Chris and I have always loved a good bargain. And there is no better bargain than free! So any chance we find to do really great stuff for free, we try to take advantage! While we were in Florida, we wanted to do some really fun stuff together as a family. We have been through a lot of transition over the last few months and we know that we were about to be facing a lot more! So, we wanted to spend part of our time in Florida while visiting Chris's family to just relax and enjoy life. What better way to do that than the beach. And even better- a fun and educational experience at the same time with the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach.
The have a great playground. The kids really enjoyed playing in the sand and running around the playground with lots of slides and fun hiding places.
Then we toured the marinelife center. The kids absolutely loved the turtle hospital. It is a large area at the back of the center where they bring injured turtles in and nurse them back to health. There are several tanks that have windows along the sides so that you can get "upclose and personal" with these precious turtles! And each turtle has it's story posted beside of the tank so that you know it's name, what kind of injury it had and what had caused it's injury. As well as what the hospital has done to return it to it's normal health so that they can be released back into their ocean home. Most of the turtles had been involved in boating accidents. The kids loved us reading the turtle stories to them. They wanted to know all of their names and what had happened to them. One of the turtles even had orthodontic work done on it's shell to help the wound underneath it's broken shell heal back together. It was very interesting learning about how the beaches of Jupiter are some of the most actively nested beaches of the world.
Family picture time!
We wanted the kids to get a picture by the giant metal turtle, but unfortunately he had been out in the sun a little too long and was not a very fun turtle to touch! I think Walker is showing us his burnt finger in this picture!
Here is a shot of the marinelife center.
And we ended our tour with a great picnic!
After lunch we headed over to the the beach for that nice and relaxing part. But we had to be extra careful because there were a lot of man-of-war washed up on shore.
Ahhh.. nice and relaxing.
Sweet little Emma playing and getting wind blown.
And Walker just always looks like he is being mischievious!
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Olivia loved letting the waves catch her toes. We enjoyed lots of squeals and laughter!
And that is the lovely thing about the beach- always lots of sand to clean up afterwards!
And it hides in all of the 1,000 parts of Olivia!
But she loved cleaning out those parts. I hope it isn't illegal for children to be nude in public places in the states. We have been gone for a long time and I am out of touch with the laws! But how can there be a law against something that cute?
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