Island Time...

We spent the remainder of our vacation on the island of Cedar Key, where I grew up. It's so relaxing being there and we always enjoy our down time with my family. We spent the majority of our day outside, either sitting on my parents deck, walking to the playground, playing in the yard, or taking a golf cart ride around town. We consumed our fair share of seafood over the trip. Between the clam chowder, grouper, oysters, stone crab claws, crab bisque and scallops - there weren't many sea creatures that escaped our plates!

It was fun to celebrate Easter in Cedar Key. My brother came up from St. Pete on Friday to spend the weekend with us. We colored Easter eggs with the kids and my Uncle Tom and Aunt Jane drove over to spend the day with us on Saturday. We grilled out and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. On Sunday, Hadley was baptized at the Easter service. It was really special to have her baptized at the same church that my brother and I were baptized at as children. We got many compliments on how well-behaved both children were. Hey, even we were pleasantly surprised! After the service, there was an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Wyatt grabbed each egg he saw, opened it up, wolfed down the candy and threw the egg back in the grass. Kids!

We all took turns driving my dad's car around. He's rebuilding a 1952 King Midget from scratch and it's a little further along each time we see it. He says he's doing it for the kids, but in the meantime, we enjoy tooling around in it.  

Dayven tried his luck at fishing again. He tried desperately to catch some of the mullet he saw jumping off my parent's dock, but no luck. He finally took his pole and headed to a different spot and was able to catch three catfish, which he released.

Wyatt loves Cedar Key. He was outside every day. He played on the playground, went for daily golf cart rides, flew his kite, sang songs in the hammock with Nana, watched small planes taking off at the airporty and "drove" the old fire truck at the fire department. Cedar Key is heaven for a little boy.

Hadley had a great time too. Like a true Cedar Key baby, she was barefoot every day. She only wore shoes once during the entire vacation, and that was to go to church. She was very busy the whole trip - she figured out how to crawl the right way on all fours (rather than dragging herself around on her belly), started pulling up on furniture and even sprouted two new teeth!

We ended our visit with a little trip to Homosassa Spring, a wildlife park not far from Cedar Key. I hadn't been since I was a kid and it was fun going back there with my kids. It's a small, but nice little park with boardwalks that weave their way back through the woods (called a "hammock" in that area) and past man-made habitats for black bears, panthers, otters, alligators, flamingos and a hippopotamus. There's even an underwater viewing area to see the fish and manatee.


We're back now and I'm in my usual post-vacation funk. We always have such a great time in Cedar Key and the weather is so gorgeous, it's hard to come back here. I miss my parents and wish we lived closer. Dayven misses being able to hop in the golf cart and head downtown for his morning coffee every day. Wyatt misses playing outside all day, looking for sticks and rocks. Hadley can't tell us what she misses, but if I had to guess, I'd say fresh air and warm sunshine on her bare skin. Nana and Poppy will be visiting us in June so we have that to look forward to. For now, we'll just hope for an early spring!