Kendal and Hayden Schmidt's Blog

We're back!!!

The Schmidt's are back from Florida. We were sad to leave the sunny warm weather and our vacation home, but we had to get back to reality; Cold dreary Michigan.

The girls did great on the plane. One the way down Hayden cried for about 5-10 minutes when she was falling asleep and Kendal got a little restless towards the end, I think she was just excited. The way back they both slept for most of the flight, even with a lot of turbulence.

We spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool and in the hot tub, once Kendal got in the hot tub we had a hard time getting her in the pool again. She spent most of the time playing on the steps with her buckets and watering can. Hayden loved floating around in the pool and in the hot tub in her float, most of the time she cried when we took her out.

We went to the beach two days, both times to Sanibel Island just different beaches. Kendal loved chasing all the seagulls and squishing the sand castles. Hayden enjoyed eating sand and throwing shells. Both girls did good at letting us put on sunblock and Hayden left her hat on without any complaints. The ocean was a little cold for them, but both girls did go in.

We went out on the boat four times. I would say for the most part the girls did awesome; we did have one huge melt down by me and both kids one morning so Mike sucked it up and we went home. Kendal "caught" three fish. Once I left a minnow on and let her reel it in and she thought she was bringing in a big one. The two other fish Mike actually caught, left on the hook and threw them back in so she could reel in a big fish. I think they were called sheepshead; they were black and white striped fish and actually kinda pretty. Kendal called them zebrafish.

One day it was kinda windy and overcast in the morning, so we packed up and did a little shopping. We went to the Shell Factory. Inside there was a huge display of stuffed animals, no not teddy bears, I am talking huge lions, elephants, bears and all kinds of exotic animals. An avid hunter died and his family donated his entire collection. Quite impressive. They also had an animal exhibit, we read reviews about this place that most said it was not worth the money. WRONG. It was so much fun. We all had a blast. You were so close to the animals and got to touch a lot of cool things. Kendal got to hold geckos, starfish, and sea urchins. They had a petting zoo which was cool. One of the exhibits had peacocks, huge iguanas, and huge turtles; they were all just walking around with us. So it was definitely worth the money.

I would say the trip worked out perfectly. No problems flying, renting a car and house, and we had awesome weather. We had so much fun, but we are all exhausted from the trip and still trying to get back to our normal sleeping schedule. Pictures and video below:

Florida Vacation Clips... Over 7min long

Kendal and a Zebrafish