The Garners

We love you Florida!

Roadtrip (with a million pictures to prove it)!


So if you haven't heard the news. . .we are moving to Canada. Sad? Yes. Complicated? Yes. We are leaving soon so if you want a free place to stay on your Florida vacation now is the time, we would love to have you.

We had to hurry and take advantage of beautiful Florida before it was too late so we headed down to the Keys. Our first day of exploration we had dinner at a fun seafood diner on Key Largo and then by complete luck we found this amazing beach where the kids played and we watched the sun set.

Logan didn't want his picture taken this evening so I had to keep taking him by surprise. What a nut!

The water was so clear and warm. The boys enjoyed finding tiny hermit crabs and collecting rocks. We weren't really planning on swimming but Campbell wasn't taking no for an answer and there was no way he was waiting for a bathing suit.

I wish that our pictures could really have captured the beauty of the sunset and beach, alas, we could not.

Campbell is Mr. rock collector. Everywhere I turn there is magically a rock in the house, hmm. How does he do it? And why? The entire time we were at the beach he was looking for rocks.

Did I mention that it was so pretty? It was such an awesome evening. I wasn't lying about Logan avoiding getting his picture taken.

Out of focus but priceless.

Remember how I talked about our jumping on the bed picture tradition in a past post? Well, I still think it is a fun idea so here we are in our amazing Miami hotel.

Logan was doing this every waking moment in our hotel.

Sorry no Campbell picture, he was not in the mood.

This is Captain Logan. As you can see he took his job very seriously and he really is steering the boat here. The other captain was great and he offered to let Logan have a go at the wheel of our glass bottom boat. On our second day in the keys we went to the John Pennekemp State Park on Key Largo. We found an awesome tour that took us out on a glass bottom boat to go snorkeling. It was about a forty minute ride out to the reef and even though it was stormy and the waves were choppy we had an incredible time. We got to see an italian statue of Christ amongst the beautiful reef and an array of tropical fish. Our captain encouraged us to take our kids out with us which we did for about five minutes before we decided we had better take turns in the water while the other person stays with the kids onboard. It was just too choppy and Logan was not enjoying himself.

I am actually sitting on a mat that is over one of the glass bottom panels where the boys had the opportunity to see all the tropical fish. This is also where I noticed the palm-sized jelly fish. I still went snorkeling when it was my turn and I don't think that I was overly cautious as I slowly swam around because I saw atleast 20 of those suckers. At one point I was centimeters away from being stung. Although I was somewhat paranoid and preoccupied I still enjoyed seening all kinds of colorful fish and the reef itself is breath taking, that is until I saw a shark and then I was done. It was a small shark, maybe four feet or so long. It swam right below me and so I tried to make my way gracefully back to the boat as fast as possible. The captain said that they mostly just see nurse sharks around the reef but the shark wasn't just on the bottom of the ocean like a nurse shark, I'm just sayin'. That didn't scare Mike though and he was back in the ocean to use up the remainder of our time. He was maybe a tiny bit nervous about the Barracudas though. Just this week on the news there was a nine year old in the hospital that was attacked by a Barracuda. Okay, I am making this sound like an awful expereince when really it was sweet, I would recommend it to almost anyone.

Then we headed to Key West where we saw Ernest Hemingway's home. Sadly we we got there after tour hours but we still managed a peek at his house.

This is the Southernmost point in the continental U.S. A. (as you can see).

Key West was full of picturesque scenes, I could hardly stand it! I only wish that we would of had more time to explore and enjoy Key West. Note: I must warn you there are some parts of Key West to avoid but overall I thought it was amazing. It's one of those these you have to do before you die.

Mile 0.

We just happened to catch the sunset again. It was a perfect day.

I've said before and I'll say it again, I love these boys!