Mango Festival at Fairchild Botanical Gardens

Aaron and I had made a list of places we wanted to visit in Miami before we had to move back to Utah. The  Botanical Gardens were one of those places. It just so happened that the annual Mango Festival was happening in July. They bring in mangoes from all over the world for people like us to taste out. It was so beautiful and hot as ever!

Getting knocked in the head with a nut

 Does this sound weird to anyone else?

 Writing wishes on trees

July: Snorkeling in the Keys

We had heard so many great things about snorkeling in the Florida Keys. It's one of the top snorkeling locations in the world. Aaron had bought us both snorkeling gear soon after we moved to Florida. We would take our stuff out to the ocean so I could get use to the gear. There wasn't a ton to see in Key Biscayne so we were excited to get a good opportunity.

 Our friends Mike and Cora invited us to come down to Marathon which is halfway between Key Largo and Key West. Cora's mom and stepdad live out there and were gracious to let us hang with them. We ate a bunch of fresh fruit before we we headed out on the water. Besides the us and the Herreros. Cora's parentals and brother and boat owner were on the boat. It wasn't the best day for boating just because it was pretty windy which meant the water was choppy.

We went out to the middle of the no man's land where there was a lighthouse. We got our gear on and started jumping in the water one at a time. As soon as the boat stopped, the boat was rocking back and forth quite a lot. I started getting queasy but thought that getting into the water would help out.

 We swam around for about five minutes and saw some pretty cool things like a Baracuda and some pretty coral and fish. Unfortunately the water was only making me sicker. I wanted to get back on the boat pronto. I ripped off my snorkeling gear and layed down on the boat. After about ten minutes everyone started getting back on the boat. It just wasn't a good day to see everything we wanted because it was so choppy. The boat started back up and I felt the immediate urge to up chuck, which I did, and made a good meal for the little fishies on the side of the boat. Pretty embarrassing but I guess it could have been much worse if I wouldn't have made it.  By the time we got back on land I was feeling better. We went to a really pretty beach and did some more snorkeling and relaxing. Afterwards, we cleaned up and went to some fresh seafood!

Waiting to try our very first Deep-fried Florida Key Lime Pie! So yummy and so worth the experience.

May

 We thought it would be best to get more use out of this wig. The stares we got at Publix were hilarious!

 Meet Vala the Fennec Fox! She is the newest member of the Herrero family.

 At the fox party to welcome her home. Aaron made some foxtail drinks for everyone.

 Disneyworld!! We wanted to do something fun for our first year anniversary and since there was a great deal going on for Florida residents, we took advantage of it and had such a great time.
Side Note: Just for the record, we love Zoey so much that she even came along with us on our anniversary trip. She stayed in the hotel of course but she was there.

1st day: Magic Kingdom

 Before Splash Mountain...

 After :) We looked like this for the rest of the day.

 In honor of my brother Paul who is serving his mission in Argentina, I lunged for him in from of the castle

 

 2nd Day: Hollywood Studios

Haunted Mansion

 Nighttime

 3rd Day: Animal Kingdom

Don't ask...

On our African Safari we saw a lot of animals close up.

 The lovely Tree of Life

 After Destination Everest

A few days after we got home from Disneyworld, my mom came into town to celebrate birthday. We shopped, tanned, ate yummy food and enjoyed the only week of sun for the month of May.

We took her to one of our favorite places to eat -Garcia's Seafood Grill

 Everglades boat ride

Even though we saw a few gators on our airboat ride, we took it a step further and ventured out on our own on alligator alley. We pulled over on the side of the road and found ourselves a gator. (Look closely since he blends in with the color of the water).

April

I feel like so much has happened in the last few months and I haven't been very good at updating our blog. Instead of throwing it all together in one post, I thought I would go month to month from when I last left off.

April was the performance month. The first week of April was Momentum's Spring Performance at the Colony Theater in Miami Beach. Besides our big performance we had several children's shows and improvisation performances that week.

Improvisation with inflatables at the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens

 Allisen and I

 Merina, Vanessa, me, Katie

 Taking a lunch break at during our long day of tech/dress rehearsal

 The four of us definitely get along well. We're a bunch of sillies

After my last performance we went to the newly opened Serendipity which is just across the street from the theater. I've heard so much about this place that I just had to try it out.

 Cora and Mike Herrero

 Jaubert's frozen hot chocolate