Last week my husband and I took the boys to the Florida Keys for spring break. It was our first trip with just the four of us — no other family or friends. The boys had mommy and daddy’s full attention day and night for a week straight.
And it was great. Practically idyllic, really.
The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm. The resort was amazing for kids. There were six huge swimming pools to choose from and a lagoon surrounded by warm, white sand. You could kayak or swim in the shark and seaweed-free ocean water.
The main attraction? A huge pirate ship pool with water slides, cannon ball water guns and coconut waterfalls. And plenty of other kids to walk the planks with. Right behind the pirate ship was an 18-hole mini golf course, a basketball court, swing set, jungle gym, and life-sized chess and checkers boards. Oh, and a bar and grill supplying all the lemonade their bladders could hold.
Our villa had a ridiculously large backyard that backed up to a bay and there were flying fish that came out to entertain us every morning. We bought a whiffle ball set and started training our future World Series Champs. We befriended other couples with kids the same age staying in adjacent villas. Together we had one of those unforgettable nights where the grown-ups pulled out guitars and the kids pulled out glo-sticks.
We took a day trip to Key West where the boys got shark tooth necklaces, ate Superman-flavored ice cream and took pictures with Spiderman at Mallory Square.
Another evening we drove to Anne’s Beach where they went shelling and then spent another two hours terrorizing the tiny crabs that were trying to crawl out of their holes for dinner.
Even the short walks around the resort were entertaining as lizards darted across the paths trying desperately to avoid death by kids’ feet.
And the best part of all….we ate Key Lime Pie every single day. In fact, there wasn’t one meal where the boys didn’t get a treat at the end – whether they ate all their fried, starchy meals or not.
But you never know with kids. So just in case, we found a K-mart and got a couple Lego sets. It’s the boys’ favorite thing to do at home and so we figured we’d have a few on hand. You know, just in case they needed something else to do after twelve straight hours of fun.
With no enforced bedtime, they stayed up late every night and worked on their Legos until they couldn’t keep their eyes open any longer. It was a nice, calm way to end every fun, sun-soaked day.
The boys had the time of their life. You could see it in their eyes.
And then, just like that, it was time to go home. There were long faces on the drive back to the airport. They started missing Florida before we even left the state. They interrogated us as to why we didn't live there and demanded confirmation in blood that we’d be back next year.
We told them we could definitely go back. And we asked what their favorite part of the trip had been. With so many fun things, we didn’t think they’d be able to choose. But they didn't miss a beat.
In unison they screamed, “The Legos!”
The sun. The sand. The ocean. The lagoon. The swimming. The stone crabs. The whiffle ball. The mini golf. The lizards. The Glo-Sticks. The shelling. The Spiderman. The shark necklaces. The Key Lime Pie.
And they liked the Legos.
Next year I think my husband and I will go back to Florida. But maybe we'll just drop the boys off at K-mart.
