Florida 2011

Fantastic. That is the best way to describe pretty much everything about this vacation. We had perfect weather all 8 days, lots of fun things to do, lots and lots of family time, and lots of rest and relaxation. It was great. We left right away after school on Thursday afternoon and made it to our destination by 11AM on the dot on Friday morning. It was the first time we ever made it without having to stop to snooze. Jonathan did most of the driving, but I pitched in for about three hours from 5am to 8ish so he could catch a few zzzz's.

We were quite excited to hit the Florida border.

We like to stop at the Florida welcome centre for pictures and a glass of orange juice.

And this time to freshen up after the night too.
My pictures are not in chronological order. I find it harder to do lately unless you are really organized and apparently I didn't care to much this time:)

We spent Tuesday at the Atlantic Ocean - New Smyrna Beach. We hummed and hawed about whether to make the trip since it does mean being in the van for 4 hours or more and after a long drive, van time is not the best. But we are very glad we went. We drove right up on to the beach, so everything was nice and close.

The beach was very wide, but very wet. We sat close to the water originally, but everything got soaked right through the sand. We really should have had chairs. But we just got wet while the kids played in the water, and then later when they played in the sand, we moved back to the van where things were dry. The water was quite cold I thought, but it didn't deter the kids too much.

We walked along the beach for a bit and saw a few of these things.

The boys found this surf board at a garage sale we went to with G & G on Saturday morning. They had some good fun with it while at the ocean.

Warming up after being in the frigid water.

She doesn't sit still too long . . .

But she did create this castle that didn't last too long. Some waves came in very far. Which is probably why the sand was so wet. (and probably had something to do with the tides too)

I love how blue the sky was.

Sand time.

Jonathan spotted the dolphins . . . though they were very hard to see, it was neat to see bits of them and to know they were out there!

I love this picture with the wave layers and the boy layers:)

No explanation required.

The saltwater seemed to bug Kade mostly. (I think he is in the habit of opening his eyes because of all his diving and chasing things in the pool . . . though he says he didn't open them at the ocean)

We went to the market one day and saw this cow on the side of the road. It seemed quite content despite the heavy traffic rolling by . . . .

Blowing bubbles.

Sunday pictures:

Love it.

Doesn't matter how hard we try, we just aren't quite normal:), so sometimes its easier not to try:)

Darwin and Carrie came to visit on Monday and Grandpa and Grandma took us all out on the boat.

Turtles.

The kids all had a turn driving.

This alligator was out on the side of the lake . . .

. . . and this is the one that hangs out in the park by the boats. On the last day, we saw a BIG mama with a whole bunch of babies crawling all over her back. Someone had binoculars and let us borrow them. It was pretty neat. Too bad I didn't have my camera for that one.

Pool time! We spent time at the pool every afternoon and sometimes mornings and night. It was hot enough to be in the water most of the day. The pool water was lovely! (and that's coming from me:)) The kids were in the water most of the time - especially Kade and Kylie.

Because Kylie had great fears last year, I didn't expect her to leave the stairs and rail all week.

But all fears seemed to be forgotten and with her tube and/or waterwings, she had NO fear!

Kevin likes the water too, but he has to be doing something. He doesn't just swim. He joined in water volleyball a few times and loved it. He also likes to just play with a ball. Jonathan played water volleyball a few times too (I did once with Carrie) and he loved it and the "old" people do too!

Lounging.

Must have been the fact that he was sporting a bathing suit and could see his belly so often, but Kevin was quite impressed with how fat he is getting. He would stand there and hold one hand on the front of his belly and one on the back and just exclaim at how fat he was getting, and how he was for sure getting bigger than Kade in that area. I had to say that just before this picture . . . count them ribs:)

Snacking.

She even got brave enough to shed the waterwings/tube and loved jumping in to Jonathan. He gave her swimming lessons to and she tried really hard. She didn't have the strength or coordination to stay above water long, but she never gave up and didn't mind sinking down as long as we rescued her quickly enough. I was just amazed at her progress.

Yep. She's a keeper.

Kade's attempt at pictures. Kevin tried on Sunday and they didn't quite work. So this is attempt number two.

And not one to be left out, Kylie had to have her turn to snap a few . . .

Our campsite. I must say I didn't envision camping at all when thinking of this vacation, but the boys called it the campsite, the camper and camping. And I guess it sort of was. We had to walk to the washrooms and showers. We ate outside on the picnic table - all three meals. But I still think it was pretty luxurious camping.

The camper had two sets of bunk beds on the left side - boys on top and Kylie and all the suitcases on the bottom. On the opposite end was the queen or double bed for us. It was great.

We have a bit of a tradition of going for a night swim. This year we did it twice. Kylie didn't swim the first time, but joined in the fun the second time. This dress makes her dance. She feels like a princess:)

The almost full moon.

It felt like summer, but smelt like spring there. The orange tree blossoms smelled SOOO good and a lot of people were busy in their flower beds. Made me want to get my hands in the dirt too!

The boys found out about this sport called pickle ball. This court was near the pool and volleyball court, so the last few days when Jon played volleyball, the boys spent hours playing this game.

We also enjoyed minigolf, big golf, lots of walking, tennis and lots more. And we can't forget the big highlight for the kids and especially Kevin - the golf cart. They took turns steering every chance they got.

. . . and Kylie just had to have a picture of her driving too. The boys loved it when it was her turn to steer b/c she was so crazy. Good thing there was adult supervision!

And then it was time to go home. We left at 3:30pm on Friday.

Kevin and Kade enjoying some Calvin and Hobbes.

We hit traffic for a couple hours from 8-10pm around Atlanta, but still made good time and were home by 10:30am Saturday morning. Jonathan made it till 6am this time when I took over.

Movie time. The kids travelled fairly well. (though I think they were better other years)

And then it was quickly back to life in the cold north. At least there was hardly any snow!

We had about 10 days of almost hockey free talk from Kevin. (of course he still wanted to know if the Leafs won or not, but no hockey playing at all in Florida - though tennis pretty much took the place of hockey - any spare moment he had a tennis raquet and a ball in hand just bouncing it around and LOVED it if we took him to the tennis courts and played!!)
But within in 10 minutes of being home, here he was. (and lots of TSN highlights to catch up on too! Crazy boy.)

That was our fantastic vacation. We feel very blessed to be able to do these things with our kids and to make such great memories! The kids (all of us actually) seemed to thrive with all the family time. It really is a treat to spend so many consecutive days with all five of us - without too many demands. This vacation was the right thing at the right time and we are so thankful to God and to our wonderful grandparents for the opportunity. We loved spending time with Grandpa and Grandma too. They were fantastic hosts and set things up so wonderfully for all of us. Thanks for everything Grandpa and Grandma!!!!