Spring Break

"Hello reality."

That's the text I sent to a friend last night after starting my third load of laundry and cleaning up the second spill on the kitchen floor. You see, I had not been living in reality for about 4 days, since we had been on vacation at our friend's river house up in North Florida.

Four days of disconnecting from the day-to-day grind. Four days to play together as a family. Four days to eat whatever crap we wanted and not feel guilty about it. Boating, hide-n-seek, dock picnics, ghost stories & s'mores by campfire... it was truly a great vacation.

So kick back, grab a drink, and re-live this Spring Break through pictures while I capture it all in my virtual scrapbook.

Early morning coffee with my little bud. The view from this room (see picture below) is something out of a painting. Nothing but water and forest.

Days up at the river are not spend on computers or in front of the TV. 

They are spent climbing trees...

 ...swinging on porch swings watching people fish off the dock...

and boating. Oh how my kids love to go boating!

 

Payton had gone swimming which is why he's in a jacket.

 

 Did I mention that I love to go out on the boat too? Love, love, love.

In the evenings, we would go out for a short ride to see what animals we could see hanging out on the banks of the river.

We saw several gators, more birds that you can imagine and lots of turtles too.

 

One day, the guys decided to do a crab boil.

It was mildly hysterical to watch my Midwestern husband try to wrangle the live crabs while our friend would grab the little suckers and rip their shells right off!

They were clinging on to each other for dear life!

They were blue crabs, so their shells were an amazing shade of blue... until you cook them and they turn bright red.

 They were delicious right out of the boiled water dipped in butter.

But they were even more heavenly the next night when our friend made them into crab oscar and topped our filets with them. OH MAN! SO GOOD!

Our "adults only" dinner.

One afternoon we set up a picnic on the dock of the house we stayed in and got to enjoy a little downtime with just our family. It was really special. I'll always remember that time.

I also had to show a quick picture of the house next door to where we stayed. The people who live there are retired and enjoy just "puttering" around in their yard.

It was the most colorful, amazing garden I've ever seen! Complete with a pumpkin patch!

This picture doesn't do justice to the vivid colors and wide range of flowers and plants they have. It was like visiting a botanical garden.

The last night there, the guys built a fire in the fire pit and we roasted s'mores while Brian told ghost stories to the kids. It was a perfect night.

He's a good story teller. The kids were riveted!

It was a wonderful way to spend the first half of our Spring Break. We are so grateful to our friends for hosting us and allowing us to stay in their house. They are amazing friends and we are so blessed to have them in our lives.

I hope everyone else is having a great start to their week as well!

Happy Spring Break!