Days 5-7 In Miami - Birthday Girls!!

Final post for our Miami trip!

Starting with Day 5- was hallie's 1st BirthDAY. We planned on all of us driving down to key west for a special day outing and to do something fun on her birthday. Neither ben or I had ever been to key west so it sounded like fun.

We had to wake up the birthday girl a tad before she was ready to get up just so we could get on the road to key west but she woke up all smiles of course!!!

Beautiful Birthday Girl all ready for her big day!!!

In the car on the drive down. It took roughly 4.5 hours to get there. Give or take a bit. Which was probably bad planning on ben and mine's part because Hallie was already fussy and upset with us by the time we got there. 1st thing on the Key west agenda was FIND SOME FOOD!!!

We had lunch at this really cute breakfast/ lunch place called Camille's

And Hallie got in better spirits out of the car and given some food to gnaw on.

The group. Then we headed off walking to the "southernmost point" in the continental United States

Grammy & Grandpa

Garcia Fam

Our family

And we got someone to take us all!

We then went walking around, back to Duval street. Supposedly famous.

They have some really pretty architecture in key west and many old buildings have been turned into cute little B &B's

Duval Street

Where we did a little shopping and a little walking. This is where things went downhill for my little family. It was very hot and there was not much to do for kids and so while aiden was being a trooper, hallie was NOT having it. She was overly tired, overly fussy, overly hot and just basically miserable. I felt really bad for her that it was her birthday and she was having such a rough time. We were scheduled to go on a sunset boat ride at 5pm and so we went down to the docks about an hour early to sit and wait, cool down, and rest.

Aiden loved looking at all the boats. Go figure right?

But again neither ben or I could get hallie to calm down no matter if we walked with her, pushed her, rocked her, fed her, anything. She was just DONE. At this point I decided I would stay behind with hallie cause we didn't think it a good idea to subject the other 20 people on the sunset cruise to her screaming and we also thought it probably not a smart idea to get her trapped in the middle of the ocean for 2 hours when she was so upset. But at the last minute ben volunteered to stay behind with hallie so I could go and take pictures of aiden on the boat. We thought this would be the highlight of the trip down to key west for aiden.

Here's the boat we went on- The schooner Jolly Rover. Supposed to be a pirate ship. Arghhhh!!!

Aiden & Alex. Cool Dudes!

Jenny & Alex

Grandpa & Grammy

Me & My lil man!

I was sad that ben & hallie didn't get to come on the boat but as we got out there, I was completely confident that we made the right call.

Aiden got a turn to steer the pirate ship! Love that smile!

Alex took this picture of me & aiden huddled under the blanket watching the sun go down. Love it.

Beautiful sunset! Just amazing to watch, Thank you God!

After we got off the boat, aiden randomly asked to have his picture taken with this boat!

We left key west almost immediately after we got off the boat and headed back to miami. Both the kids fell asleep in the car, again Thank you God! In hindsight that day trip down there was probably not a good idea with small kids. The drive was too long and it's just not a "kid friendly" place. But it is gorgeous and an experience. I can now cross off the southernmost point as places I need to see!

Day 6

Was a stay-at-home day!!! If you need to... go back and check out days 1-5 and see if you can figure out why we needed a day off on day 6! Day 6 we spent lounging around the rent house. Some of us read, some of us played, we sat around and chatted, we took aiden outside to play for a bit. It was a good catch up on the rest we needed. That night we all got ready and headed down to the Bayside of Miami for our final night and to celebrate Jenny's birthday. Her birthday was 2 days after we went home so we wanted to celebrate with her while we were there.

Bayside.

It's kind of like an outdoor mall and harbor and boat docks and it's just really neat.

The group- minus me

Ben & I

We told aiden we would buy him a miami souvenir since it was our last night and what did he pick out?? A jet plane! Very Miami.

We met up with Alex's family for Jenny's birthday dinner. (I can't remember the name of the place and this is why I take pictures!!) It was a nice steakhouse place at Bayside.

Everybody

Jenny & alex and Alex's parents and brother.

**Notice bottom right corner-Silly boy!!!**

Aiden & Alex

Jenny surprised over her birthday cake

Happy Birthday Pretty girl!

Everybody outside the restaurant by the bay.

Hallie "talking" to Alex's dad.

Aiden doing the fist bump with Alex's brother. My kiddos make friends easy :)

And Baby Max being a perfect angel and sleeping away

One last picture of Jenny & Ale with their respective parents before parting ways for the night. It was a great last night. Followed by an early last morning and a lot of last minute packing!! How Ben & I travel with so much stuff...sheesh!!! Once we were packed up and ready to head out, we met up with Jenny & Alex for an early goodbye lunch At a mexican place close to their house called Lime.

Last group shot

And since we didn't get to on her actual birthday...we did a little cupcake/ singing for hallie at lunch.

Happy girl loooooves the singing and the clapping!

YAAAAAAAY Hallie!!! Love you my lil cupcake!

After this it was straight to the fort lauderdale airport, nonstop flight to Dallas/ Fort Worth and then Home Sweet Home!!! It was a good trip and we were so happy we were able to go and have this quality time as a family. Thanks you so much to David & Allison for planning it and to Jenny & Alex for hosting us and showing us around their city. Very special memories and sweet smiles, make it a trip to remember for sure! :)

That's allllllll she wrote folks!