Florida, December 2011

Phillip had a business trip to Jacksonville, Florida in early December, so the kids and I decided to follow him down there a few days later to visit family.  The plane trip went really well, the kids were so good the people sitting in front of us didn't even know they were there till we landed!  Lugging all their stuff through the airport was horrible, though.  I don't plan on doing that alone again.  Ever.  Phillip picked us up at the airport and we headed down to St. Augustine to see Great-Grandma Melrose.  Our hotel was across the street from the beach, but only Phillip and Sophie ever got over there because it got chilly!  We visited with Grandma and the rest of the family for the next 3 days.  The kids had fun meeting all these new people and being the center of attention.  We spent time together, just our little family, too.  St. Augustine is a beautiful place and I look forward to visiting again.

After St. Augustine, we hopped in the car and headed 5 hours across Florida to Cape Coral to visit my sister, Sara and her family.  She has 3 girls and my kids adore them.  We just let the kids run free and play to their hearts content while we adults enjoyed each others company.  We went to the beach one day and ate out a lot, watched lots of sports (both of our husband's teams won!) and just relaxed. 

When we left Cape Coral, we got on a plane to Orlando (no DisneyWorld this trip) and dropped Phillip off there for another business trip.  The kids and I headed home (alone, again, with even more stuff!) and they were just as good on the plane this time. 

We enjoyed every minute of our trip and are looking forward to planning another family adventure in the near future. (This time, Daddy will fly with us!)

Cape Coral, Florida

We spent 4 days in Cape Coral, visiting my sister's family.  Sadly, I only have pictures from our day at the beach.  The kids just played and played and played the whole time.  We didn't take swimsuits to the beach because we thought the water would be cold, we were wrong!  It was absolutely gorgeous!  So, the kids got soaked in their clothes, but we had stuff to change them into.  After playing on the beach, we headed to Cheeburger, Cheeburger.  We were all exhausted, but had so much fun.  On our way home from Florida the kids were already asking when we could go again! 

St. Augustine, Florida ~ Alligator Farm

Albino Alligator

AHHH!  I'm dinner!

This cobra was following Phillip's hand, it was so cool!

The little one in there is actually average size.

Maximo came swimming over to check us out, creepy!  He's HUGE.

Feeding the Alligators.

Creating a frenzy!

Ommm. . .

On our last day in St. Augustine we headed over to the Alligator Farm.  It is a seriously cool place!  We had it to ourselves for the most part and it was so much fun.  We went over to say goodbye to Great-Grandma right after this and Mitchell walked into the house, said, "Bye!" to Grandma, "Bye!" to Uncle Bruce and headed right back out the door.  He refused to come back in, because he'd done what I'd told him!  He finally came back in and gave them kisses, then we headed across Florida to Cape Coral, and Aunt Sara's house.

St. Augustine, Florida ~ Castillo de San Marcos

The first day in St. Augustine, it was gorgeous!  The rest of the time, it was downright chilly (for Florida).  But, we still had a lot of fun. :)  This fort is just beautiful, and the kids enjoyed looking all around.  It's made of seashells!  This last picture is a close up of the wall, isn't that so cool!  Next time, I hope to go to the Lighthouse, but both kids were too short to go up to the top, so we decided to skip it this trip.  We drove over the Lion Bridge lots of times and it was neat to see it working as a draw bridge.

St. Augustine, Florida ~ Visiting Great-Grandma Melrose

We spent 3 days in St. Augustine this December.  We got to visit with Great-Grandma Melrose, her sister, Aunt FL, her son, Uncle Bruce, and her daughter, Aunt Sandy (didn't get any pictures of Aunt Sandy or her husband, Uncle James).  The kids were spoiled rotten, and very well-behaved.  Great-Grandma will be 94 this April and it was so much fun for the kids to get to meet her!  (Sophie and I went down for her 90th birthday, but Sophie doesn't remember that at all, so it was like she was meeting her for the first time)

Mitchell Turns 2!!

We had a dinosaur party for Mitchell's second birthday.  It snowed that morning and we were afraid no one would make it, but almost everyone did!  We just let the kids run free and the parents sat and talked for a while, then did pizza, presents and cake.  Everyone (especially the Birthday Boy) had a great time!  I can't believe he's 2!