Seraphina, Florida!

Our family had a wonderful spring break in Seraphina, Florida with some friends.  The kiddos were excited to check out the cockpit after our flight! 

We arrived just in time for a little sun and a gorgeous sunset!

The next morning we checked out the orange groves

we found key limes and pomegranates too!

Then it was time for an Easter Egg Hunt!

Ready, set...

Go!!

Where oh where are all those eggs?

Cecelia loved having help from Daphne

At the end, they had A LOT!!! 

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We learned how to crack open a coconut, drink the milk and eat the meat.  The kids loved it!  

We spent lots of time on the beach

Sailing coconut shell boats...

And finding really cool hermit crabs!

One of C's favorite things to do each morning was to read the paper, especially the comics!

Some other visitors found this super cool thing on the beach - thanks to Aunt Tracey, we figured out that it's a conch egg case!

The kids loved playing on the strangler fig tree

 

Seraphina figured out how to tarzan around in a circle

(click through for video)

We also had lots of fun in the pool!  Pushing Daddy in never seems to get old

Here's Fitz under water

And Cecelia and Seraphina doing special jumps!

(click through for video)

Seraphina had fun spotting Theirs name when we headed into town for a special dinner!

One morning the kids found a huge branch from a palm tree that they wanted to keep. They all picked it up and took it way down to the boat house!

I caught this bird taking off from the lawn one day!

And we had a few boat rides

More beach time at Bathtub Beach, including spotting two nurse sharks (we didn't go in the water that day) 

We did see some cool coral on the reef

And had fun exploring this rocky area of the beach

One of the highlights of the time was picking fresh fruit - mulberries, peaches, tomatoes, oranges,

smelling orange blossoms,

and fresh bananas!

(we ate them all!!)

We did lots of reading

And went on a wet hike!

We were so happy to see our Florida cousins- Mac, Michael, Maddie, Lauren, Aunt Tracey and Uncle Mike came for the day! We spent time swimming with them,

singing with them, 

playing ping pong with them, 

and climbing and swinging on the strangler fig tree...

As we were packing up, the kids sat down with books on the front walk

then we went down to the water for one last look!

On our way to the airport, we met up with our cousins again at a cool marina where we fed the birds

(thanks for the great photos, Uncle Mike!)

On our arrival back to DC, we met Santa at the airport!  They told the kids They was running the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and gave them each special coins from the North Pole.

It was a magical trip, indeed!!