Our Florida Vacation... Part 1

All in all we had a good time. It was a shorter vacation than we've done before. I'm of the strong opinion that you really need 2 consecutive weeks to truly relax and get into vacation mode, but it was not a luxury we had this time around. Not that it damped any of the fun.... So, here we go...

We started out bright and early (7am *cough*) and drove down to Ron's Mom's house to pick her up for our long drive. Yes, you read that correctly, we drove to Florida. The last time we drove, Maddie was turning 2 yrs old and we drove through the night so she slept pretty much the entire time. This time, we're getting brave or cocky...either that or just the fact that Maddie is really a good traveler we risked a daytime drive. We were armed with all of the necessities - Disney DVD movies, magnadoodle, books, dolls she could play with in her seat, and the every important fuzzy blanket (for both Maddie and Mommy *grin*) We drove and stopped every couple of hours and ate lunch at a McD's that had an indoor playground to help burn off some of Maddie's energy. We made it all the way to Georgia before stopping for the night at a hotel. (Probably one of the more shocking parts was that Ron let me drive his van for a portion of the day)

The next morning we headed off to St Augustine to meet Ron's sister and family. It was cold when we got up...we had thought we left the cold weather behind in Delaware but we were mistaken and so we bundled up and donned our winter coats and blankets when we ventured out to the beach to check out the shells...

Even though it was cold, it didn't deter Maddie from running around and having a blast looking at the shells and trying to make a sand castle for Mommy.

Nana on the other had was a tad chilly on the beach.

I spent my time checking out all of the shells on the beach, trying for some fun artsy pictures of them that didn't work out. I could have spent more time there hanging out but the wind was really chilly!

We continued driving down the coast and arrived in St Augustine a bit early and so we explored Fort Matanzas National Park for a bit before heading to meet Sharon and crew.

When we got there and started walking around and taking a couple of pictures, a big BOOM went off. They shot off a canon as a demonstration and it FREAKED Maddie out. She stood there holding her hands to her ears for such a long time that Ron came up with this idea... We stood next to her and became the See, Hear and Speak No Evil Family *grin*


Madeline and Daddy checked out the cannons once she was reassured that they would not go off and make a big boom.

Wandering around the grounds exploring where they heated up the canon balls. Who knew?!

Nana, Daddy and Maddie posing nicely for a picture before we headed off to Columbia Restaurant in Old City to meet Sharon. We met Sharon, Kelly, Dalton and Jimmy there and had a great lunch (if you go, say YES to the sangria) and then spent some more time visiting with them...

Aunt Sharon and Uncle Jimmy with Maddie.

Kelly and Maddie...Doesn't it look like Maddie is having a horrible time in these photos? *laugh* She had a blast (which you can tell from her big grin)

Aunt Sharon and Dalton show Maddie how to do some game I don't know the name of but there is bopping, flipping, pulling and twisting involved. Ok, so I got hooked on trying to do it while we were there...*sheepish grin*

Our visit was and always is too short, and after some yummy dessert that Kelly made, we hit the road again for the last little bit to Kissimee. The ride was uneventful and all in all the drive to Florida wasn't really bad. I did get stir crazy but taking a turn driving helped with that.

The house we stayed in was nice. Each family had their own bed and bathrooms and a nice sized pool and jaccuzzi at the house that was pretty much immediately taken advantage of when unpacking and grocery shopping permitted. In the past we had visited parks with each other but this time it was more like every family for themseleves and we all were going in all different directions for most of the week.

The first day we went to Animal Kingdom and it was CROWDED. Apparently the holiday weekend kept alot of people in town.

Of course we had to get her face painted. This is also the ONLY time we got it painted once Mommy realized how expensive it was. *note to self: must remember to look at prices before promising something to 3 yr old* I did try to steer her towards the butterfly or the tiger, but my girly girl wanted the unicorn of course....

She had fun playing in Dinoland and going on a couple of rides. Since the park was so crowded I was NOT happy to let her run free in the play area - it's so hard to see the kids because how it's set up. I freaked out once when I couldn't see her and we promptly left to go on other rides.

This is one that worked well - flying dinosaurs. Maddie loved it and she has to be in control of the up/down button at all times.

Maddie hated the Its Tough to be a Bug show....she got scared when the mean grasshopper came out with poofs of smoke and flashing light. But she did like the safari where a baby giraffe decided to take a walk right in front of our vehicle. They had to call in the wildlife keepers to see if they could move him (which they couldn't, I swear the giraffe just looked at them and smirked and kept on eating) so we went off road around him & saw him very up close. We also took the train to Planet Watch Conservation Station where Maddie smelled the rhinocerous and that is all she talked about for the rest of the day.

She got to take part in story time and had an animal encounter with uhm...uh oh, I forget except that it lived on Madagascar.... as well as a snake and large south american rodent.

This was also her first encounter with a Character. She didn't want to see him at first but after watching a couple of kids go up and give him hugs and get their picture taken, she was all for it...and so our oddessy to see every character in existence started...

....will write more later