The Orange Farm

Fun fact about Florida and Citrus fruits: 90% of all fruit grown is for... juice!

We went to a family-run Orange farm today. It was fun and interesting. They have a fun play area for before and after the tour.

Orange racing! Pump the water fast and furious!

A maze. The number is how many spaces to travel in one direction. No diagonals! Benjo's favorite, however, was the mini-golf hole just beyond it!

TADA! I did it! Dad picked me up and put me here, which is what that means, of course!

I told Benjo that I bet he tastes yummy. He emphatically disagrees!

We love playing Cornhole! So fun!

As the tour began, we learned lots more fun facts about citrus fruit. The first citrus trees in Florida were planted by Ponce DeLeon. Picking season is from November to May and the Orange Blossom is, in fact, the Florida state flower. Once an orange is picked, it ceases any ripening--pick it, and it's done.

One of the most interesting things is what they do when, as can occur here some winter nights, temps get below freezing. To keep their fruit from ruination, they turn on their irrigation water on all the trees. The water is still warm and it heats up the air around the grove enough to keep the fruit from freezing!

70% of U.S. citrus is grown in Florida and all of it is hand picked. No machines for this job. The Honeybell orange is one of the juiciest oranges and it has a thin peel. Because of this, pickers actually have to use clippers to cut them off trees instead of picking them.

Once picked, they're brought to the packing house for processing.

Step 1--load them on the belt and people pick through to remove stray leaves, twigs, stems, etc. Any that are too big or too small are also sifted out.

Next they go through their first cleaning spray. I forget what type, but it's not just water.

Next they are sprayed with a soapy-type of water and rolled over brushes to get dirt off

And then a rinse at the end

Again they are sorted through. If any have punctures from stems or don't feel right, they're put on the belt that is sold to ranchers for cow food. Yup, cows eat oranges!

Next they go through the polisher. Before coming into here, all of mother nature's protective coating is gone. This puts a thin, sterile, waxy protection over the peel to prevent them from rotting within a day or two.

Finally the oranges are sorted by size and only the finest are set aside for eating. Most of them go to juicing. When you see a truck filled with oranges on the road, it means they're going to a juicing plant, because they don't care if the ones on the bottom get a bit squished.

It was a great experience and, of the samples they had for us (about 4 types), my favorite was called the "Unique" orange. Yummo!

Haircuts and Rest

Benjo and I got haircuts today (Mon, 4-Mar). It's been a couple months and we were... in need!

Before

After

Didn't get a picture of myself, but I didn't get a matching buzz cut!

At home, someone was... sleepy! She fell asleep like this on the brick patio!

Frost Science Center

It's amusing to me that, in Miami, they have the Frost Science Center. Granted, it's named after some people whose last name is Frost, but I still enjoy the irony!

We took our time before checking out of our hotel Saturday morning, enjoying the small hotel pool first. As we began to head home from Florida City, we wondered about taking in anything else before we left the Miami area, since it's quite a drive. We would be late to a baseball game by the time we were deciding, so we decided to go to the science center. Wow, what a place!

There are five floors and many different engaging and interactive exhibits!

A large fishbowl with a view from below. Rays, Sharks, and Children, Oh My! 

There was a constant current moving in it that seemed to create a whirlpool effect on the top.

In an engineering section there were many puzzles and an arch to build!

We had so much fun here! But we didn't get many pictures this time. Too busy having fun! It made for a late drive home, but it was a fun three-day mini-vacay!

"Off the Florida Keeeeeys..."

Okay, so not off the Florida Keys, but actually very much on them! Today (1-Mar) we drove the Florida Keys.

We watched this documentary as part of school ahead of time. The engineering and history of the bridges to bring the keys together and make them accessible by land is interesting and impressive!

We awoke early and drove straight on down to Key West, a beautiful three hour drive over many bridges of beautiful ocean. About 21% of the drive is on bridges, including the 6.76 mile long "7-Mile" bridge! (Yeah, I'm nerdy like that sometimes.)

It wasn't quite what I expected, though not disappointing either. I guess I expected it to be lots of big resorts, beaches, and fancy places, but in actuality is mostly all local businesses with a smaller, old beach town feel. Delightful in its way, really.

Of course, it was first things first when we got to Key West:

Many google reviews by locals said this was the place they liked to take people for ice cream. It's all their own and they have many fruit flavors inspired by the keys including, of course, Key Lime! Personally, I very much enjoyed their Cookies and Cream. Really good chunks of cookie in it! 

While we ate, this rooster and a chicken wandered around us. The kids fell apart in laughter though, when they crossed the street. ...Yes, my friends, the chicken crossed the road. We're all witnesses!

From there we took a walk on Duval street to do some window shopping.

Amy: I brushed my hair this morning!

Humidity: Oh really?

The southernmost point in the continental US. Well, actually, it's not, but it's a convenient spot to put it so... convenience wins again! They used to have a sign many years ago, but it kept getting stolen. No one seems to want to steal this large cement marker!

We didn't drag the kids window shopping too long. We soon went back to the car to eat lunch, then over to a splash pad.

Making lunch in the car. I love living with this woman and I'm so grateful she's on this adventure with me!

It was a pretty good splash pad, park, and playground!

We considered going on a tour of the US Coast Guard ship that was docked right next to this playground. In learning about it, however, it turns out to be $10 per person for a "self-guided" tour, meaning pay ten bucks to run around it, or for us, $70. Mmm, nah. We'll wait for a guided tour of a ship somewhere else me thinks!

We decided to do one last thing before beginning the drive back--the beach! There's not a lot of beach in the Florida keys due to all the coral. The coral keeps waves from breaking against the rocks and pummeling them into sand, thus any beaches in the key are man-made. Smather's beach was perfect for us. No long walks from the car down to the beach or any such, plenty of parking on the road right by it, only 20-30 yards of sand to cross to reach the water, and a long shallow beach without waves that everyone could play and swim around in. Even Rebekah enjoyed floating around with her puddle jumper on.

The drive back began just before sunset. You can't see the colors of the water very well from these pics, but there were many shades of light and dark blues all through it. It was beautiful!

The original train bridge

A sunset looking back!

Ft. Lauderdale Temple

We're driving the keys this weekend (28-Feb through 2-Mar). This is a place I've been interested in since I first heard the Beach Boys sing "Off the Florida Keeeeeys..."! This song may or may not have been going through my head a bit during this trip! 😂

We've joined a frequent-visitor club for the Wyndham hotel chain and decided to use some of our points for our hotel stay on this trip. To our surprise, they have no properties, zero, none, on the entirety of the Florida Keys! That was a bit of a disappointment, I admit. So we booked two nights in a hotel in Florida City, which is about as close as you can get to the tip of the Florida Peninsula before you head out to the keys. Still, it was a four-plus hour drive to get even that far.

There were no small customer service snafus to get that hotel arranged, but after a few hours of phone jumping all over the place, I finally found someone who was able to take care of us and did an awesome job of it. I'm still feeling grateful for that lovely woman! Note: if you work customer service, a "find-a-solution" mindset is SO much more helpful than a "I don't know how to function outside the script" mindset!

On our way down, we decided to go Fort Lauderdale to go to a park for a bit and then to visit the Ft. Lauderdale Temple before heading to our hotel.

At the park, Amy found these Owls nesting! You can see a video about them on our Youtube Channel.

Bonnie and I took turns at the temple, as we usually do. I went with Amy to do baptisms for the dead with her. After we came out, Bonnie took her turn to do sealings. Sealings is a term we use to refer to eternal marriage--because we believe in marriage beyond death do you part, when you marry in the temple, you're sealed together for eternity. Thus the term sealings. We also seal children to parents, creating a bond of family connection encompassing the entire human family. These ordinances, like baptisms, are performed on behalf of those who have died without receiving them in life. For us, it's all part of God's great love for his children.

Us at the Ft Lauderdale Temple

The beautiful temple at night.

Universal Studios' Volcano Bay

We aren't going to Disney or Sea World while we're here in Florida--it's simply too cost prohibitive for our budget. We have Six Flags memberships and that'll have to do. Unfortunately, there is no Six Flags in Florida!

Still, one thing I want to do is go to theme and water parks a lot, so we decided I'd take the three oldest to Universal Studios' Volcano Bay water park.

The parking garage is a bit away from the park with a shuttle to the park entrance. ...almost as exciting as the waterpark itself! Well, no, not really, but still a fun bonus!

The kids had a lot of excited energy ready to come out on that bus!

Many of the tallest slides are in the top of that volcano you see behind us.

The girls decided I had "palm tree" hair. I can see it!

The park was expensive, and it was fantastic!  Five & Six-person tube slides with steep side-to-sides, two lazy rivers (one wasn't so lazy), and even an aqua-coaster--a roller coaster type slide that used magnets to propel your tube up the inclines.

They had a number of slides of types I've wanted to go on for a long time, like drop slides, where you start standing up and the floor drops away beneath you for a steep plunge! They also had a couple that ended in 4 and 6-ft free-drops into a deeper pool.

One of the brilliant aspects of this park are what they call the "Tapu-Tapu." It's a wristwatch type device that manages long lines. If a line gets long for a certain slide, you can "tap in" and it will put you in a "virtual line," telling you to come back in "30 minutes," for example, to get in the physical line. It was also used to match you to pictures it took of you while riding a slide, much like theme parks do with roller coasters. For $50+, we decided not to buy our pictures, but we did look at them. It was a fun review of our day!

Multiple people, more than I would have expected, complimented our kids for how brave they were going on some of those taller slides. For the most part, I think the kids were baffled. They were having fun! Plus, they didn't feel brave--they had to. Part of coming was a promise that they would be willing to go on any slide we went on. We couldn't have them getting to the top and then backing out when three of us were already down at the bottom! Still, I think they took some pride in the number of compliments they received.

At the end of the day, "tragedy" struck. One of Eliza's flip flops was missing. We searched and searched, but to no avail. We even went on a bit of a goose chase as lost and found sent us up to find someone cleaning up the park who... etc. Leaving Amy & Noel as buddies by the exit, Eliza and I backtracked one last time. We met security who were keeping people herded toward the exit, and, after a security escort for a final search that turned up nothing, we gave up and went to leave, Eliza with only one flip flop. As we turned to toward the exit, another security person stopped us and said "the security guard you spoke with behind you wants you to wait here for a minute." We said "okay" and waited for him to catch back up. He asked if that was her only footwear. I said it was all she had here, she had more at home though. He said to hold up a minute. They got her size and ended up giving her a free pair of flip flops from the gift shop! I was blown away! I didn't expect any such. Way beyond anything that was deserved or expected. I was impressed to say the least.

Eliza was happy to get the flip flops--she likes them better than her old ones! But she is still a little sad because she can't wear her matching pair with Noel anymore.  The cutie!

So all in all, a wonderful time!

At home, Eliza asked me to take a picture of her hair. She liked how it came out after all that water time.

And a random fun pic of the kids being goofy!

Spring Training Begins

Headed out to the first Spring Training game today--the Detroit Tigers played a local college team! Tickets were cheap which is good when you're buying 7 of them! Unfortunately, our seats were in the sun and we were withering! Drinks for everyone ended up costing more than the tickets! After a few innings, we asked if we could move up into the shade. It was far from sold out and I was beginning to be concerned for our health. Thankfully, we were welcomed up into some shady seats.

Our seats in the sun. Even before the game begins, one girl is just too interested in what's happening on the field to pay attention to something so frivolous as a family picture!

A wall mural of the various spring training parks around Florida. This is known as the Grapefruit league. Half of the MLB teams come here for spring training, while the rest go to Arizona and the Cactus league. It's not split by AL/NL, but more an east-teams and west teams... though not strictly that either.

A view from our seats in the shade.

After the game, the kids decided to have a "coronation" ceremony for Rebekah. Sometimes they play so cute and well together. Often, really. I love it when they do!

The Turtle Hospital

Today (Thu, 21-Feb) we got up early and headed to the Loggerhead Marine Life Center in Juno Beach, about 2.5 hours away. We got there just in time to see them release a large turtle back into the wild! You can watch a video of it on our Youtube channel.

There were *lots* of people there.

The marine life center, aka turtle hospital, was set up very well! Not only could we see the various turtles, but there were signs in front of each tank with the name of each turtle, where it was found, what was wrong with it, and what they were doing to help it. Lots of them were constipated--poor turtles! But they came from all over. Some were found up in the new england area and, being in too-cold waters, were flown in a helicopter down to the hospital. When Benjo heard that story, he asked "did a turtle fly the helicopter?" LOL! Love that boy!

Eliza listening to a worker talking about a turtle.

This is Topsy. Topsy has a lot of air in its butt and has a hard time getting its head up for air. They have some weights on the back of it to help balance it out, but it spent a good bit of time like this! When Amy put Rebekah on her shoulders to see over the top of the tank, Rebekah decided to throw her shoe into the tank! The workers were totally cool about it and fished it out with a net--thankfully the plastic sandal floated!

Rebekah playing, the cutie.

I can't seem to find the picture I thought I took. One found turtle had been attacked by a shark. One fin had been nearly detached at the shoulder along with some rips in the middle of the fin and a bite taken of the edge! I wonder how it escaped at all!

After the hospital visit, we played and played at the beach!

Lots of life up on this beach!

Playin' in the water.

These girls loved jumping around in the surf!

This girl loved it too!

Beautiful panorama of the beach

We had a great time playing in the sand and waves. Benjo too, though for some reason I didn't get him in the pictures. We used plenty of sunscreen, but even still, we came home with some rosy skin in places!

Florida Hangin' Around Home

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted. Time to play catch up! We've been loving the nice Florida weather. Well, at least I have. Amy's mostly jealous of the snow falling back in Utah and wants some colder weather!

All the girls in pj's snuggling on the couch! I believe this is what's called a "cuddle puddle."

Breakfast is served! I'm in charge of breakfasts currently. We're trying to do cereal less often.

I quite like the colors of the town-homes we're in. 

Budget class. Notice the proximity to the pool. Motivation much?!

The kids were SO excited to spot a frog in our pool area!

Amy created this awesome setup in her closet

The kids have loved playing in our pool. Towels get laundered every. single. night! The pool is pretty cold though and while the FL weather is nice, it's not hot, especially in our i-don't-know-which-cardinal-direction-facing-but-it-gets-lots-of-shade backyard!

For recess then, we often go to the clubhouse pool... and more!

Benjo *loves* the mini golf course! Well, they all do, but Benjo especially. He often chooses this over swimming or the splash pad!

Reading together while the kids play. Sweet!

The picture does it little justice, but this sunset over the pool was awesome!