Florida 2023

 Our trek to Florida has came and went. Whhhhyyyyyyyyyyyy does it always go So. Fast. Huh?????? Anyway, we started by meeting my parents half way and sending Tanner home with them. He may have liked Florida, but we liked it way better without him. Maybe next year, buddy! 

We drove through the night and the kids did great. A little melatonin never hurt anyone.😉 We couldn't get into our place until 4:00 in the afternoon so we had some time to kill. We decided to check out Disney Springs which was fine, but now crossed off our list. Maybe with a little more planning and a little more sleep it would be better. But it was fun to see the LEGO store at least.

Then we just got bored and really tired and it was time to go to our house anyway.

We've always gone to Ft. Myers Beach, but Hurricane Ivan brought that to a screeching halt. My SIL found a house in the Orlando area that could accommodate all of us and had some really cool stuff! So while we missed FMB, this was a really great backup plan!

Hours were spent in the ninja room...

...and in the arcade room! Including an epic battle between a few grown ups on the basketball arcade game:) I was not a serious competitor as my personal best was nowhere near the high score. I'm sure that comes as shocking news to you all.

There were three theme bedrooms in the house and our kids were thrilled to be able to sleep in the Mario themed room. There was also a pirate room and a Candy Land room.

We visited the world's largest McDonald's where we ordered pizza, pasta, and some yummy chocolate cake and cheesecake!

These birds were not afraid of humans and camped our right in front of the house!

And swimming. Lots and lots and lots of swimming.

Summer, especially, was a little fish. She would start right after breakfast and go until bedtime, taking breaks only for food if we would let her go that long.

Oh, and she also was introduced to the beautiful pastime of reading by the pool.

Last year at FMB I decided to buy a hat to help shade my face and to keep my scalp from getting burnt. It came with a t shirt that I had all the girls in the family pick a number to win. So this year on our non FMB vacation, we had to model our apparel:)

We spent one afternoon at Clearwater Beach. The water was cooooooold!

Aunt Cassie had the kids all help her make this super cool sand dolphin!

Popsicles at the clubhouse pool!

One night we made up a buddy system for the kids and all the adults went out for seafood. The older kids successfully got the kids fed and entertained with a movie while we enjoyed our time out.

So much good cousin time:)

Finally it was time to reunite with our bubby. I think he had a fine time with grandpa and grandma:)

It was a little rougher of a drive on the way back home. Not bad, but we had to stop and switch out drivers a lot more after a week of late nights and sunshine. We were pretty thankful to pull into our driveway late Saturday afternoon!

Until next time, Florida. Until next time.