Eli & Cole - two boys, one big adventure: Vacation: Day 5 - Airboat, Alligators and more Pool fun

I had this entire post done and then when I went to publish, it disappeared and was gone. Argh!! This is my 2nd attempt. Not sure if I'll capture everything the same way this time but I'm going to attempt the highlights.

Day 5: Man, this vacation thing is AWESOME!! Today our big activity was to go on an airboat ride looking for alligators. Everyone woke up excited about the day ahead. When the boys woke up, they immediately wanted to go to Grandma's (that is every single day - I think they love to see Grandma and Grandpa and also have the freedom to go back and forth). We had breakfast and hung out around camp for a bit before it was time to go meet our airboat.

Eli kept documenting our vacation in his journal - his idea!! And my memory keeping heart loved it.

His memories so far: "I can sleep in are camper. We went to the shore. We ate dinner at Grandma and Grandpas caper. We here a train. We played tag. We are going on a boat ride. Today we are on a airboat ride. Yerstday we went to the zoo." LOVE IT!!

The cousins gave the boys these alligator figures in a big bag of toys. They got good use.

Eli & Daddy playing catch - can not get a ball out of this boys hands.

Cole totally belongs in Florida.

He LOVES oranges and has had them every day.

I think he might turn into one!

Cool spy goggles from the cousins.

Eli tried to help Cole put them on but Cole got aggravated.

Sweet picture......

and the tackle after!

"What? We didn't do anything."

"Really, we didn't!" Man I love these boys!!

We headed out to meet Alligator Bruce for our airboat tour. We used him on the recommendation of some of Grandma & Grandpa's friends and he did not disappoint! We were on a small airboat so that meant it was only our family on the tour and we were able to go places the big boats can't go. We were all very excited to go out. The boat motor is pretty loud so everyone was given headphones. They also had a microphone on them where not only could Alligator Bruce talk to us, we could talk to him. Eli thought it was quite funny to talk and make noises into the microphone. The tour was 90 minutes and it was super awesome. We were definitely tourist amazed at all the alligators. There were even a few times he took the airboat over the land and that was a big surprise!

Cole wasn't too thrilled wearing a life jacket

Headed to our ride

Grandpa, Cole & I rode in the 2nd seat and Grandma, Eli & Daddy in the back.

Here we go!!

Cole really was having fun. He wanted my glasses because we were going so fast it was windy in his eyes.

Check out those alligator eyes / heads. This was an amazing sight to me. Soooo cool!

Hello Big Boy!

Fun stuff!

It was so nice being away from everything.

Eli loved every second of the ride.

Grandpa & Cole searching for alligators.

Apparently alligators don't go too far from the shore. They might get out a bit but tend to stay near water.

Future boating boy?

Headed into the smaller areas

Our whole crew

Alligator Bruce - he was a great guide.

Back in this forest, he told us about the trees and the whole area. Amazing that the lines on these trees represent floods and was the water line. I don't remember the years but he told us.

These are the "knees" of these trees.

See all those alligators eyes / heads and alligators out there? And see that little jon boat? Uhhhh, yeah that would not be me in that boat.

Super cool shot. We must have seen hundreds of alligators and even chased some!

We took a little land stretch break out there and Eli immediately starting building his shelter. He's going to be ready for 'Survivor' in 10 years!

Yay! We had so much fun. A first for us all!

Airboat Brothers

Cole wasn't quite asleep but he was tired. The open water sure wears him out!!

When we got back to camp, we played around and explored some more. The boys loved riding bikes and wore the path between our camper and Grandma's out!

Water gun fight

Our setup - screen house, picnic table and camper. It was awesome!!

Headed to the shore.

This pier was part of the campground. I think some folks may fish off of it.

Family photo (thank you self timer!)

We had fun taking a few pictures.

Cole was being all cute

and happy on the pier.

Then he got all pouty when it was time to leave

and then cried about not wanting to walk.

Eli went down to check on him

and coaxed him into walking

and tried to make him feel better. It was SO sweet!!

Our campsite - #146.

The boys kept asking for the super cold pool again. I had seen that some campgrounds advertise their pools are "solar heated". I don't know if this one did but I joked that the pool was "solar heated" because it was only as warm as the sun made it. Even though it was cold, the boys insisted they play in the water again.

Eli practicing his freestyle.

Cannon-Ball!!!

Eli found a friend and played a game looking at each other under the water.

Cole loves to jump into the pool.

First time jumping out of Daddy's hands.

Learning to do a handstand in the water.

After the pool, we played some more around camp and had dinner with Grandma & Grandpa and some of their friends. Camp life is so awesome!!

The boys were hiding the alligators and it was Grandpa's turn to hide them. Notice the tails coming out of his pockets?!

Cole was the first one to find them.

Tim & I were playing UNO before dinner and this cracks me up because Eli was trying to tell Tim what cards to play.

Cole kept talking about wanting to sleep in Grandma's bus. While we were eating dinner, he said he was tired and went inside and fell asleep. He was O-U-T!