Florida

Florida

Wow, the afternoon before we left my mom called and said she didn't have good news. My parents went to Target and my Dad stumbled coming out and toppled over onto my Mom. My Dad is 250lbs and my mom around 140lbs. My mom ended up with a broken wrist. She was sent to an orthopedic and had a 6pm appointment. I took her to the appointment fearing the worst. Luckily she ended up only needing a cast for 4 weeks and lots of bruises. The good news was they could still go to Florida with us. Although now we had two parents and two kids to care for!

We flew out on a 8 am flight and next time we need to allow for an extra half an hour at the airport. Traveling with 2 car seats, a pack and play and strollers was hectic. Southwest was fantastic and our flight time was cut short by 20 minutes. We arrived in Tampa and picked up our minivan. We were able to grocery shop and eat lunch before heading to the condo. The Publix we went to had a parking garage underneath and it required us to take an elevator up to the store. Evan and Sara thought this was great. Evan cried when we landed that he wanted to go back to New York.

Our condo was nice 3 bedrooms directly on the beach. The ocean was less than 100 yards away. Surprisingly the sand wasn't hot to walk on. We have been to Ocean City, MD and SC, and VA and had to wear sandals because the sand was very hot. The kids loved the beach, they loved to pick up seashells, wade in the water, and chase the birds. Evan was drawn to each sand castle with a look in his eye that we knew he wanted to destroy them. Luckily we kept every ones hard work safe from Evan. Sara loved the seashells, although Evan saved them and Sara threw them back in. We had a great time in the pool. On the last day Evan finally was brave enough to swim on his own with swimmies. We battled this all summer and there was another boy the same age also named Evan who was doing it so he caved to peer pressure.

We visited the Florida Aquarium, it is amazing. I didn't research it enough because there is a splash park that we didn't go in since I didn't bring extra clothes. We actually spent 3 hours there - a record for my kids! We were able to get half off tickets with our Buffalo Zoo membership so we spent $41.00 for my parents and us, (I wasn't honest about Evans age). We also had to visit a Disney Store. My Dad had promised Evan he would buy him some more CARS. Evans eyes lit up and he thought it was great. We asked Evan what the best part of Florida and the first time he told us stickers, and every time since he has told us the Disney Store. Our local store closed a few years ago. The mall we went to had an indoor ice rink. The kids loved watching the skating. I plan on signing up Evan for lessons in the fall.

I bought some CARS sticker books with reusable stickers. The Cars have to match up to the name, shape, or location. This kept Evan busy for most of the plane ride. I ended up buying another one at the Disney store for the ride home. He did stickers and then fell asleep watching a movie.

Sara's speech exploded in Florida we now have pool, swimsuit, ice cream, down, go, baby, high chair, Binky, bear. One night I took her for laps around the building and each time we reached the street she would see the ice cream store and she would point say ice cream and Mm mm. Needless to say she did not fall asleep in the stroller that night.

As much as I love to travel its tough with little ones, its hard to take them out to eat. We rush through meals just to get out of the restaurant. I didn't bring Sara's portable high chair and she loves to climb out of the restaurant ones.

We had a great time together and the kids love the beach. Evan cried he didn't want to go home he wanted to stay in Florida. My mom was able to use the pool a bit with a cast cover on.