We spent most of the day hanging out by the pool enjoying that sunshine!

We made breakfast for dinner that evening (do you all do that?) and knew it would finally be the PERFECT evening to watch the sunset on the pier without freezing to death or being blown away by the wind!

We headed there after dinner.

We were right – it was a gorgeous evening!!

So different than just a few nights before!!

Standing at the end of the pier to watch the sun go down is a favorite thing of mine!!

We knew those clouds would give the sky SO much color as the sun started to dip down!

Then the big ball of sunshine peeked out below the clouds right before it went completely below the horizon – make sure you look carefully at the last photo in these next ones!

Isn’t that so, so pretty?!!!

Wednesday was our last full day in our home away from home.

My hubby had made a BIG plan for us as our FINALE to our trip of a lifetime!!

He had booked us a boat ride – just the six of us and the captain and his son.

Not only was it super fun to just ride on the boat, but we got to watch dolphins swim, see some eagles and beautiful properties – and we got dropped off at a private beach called “the secret spot” to play and find shells!!

We got to stay there for almost two hours.

It was BEAUTIFUL.

UNBELIEVABLY BEAUTIFUL!!

And the shells were everywhere – I have never seen so many!!

You could not even walk barefoot by the shore line because all of the shells hurt your feet!

We couldn’t even choose there were SO many perfect shells!!

I took mostly video of the children looking for shells and also of what they found.

Tate found the shell of a crab in one piece and Lane found a sand dollar!!

Isn’t that sand dollar so neat?!

Can you see all the beautiful shells in his bucket?!

They had a blast on that beach.

The houses around the area where we were boating were beautiful, but ridiculous!

This first home sold for 35 million dollars.

I will never get that – but it is pretty to look at!

After our grand finale outing, we headed back to the pool to cool off and stay outside as long as we could!

We cleaned out the fridge for dinner and managed to fill all the bellies on a bunch of random stuff!

Blake and I had some errands to run after dinner, but we brought back ice cream for our last evening in Florida!

Thursday morning came.

We were all ready in different ways to get back home, but also not ready to leave the warm weather and sunshine.

We knew what the weather had been like and was going to be like upon our arrival back home – it was still winter!

We spent a little bit of time at the pool Thursday morning before heading in to shower and pack up.

One last photo of the pool and the palm trees with the sky in the background!

We got ready quickly and then took our luggage downstairs to be locked in the conference room since our flight was not until 9 p.m. (but we had to be out of our room by noon).

We headed out to fill the rest of the day with lunch, some window shopping, and some gift shopping for our favorite peeps back home!

Pretty soon we were out of ideas of what to do with ourselves, so we headed back to the hotel to change into warmer clothes and get our luggage.

We decided to just head to the airport, check-in, get through security, and then hang out sipping coffee and reading books until it was time for our flight.

Finally it was time to board and head home!!

We landed in Minneapolis after midnight.

It was SNOWING.

And somewhere around 15 degrees.

We weren’t in Florida anymore!!

Blake did a great job getting us home from the airport safely, only stopping one time to jog around the van in the cold air to make sure he would stay awake!!

I stayed awake the whole time too, don’t worry, as a good co-pilot would.

We arrived home at 4 a.m.!!

Blake, Chad and I slept till 7 a.m. and then had to get up and start the day – the guys needed to head to work, and I needed to get after laundry, grocery, and the three other million things I did that day!!

Life has been full speed ahead ever since I woke last Friday, but I am loving it.

Loving being back in our kitchen.

Loving teaching Math, and reading aloud to my trio.

Loving spending time with ALL of our crew, especially on Sunday for Easter!

Florida, you definitely were a trip of a lifetime!

Time will tell if we ever get to do anything like that again – but I am not taking these memories for granted!

Thank you, Blake, the most wonderful husband and father, for planning this trip and making it happen!!

It was BEYOND wonderful and I am so thankful we got to be there with the kids like we always talked about when we have been there in the past!

OK, Wisconsin – get the memo!!

It’s April and we are ready for SPRING!!

Definitely missing the weather we enjoyed last week!!

Hope you all had a good week last week where ever you were!!

And I hope you had a good Easter too!!

We swam in the pool for a little bit in the morning, but it was chilly!

Because of the temperature, we had decided the night before to go and visit the zoo on Saturday after lunch.

But first we stopped at Target for some things we needed and Blake bought the kiddos a coffee treat!

Over the last month, the kids have been watching a show called San Diego Zoo on the channel Animal Planet – which shows all kinds of behind-the-scenes care of the animals at the zoo.

It is a fascinating show!

Blake and I knew it would make a trip to the zoo all the more interesting after everything they have learned on that show.

The Naples Zoo did not disappoint!

It was the most beautiful zoo I have ever been too!

I could not get over the trees, flowers and greenery!

Just look at these trees!

Isn’t it beautiful?

We saw some amazing animals that were hard to photograph with a cell phone!

When we got to the giraffe exhibit, we saw that you could feed them some lettuce for $5.

Of course we had to do that!

I only have a photo of Chad feeding them because I took video of the rest of the kids doing so.

We ended our afternoon at the zoo with a show about the animals.

It was awesome!

Such a fun way to spend a beautiful day!

After the zoo we went back to our home away from home and fed the kiddos quick.

Next up we headed to the beach to watch the sunset from the pier.

Little did we know that the temperature was dropping and the winds had increased to 40 mph!

It was COLD and SO WINDY!

I have great photos, but we didn’t last long.

There was a mama with this crew (that’s me!) who was huddled behind her hubby trying to stay out of the direct wind gusts because she was frozen to her core, ha, ha!

Please notice how the palm trees are bent way over in that wind!

And notice how big the waves are too!

We drove around for a little while before the sun went down, just to look around and see all the things!

Naples is beautiful!

Sunday morning was another beautiful day.

The winds and clouds of the last three days were gone!

Blake researched on line and found a church for us to attend.

We enjoyed church SO MUCH!

Our church here at home loves to sing, and this church we visited in Florida was the same!!

What a beautiful time of worship we had and were also challenged and encouraged by an amazing sermon.

We had driven by a place called Seed to Table on our way to church and went back to check it out after church!

It was very neat!

Think Joanna Gaines kind of neat.

It was packed with people though, and was not allergy friendly.

We bought some guacamole and salsas to go with our lunch and that was all.

Sunday afternoon had us back at the pool – the first time it was warmer and completely sunny!

We made a delicious meal at our home away from home Sunday evening.

Then Chad kicked Blake and I out on a date!

Why, yes, thank you, Chad!!

We went to check out a bakery we hoped to enjoy with the kids, and of course went grocery shopping.

Date night was just like here in Wisconsin really!

Monday morning brought the promise of a super yummy breakfast at an all gluten-free bakery.

It did not disappoint!!

I was not able to eat anything there because I do not eat grains or sugar, but Blake and the kids said it was the best gluten-free baked goods they have ever had!!

We ate on their patio even though in the shade it was a little chilly!

Thankfully Blake had a sweatshirt for Eliza to borrow.

She is so cute.

Because of Monday’s predicted temperatures and clear blue skies, we decided to go and play at the beach for the first time during the day.

It ended up being a great choice!

We were turned away from the first beach we went to because it was at capacity, which meant there was no parking.

I told everyone that finding a different beach was going to be a happy accident, and it was!

We found one and Blake let us out so he could go and find parking.

We ended up walking quite a ways through a construction area, which no one else was bothering to do, and had an entire beach almost to ourselves!

The other side of the construction was packed with people.

I am so glad we decided to take a chance on that long walk!!

After getting back to our suite Monday evening and getting everyone cleaned up and fed, Blake took me out on another date – for dinner and a smoothie!

It was fantastic.

The date and the food!

Pretty great vacation so far, wouldn’t you say??

I am SO thankful I have all of these photos!!!

They will be such a joy to look back on!!

Stay tuned for the HUGE finale to our trip that Blake planned for us – that will be up in the next post!!

To say this is a dream come true for me is an understatement!

It only would have been PERFECT if our WHOLE crew would have been able to join us!!

We are not vactioners, as you know if you have been around here for any time at all, so this truly was the trip of a lifetime!

I have somewhere close to a gazillion photos – so I decided to “scrapbook” our memories in three different posts – each covering three days at a time.

SO…here we go!!

It was freezing cold and snowing when we left that Wednesday, which made flying to somewhere so warm and summer like even sweeter.

The kiddos were great travelers!

We drove three hours to the Minneapolis airport and caught a direct flight to Fort Myers from there.

We had a rent-a-car reserved for when we arrived.

The line was LONG.

Do you see my hubby (in between Eliza and Lane’s head) who is the last one in line here?

Here he is again one hour later.

Do you see him there??

Not quite to the front yet!

That’s ok though, because THIS is what was outside that airport door!!

When we finally got to pick a car out of the lot we chose the biggest one we could find – but still had to ride to the hotel like this, ha, ha!!

We headed out for grocery, made a quick dinner, and then got unpacked and settled into our little home away from home.

My wonderful hubby thought to bring the lap top and a cord so that we could run our discovery plus through the T.V.

That meant they could watch their favorite show on Animal Planet with no commercials – which is the way we watch shows for obvious reasons!

Thursday morning I was welcomed by this early bird during my Bible time – who, by the way, was thrilled that his mama had lost her mind and bought cinnamon roll cereal at the grocery store the night before.

Something I love very much about being a mom of many is how different they all are!!

Here is Eliza – who slept late – and went straight from her bed to the couch.

Tate promptly went to make his bed, now that everyone was FINALLY awake and all!

It wasn’t very warm on Thursday and it was also partly cloudy.

We went to check out the pool anyway and decided it was perfect for us Wisconsinites!

We swam and played there most of the day!

In the late afternoon we got everyone cleaned up and headed out and about.

We took the kiddos to get smoothies at our favorite smoothie place and also stopped and picked up Chipotle for everyone (but me!) for dinner.

I ate once everyone else was done, don’t worry! My dinner was fantastic too.

Blake and I had bought a new card game on date night the week before we left on our trip to surprise the kids with!

They really enjoyed playing five crowns and I highly recommend it as a fun game!

Friday morning after breakfast we headed to the beach.

It was the first time the three youngest have seen the ocean!!

Chad had been at the ocean when he was nine months old, which he obviously does not remember.

It was the BEST to watch them experience all these new things!!!

We played there for awhile, but it was cold!!

Back to the pool we went, and ate lunch pool side that day.

Blake and I had other surprises that the kiddos did not know about!

He had bought them each a kite, so Friday late afternoon we went and flew them at a park.

It was SUPER DUPER windy and a great day for kite flying!

There was also a disc golf course at the park.

We tried to play a round, but the super duper windy part was not a good fit for playing disc golf!!

Eliza and I enjoyed the swings for awhile too!

Friday night we headed back and made dinner in our home away from home.

The kitchen was challenging, to say the least!

It only had two burners and a microwave…but they had a grill outside we could use.

We managed to pull off this delicious meal!

Saturday was another chillier windy day – can’t wait to share what we decided to do!!

That post will be next!!!

Just reliving these memories through the photos and my words is filling me with JOY!!

It was SO wonderful to be somewhere warm, away from the our day to day stuff!!

Stay tuned for more Florida photos!!