was his first or second competition and now he is sleeping so i cant ask him but he did great!! Alex was in the water with him, too, and helped him catch the waves and he got several good ones. We were all very impressed. He ended up second in his heat and advanced go the semi final in his group. Unfortunately, he did not do as great in that heat and did not go to the final, but was very happy with his performance :-)

Marlee was the last one to go in. Unfortunately, the waves were not that great at that time and  no one in his heat did very good. However, the other boys in his group did better than he did so he did not advance to the semi final. Better luck next time! He handled it very well and spent most of the time on the beach surfing and having a good time. 

This was a good but a long day, longer than we expected and I'm a little worried to see how burnt everyone got... We kept putting on sun screen but it is hard when they are in the water 95% of the time :-) Even David got to swim a lot and he really enjoyed it!