Florida Day 2 – Stingrays, Egrets, Pelicans & Sunscreen
Day 2 in Florida we woke up and got ready for our day, which entails putting sunscreen on everyone!
The first time we came to Florida we went on a walk in the morning on the beach the first day without sunscreen. We stayed out too long as the sun rose higher and higher, and then by the time we got back to our camp the children were already covered in sand making it so hard to put on the sunscreen. We all got so burned the first day of our trip that year.
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This year we were trying out three different kinds of natural sunscreen that get a #1 rating on the EWG website. They were good and I would use them again, but we still did get burned a little. I only re-applied the sunscreen though on their faces, as it is just too hard to re-apply it on their bodies after all the water and the sand. We do try and cover them with their bathing suits and rashguard shirts as much as we can.
BATHING SUITS AND GEAR:
Our favorite place to get bathing suits is Lands End. We have been impressed with their quality and like their guarantee for their products.
We have always gotten our daughter's bathing suits there as well, but realized that we needed to find some legging type bathing suit for her as well as the sand rubs on her thighs when you wear your bathing suit all day long. We found some great bathing suits bottoms for girls at UV Skinz.
For the baby:
This is the bathing suit we got for our baby as we wanted her completely covered when we were out in the sun most of the day. Then we got her some water shoes/aqua socks so that her feet were covered as well. They worked really for her to walk in on the beach and she did not get sunburned.
Hats are also really important for us to have for our children. These are the BEST hats - Sunday Afternoon Kids Play Hat!!! Our girls have matching hats and our boys have matching hats so that we can look out and spot them quickly. They wear them pretty much the entire time we are outside in the sun in Florida. We use these constantly in the summer and especially when we are on camping trips.
SUNSCREENS WE HAVE TRIED:
Raw Elements Eco Formula 30 was my favorite for this trip. I feel like it did the best with only one application and it rubbed in fairly well without being too white. I will continue to use this one as it is my favorite brand right now.
Raw Elements Eco Formula 30 in the tin was great for application to the face and for re-applying it to the face. I felt like it covered well without being too white and would rub into the skin.
Raw Elements Tinted Facial Moisturizer 30 - I love, love, love this one for especially me! It is tinted and looks pretty dark when you open it but it goes on fairly clear and is wonderful! My children and husband can even use it because it does not leave any color. It does look a little greasy on your face, but I prefer that than the ones that leave a little white tint. I just ordered the Raw Elements Sunscreen Eco Tint Stick 30 for this summer so we will see how that goes on as well. The Facial Moisturizer comes in a nice little tin that is easy to take with you everywhere. I plan to use this on my family's faces this summer as we do a lot of hiking on our big road trip/camping trip this summer.
Raw Elements Eco Form Sunscreen Stick SPF 30 - We used this one to re-apply sunscreen on faces. It worked okay, but was really hard to apply as it didn't glide well. I prefer the tin, but do like how small this one is as it fits so well into a pocket.
Badger Balm Kids Face Stick - 35 - Tangerine and Vanilla - I liked using this one for applying to the children's faces. They loved it because it smelled good, like an orangesicle. This helped espcially for the re-application under their eyes and their nose and cheeks.
Badger SPF 30 Baby Sunscreen Cream was good. I think it is one of the better natural sunscreens and I would get it again but I did prefer the Raw Elements sunscreen over it. Although both of them are fine for babies, I did use this one on my baby more than the Raw Elements. She did not burn at all, although I kept her mostly covered up.
Blue Lizard Australian Baby Sunscreen SPF 30 - This is the one that I used last year and some this year. I love how this sunscreen rubs in. However I would use this one after I have a base tan. We used this one after we had been in Florida for a few days. It does not provide as much coverage as the Raw Elements and my children have burned on this one if I use it the first day we are out in the intense sun all day in Florida. It is a nice alternative to have. I like how the bottle becomes a different color when it is out in the sun and there is a chance that you could get sunburned.
Blue Lizard, Lizard Lips SPF 22 Lip Balm - We really like this sunscreen chapstick.
After lathering up with sunscreen and eating breakfast we begin our day on a walk down the beach exploring what the tides left the night before and enjoying the beauty of the morning.
Our hope was always to be up and out early, but with a large family and little ones, that just didn't happen. I had to let that go as one of my favorite times at the beach is the early morning. Someday we will be walking on the beach earlier, but now is not the time.
One of our favorite things to do in Florida is to find shells. We learn about the different shells and the animals in some of them and enjoy finding unique ones. We always know when one of our children has found a special shell as they come running as fast as they can to show us.
These fisherman were fishing with a net right of of their boat. It was so neat for our children to see them fishing this way.
They were all enjoying walking in the water and started walking out on the sandbar further out and then our oldest stepped on a stingray... Thankfully it didn't sting him. He yelled, "I just stepped on cartilage!!!" Jonathan saw the stingray glide by. The boys raced to shore and our daughter asked to be held. No one wanted to walk in the water anymore for the time being. Everyone was reminded that you need to shuffle your feet, when in the water. The next day Jonathan also stepped on one. He felt the flutter under his feet.
This Snowy Egret was so neat! It would come and try and get small fish from a fisherman's bucket of bait. We were able to get so close to it!
This snowy egret is so beautiful! We've never seen one this close up before. There is always something new to see every walk we take on the beach.
We do not have a good picture of it, but the pelicans this morning were amazing! There were around 25 of them or more diving for fish right by where we were walking. It was so fun to see. They dive and crash into the water to catch their fish then you can see them tip their heads back and swallow the fish if they caught one. So much wonderful nature to observe!
After our walk it was time to play in the water. The water is so warm!
Our baby just loved sitting in the water and and putting sand in her bucket.
Time to take a break from the sun for lunch and drawing, painting and writing in our nature journals of things we have seen today.
Back to the beach for a nap and some sand sculpting.
We met a really nice friend the day before when we arrived who said she was going to Sanibel Island the next day and would bring back some shells for us.
Here she is showing us all of the shells that she brought back for us! It was so kind and so many fun shells!
The evening, sunset, beach nature walk after dinner! A great way to end the day!
They found an egg case for a lightening whelk. There were also so many lightening whelks burried in the sand. They have a beautiful shell and are so much fun to find.
I’d rather give my children a life of adventure than a house full of stuff.
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