Florida Trip

In mid July we started a 10 day road trip to Floroida and back for a work training for Stephen. The kids did great and the 2000+ miles on the road went smoothly. We got to see a lot of Southern countryside that we had never seen.

Elsie was a great traveler! I gotta say, the pacifier is great to have during car trips!!

The boys are so funny in the car. We took a lot of routes instead of the main interstate which was a lot more interesting for them and us! They entertain each other by "pretend" fighting (they grab the others stuffed animals and blankets and yell "mine" back and forth! It was pretty funny), eating, singing and just watching out the window.

Jack likes to "feed" his pooh bears like mommy feeds Elsie! Cracks me up.

My sweet childhood friend Kara and her husband Alex let us stay in their new home that first night in South Carolina.

Stop at a playground in Georgia. Can you tell how hot it was??? We were pretty wet with sweat by the end of this stop! I gotta say, we usually didn't get more than 2 hours before we had to stop. Between Andrew having to go potty or Elsie needing feeding or needing gas/food we had to make a lot of stops!

Elsie loves the swings!

Finally we arrived at our friends the Hornbacks in eastern Florida. It was great to catch up with them and have the boys play together again!

I like this picture of the dads trying to prevent the boys from diving into the fountain!

The 4 boys!

We had a great 2 days/nights at the Hornbacks, then headed through Florida to the Western side to Sarasota for the rest of the week.

The aquarium. Here i have to make a mommy note about life with 3 all 3 and under in a hotel! It is the little things that get you! Stephen had 3 days of training and i was taking care of the kids by myself those 3 days. We thankfully had a 1 bedroom suite so the kids were all in the bedroom sleeping and Stephen and i slept in the pull out sofa in the living space. We would sneak in and out of the bathrooms in the morning getting ready, then i would sneak down to breakfast and bring up heaping plates of food for the kids to eat. Around 8 the kids were up and our day was started. Breakfast, diaper changes, feedings and some toys to play with keep us going for a few hours but then a bit of stir crazy sets in! You make up new rules - no one is allowed in the bathroom (the locks always make me nervous in hotels!) and no putting objects in the air conditioner vent. Or no running over your brother with the office chair! AND to top that off the locks on the front door are all low and the boys can reach those too. So of course there is the rule no touching the front door! In the midst of all this i am trying to get a back together of stuff for the day, lunch, waters, diapers, etc and hope that i don't need to use the bathroom. By 10 i think we are ready to go and i maneuver the double stroller, all our gear and the kids through the hotel and elevators. Everyone is finally buckled in and ready to go and i realize i forgot to pack the boys water!!! There is no way we are going to take another half hour to unbuckle everyone and trek back and forth to get that so off we go to the aquarium we go. Now it is only 15 minutes away but by the time we get there, everyone out of car seats, through the line for tickets, it is 11:30 and almost time to eat lunch and nurse Elsie!! We have about 20 minutes of fun looking at a few tanks. I've got Elsie in the carrier, pushing the double stroller and letting the boys "stay close" to mommy as we look at stuff. And as always the case when we go places the boys are eager to eat so we stop and eat our pb&j. This involves washing hands at the hand washing station which thrills the boys to death - i think they would have been just as happy to wash and dry their hands the whole time then look at fish! After we eat we climb some stairs to look in the shark tank. Jack sticks his leg through the bars and his croc almost falls into the tank - close call! We head to other outdoor tanks when Jack wants to stay outside and Andrew wants to go inside. We compromise and look outside a bit longer, then decide to go inside. At this point Jack is not happy and falls down crying. I pick him up and strap him into the stroller while Andrew holds the door open for us. Something happened with the door opening that wasn't how Andrew planned it and he broke down in tears. The crowds were gathering and i got a screaming Andrew into the stroller too. My Elsie was happy but on edge - she was poopy and needing nursing. I thought to myself... "what am i doing here?". I made the 5 minute walk to the exit (with plenty of stares of sympathy at my plight!) and we made it to the minivan. After an hour of strapping in and out of the van/getting to our room it was 1:30 and nap time! I decided next time i would find a simple park nearby and that was all! Oh what a day - some day it will seem so strange to have an "easy" trip out with the kids!

We visited Siesta Key Beach on our first night. Apparently it is the #2 beach in North America this year and it had the most amazing sand! It was huge too with lots of people.

Can't go wrong with pillows and blankets in hotels! Thankfully i brought some trains and trucks/books so we were able to occupy ourselves with these during the time in the room.

I found this great park just minutes from the hotel where we spent a couple mornings at. It was right on the bay so it had a nice breeze. New playground equipment, fountain park and plenty of boats coming and going. The boys get so excited to go to the playground (esp. Jack) but often get overwhelmed by all the people and noises so they stay pretty close to me. I am thankful for that at this age - i am pretty stuck if both boys would run in different directions!

The boys holding my hands! They always have to hold my hands when we go places, Elsie rides and i squeeze a bag in there somewhere. If i had a penny for every time an elderly person told me "you've got your hands full" i would be rich! So fun.

They found a smaller fountain that they liked. The big ones are a little too big for Jack's taste right now!

Chillin at the pool! The boys had swim maybe once or twice during the winter but that was about all this year. So we got out to the pool most nights when Stephen was back. It was so much fun... Jack was daring and didn't want us to hold onto him. We tried buying a vest to help him but he didn't like it. Actually he mostly liked climbing out of the pool, then coming back in! Andrew liked playing on the stairs.

Pretty sunset at the park on the bay.

We are totally sold on Hilton Homewood suites. Not only do they have separate bedrooms (with a door) but the stay comes with complimentary breakfast AND supper! No cooking all week and all we had to worry about was pb&j's for lunch! One funny thing Jack has been doing is saying "hi daddy" or "hi pawpaw" or "hi grandpa" to strange men. I think sometimes he really is mistaken but other times he realizes people laugh when he does it. So at supper he would say those things to men who would walk by! Oh boy.

We stayed an extra day/night after the training was done to go to the beach/pool and have a wonderful seafood supper. Here we went to Lido Beach - much smaller and more private and the boys loved it. They loved the water and Andrew was the one who wanted to go far out in the water and Jack was a little shy about it. They both loved getting their body all dirty with sand, then going in the water.

Bringing Elsie in the water! I was surprised that it was so hot for her and without an umbrella/tent it was hard to keep her cool. We lasted about an hour and a half but decided we should probably get her inside. I'm sure the boys could have spent many more hours playing in the sand!

After our seafood supper on Longboat Key, we hit up a beach to watch the sunset. By now the boys were pretty fearless with the ocean and it was sad to say goodbye to it. What a great place for toddlers to play!

Family picture before the 2 day trip home. Going home was uneventful. We spent the night at a hotel in Georgia and made plenty of fast food/indoor playground stops along the way! What a great trip but so good to be home!!