Caroline, Matt, Jake and I were all on the same flight from Denver to Miami to Key West. It was a long day made even longer by our delay in Miami. So we hit the bar at the Miami airport to pass the time.
The first night we got there, Thursday, we went shark fishing! That was quite the adventure. The procedure is pretty involved: First, Jeff and Frank paddled wayyy out there in the canoe with the hook and bait. Meanwhile, Tim has the pole, Mike is setting up the fire, and Jake and Tarah are on beer cooler duty. Once we got the tunes set up and the "party song" on, the pole, that is propped up on the rocks, tugs and we all yell "Shark!" Everyone who is not already down by the water comes running down to join in all the action. A few of the guys take a turn reeling in the shark, but Tony does most of the work. The shark was wayyy out there, as I mentioned before, so it was after reels and reels of anticipation before we actually saw the big fish at the end of our line. I was surprised that the baseball bat that Dave used to help stun the shark enough to bring it on shore, kill it, and, eventually, eat it, didn't seem to affect the shark too much. He just kind of looks at you thinking, "Well, what did you do that for? That wasn't very nice."
The next day, before we cleaned the shark, we took some more pictures. I almost wish I could take my 2nd graders on a shark fishing field trip... I learned a lot about sharks this weekend. Did you know sharks have no bones; they just have cartilage, muscle, and vital organs? Sharks feed only at night, so that's why we did our fishing at night. Also, did you know that sharks have to be constantly swimming in order to stay alive? Only the Nurse Shark can sit still. I also learned that if a shark loses it tooth, another one will grow back in its place. And sharks taste pretty good too.
Also, on Friday we went out fishing for fish other than shark. We caught a pretty decent size Barracuda. This picture is of the one that was caught before I got here, but I don't have a picture of our's, so this will have to do.
Then, on Saturday, we went scuba diving and snorkeling. Dad, Jeff, Tarah, Matt, Frank, Dave, Mary, Mike, Jessica, Tim, Diana, and Tony all went scuba diving. Paul, Sheryl, Jake, and I went snorkeling. The mask line in the picture is proof. It was pretty neat. I saw a shark, lots of barracuda, a couple sting rays, an eel, and lots of pretty fish and coral. I guess there were quite a few jellyfish around too, but I must have missed them. All I was missing was my turtle.
The last day, before we went to the airport, Mom, Mary, Caroline, Matt, Jake, and I spent the afternoon in Key West. We visited the southernmost point of the continental U.S., walked Duval Street, ate a tasty lunch at Jack's Shack, and washed it down with a Key Lime Colada.
It was a fun weekend. I'm glad I was able to miss school to make the trip. It was totally worth it and many thanks to everyone who organized it.
Then we went through the Corn Maze. It's actually pretty difficult. I guess the guy didn't have much confidence in us because he gave us his cell phone number in case we got lost...
We hung out in Larkspur Saturday night to play some board games and watch some football. On our way back up to Denver Sunday morning, we stopped by Park Meadows and walked around the mall for a bit. Then we played some putt-putt before stopping by Jake's parent's house for dinner.
We also toured around the American Girl store, which consisted of every imaginable thing you could ever want for your doll. It was fun, although they're retiring Samantha and Kirsten! 
After a long day of the mall, we had dinner at Cowboy Jack's and went home to watch the movie Away We Go. 
Then we got back on the hay ride and it took us through a "haunted" trail to the rest of the activities. We went though a corn maze, looked at the goats and pigs, and picked out a couple pumpkins. Once we got home, we had lunch, carved the pumpkins, watched some football (Go Broncos!), ate the apple pie we had made earlier, and played Phase 10 (Caroline won). 
