New Year, new adventures

Aaron always says that he would never want to live in Florida. Too hot and too many old people, and i tend to agree. But there is one thing that Florida has that Michigan does not, especially in January, and that is sunshine, and lots of it. In Michigan the clouds settle in about November, and don't lift until sometime in May. That gloominess, paired with the cold dry air can sap the life out of even the cheeriest of people! So this past week we packed up the car with 5 kids and 9 bags and drove to Chicago, where we got on a plane which took us all away from the gloom, if only for a little while.
Grandma and Grandpa Collick had generously invited us and Aaron's brother's family (Andy, Anna, and their kids, Madison and Drew) to stay with them in their rental house in Marathon, Fl., which only had one bathroom (for thirteen people!), but did have a boat and a private island to play on. It was a trip of first for the girls, who had never been on a plane before, and had never really been to the ocean. We didn't do a whole lot of swimming, (it was January, after all, the ocean wasn't exactly warm) but we did get to do some snorkeling, The island was basically a lump of coral, and one side of it had some really cool formations, which housed everything from sea urchins and anemones to snails and brightly colored fish. The last day we were there, Meagan finally got the hang of the snorkel and spent a long time in the water looking at everything. The island also came with kayaks, and we spent a lot of time paddling around a bigger island nearby, looking at pelicans and giant iguanas perched in trees.
Its hard to sum up a whole week's worth of experiences in one blog posting. There was the epic walk on the old 7 mile bridge, where we walked 2 miles to this little island, only to find out that the entire island was a museum, and that if we didn't pay for a tour, the employees had the right to call the police! The only thing worse than having some pompous old lady tell us she could call the cops was knowing that we still had to walk two miles back to the car! Then there was Key West beer and BBQ sandwiches at Porky's, the only place where we had internet access, and breakfast at Pepe's, at the start of our day in Key West, where the girls and I all got henna tattoos before walking to the southernmost point in the U.S. Basically it was just a time to hang out and chill a little bit, bask in the sun and not have to do anything.
Now we're back in Michigan, and I go back to work tomorrow. Right now it's snowing and by the end of the week, it is supposed to be 12 degrees. Ahhhhh, good to be home, right?
Here are some pics from the trip.