Florida 2011

We survived the drive! We left the house at 7:30 a.m. thursday morning and it was a chilly 2 degrees out. We arrived in Orlando at 4:45 p.m. on Friday and it was a balmy 89 degrees out.... ahhh, it was definitely worth the stress of the drive! The drive really wasn't too bad, it's just really l o n g. We kept talking about flying vs driving and I don't know... at this point with all the crap we bring (bags, carseats, stroller, pack n play) flying really isn't that much more convenient. But you can bet you behind that as soon as these guys are out of carseats we will be taking a plane! When we left our house the roads were still quite snow covered and icy and even once we arrived to the highway (about an hour later) the highway only had one lane clear of snow until a little south of Big Rapids. By Grand Rapids though, I think we had lost the snow completely. We stopped in Cedar Rapids for Breakfast and then just north of Indianapolis for lunch fuel and to switch drivers (from Aaron to me). I drove until just past Nashville and then Aaron took over from there to just south of Chattanooga (Ringgold) where we stopped at 10:30 p.m. for the night. A solid 15 hour day and the kids did great up until we hit traffic/construction that delayed us an hour in TN. The next day we left at 8am and Aaron drove the whole way to our destination in Orlando. Originally we were going to switch when we stopped for lunch in Valdosta but the kids were totally sick of being in the car at this point and Aaron decided I had the harder job of trying to keep the kids happy so he decided he would stay behind the wheel. Brody told me he "had to go pee" about every 2 minutes because he just wanted out of his seat and luckily I was able to call his bluff and we didn't have any accidents! No major slowdowns on this leg of the drive, we were grateful!

Yesterday was Brody's third birthday! We had decided not to do Disney this year and originally I was kind of feeling bad that we would be in Florida on Brody's birthday and NOT taking him to Disney but when we woke up yesterday I realized that he would probably want to do ANYTHING other than get in the car again. Even if it was Disney World! So instead we had a relaxing day of swimming, fishing and playing around. He had a great day, despite falling on the basketball court and getting a mark on his forehead that is a perfect little shape of the flooring (he also has a line down his nose but you can't see it well in the photos). Everyone else is having a good time as well! Jacob is currently on his third round of mini golf with Aaron and Austin has been a pretty happy guy too, despite cutting two teeth! Oh and the best news... so far they have been sleeping great having all three boys in the same room!