FLORIDA FAMILY VACATION!

We just got home from our big big summer trip.  We had a blast and made lots of memories.  Here is the recap of our trip and lots of photos: 

MONDAY:

The boys and I stayed busy all morning packing, cleaning, and playing while dad caught a few zzzz before hitting the road.(Will had to work till 6 a.m. that morning).  Once Will was up we loaded the last few things and loaded up....but where was the van key?  We couldn't find it anywhere.  After searching the house and retracing my steps I realized mom had turned the van off for me the night before because Grant fell asleep in the van and I carried him up to his room when we got home.  I called her up and sure enough the key was in her purse.  So we made a plan to meet here in Nashville, IL and get the key. (we do have an extra but its just like the bare bones skeleton key to turn on the van not really what you want to use one a road trip)  Then I realized I had forgotten the diaper bag the night before at the restaurant we had met mom and dad at.  So we picked up the diaper bag, drove down the road and picked up the key and were finally on our way.  It felt like a bit of a rough start to a 2 day road trip and about an hour behind schedule.  However things turned around for us.  Grant fell asleep and slept almost 3 hours which meant we drove 3 hours with no potty breaks! (I think this was our longest stretch of the whole trip).

Grant riding "Kevin Bacon" at one of many potty stops

Grant riding a fish at a very nice Tennessee rest stop

We had hoped to make dinner at our hotel because we knew they serve a free meal during the week.  But once we realized we weren't going to make dinner especially with the time change we decided to start the trip out with McDonald's for dinner and ate it in the van so we could keep getting down the road.  We didn't get into our hotel until about 8:30 and boys weren't asleep till almost 10!  

Homewood Suites in Chattanooga, TN

TUESDAY: 

 We were up pretty early for a quick continental breakfast and on our way.  We made it through Atlanta with no traffic hangups at all and were making blazing time for Florida.  So I suggested a bit of a detour to check out the Museum of Aviation at Robins Air Force base.  It was about a 15 minute drive from the interstate to the museum but we found out we could eat there too so we decide to give it a try.  

An impressive collection of aircraft!

Boys posing by the P-51 Mustang

Did I mention the museum was free!?  Considering it was free and I knew nothing much about it I didn't have too high of hopes but figured if we could just eat and let the boys run a bit it would be worth it.  We were pleasantly surprised and the quality and the size of the museum.  It was all very well done and there were 4 hangers of aircraft and displays to look at. (we didn't even make it to the last hanger cause we needed to get going).  The museum restaurant was one woman making sandwiches and hot dogs but it was all good and fresh and reasonable priced.  

Rex and I in a helicopter display

Rex gave it 2 thumbs up

After our fun stop we were on the road again and still had several hours till reaching the McQuaids house.  This was probably the hardest leg.  The boys were over movies and after 2 days of driving ready to be there.  We pushed through and arrived about 5:30.  It was great to settle in let the kids play and enjoy catching up with Sally and Aaron and plan our activities for the rest of the trip.

First dinner all together!  Steak and pork steaks for all!

WEDNESDAY:

Sally had to work Wednesday, and Hannah had summer school for the morning.  The rest of us loaded up and headed to Paynes Prairie to walk the La Chua Trail in hopes of seeing some Alligators in their natural habitat.

I had an interesting ride sitting between these 2.

I love the Spanish moss in the trees.

Buddies

We started down a nice shady paved trail.  The boys were having fun together, I loved looking at all the spanish moss in the big old trees.  Lily was snoozing on Aarons back.  We saw many signs warning us to be careful we were about to enter to alligators territory!  Then the trail led to a board walk area over the water, then we got to the prairie part of the trail with no shade, and about 100 degree sun shining down on us.  We probably walked about a quarter of a mile down the trail and one by one the boys were wilting on us. We did find several water holes with gators swimming around.  Will and I really enjoyed seeing them in the water and watching them move and pop up out of the water and trying to count how many we could see at once.  Finally we decided we better head back and the trail back seem to take a lot longer than it had on the way out.  Thanks Gators for sharing your home with us for a bit.

boys demonstrating alligators chomping us.

                        

all the bumps you see in the water....those are alligators

The McQuaid crew

how many gators can you see?  I count 4.

the boys looking at an alligator looking at them.

beautiful flower along the trail.

Once we got home and cooled off from the park the kids all had fun playing together all afternoon.  There was lots of dress up and nerf wars.  Mommy and Daddy may have even joined in on a nerf battle or two.

dress up fun

Pirate Grant

That evening we had a belated birthday party for Hannah.  Chicken Enchiladas for dinner (Hannah's pick).  Cake and ice cream and a pinata!  And a close family friend and her son over for dinner too.

THURSDAY:

ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH DAY!

We were all excited and looking forward to beach day and it didn't disappoint! Once we all got loaded up with all our beach day gear we had about a 2.5 hour drive to get there.  We had a good lunch we had packed at home once we arrived at the park and were surprised to not see many cars in the parking lot.  

lunch

Beach kids. (don't let Lily fool you she had fun she just didn't want to pose)

We made the short hike to the beach and got our tent all set up then headed of for the sand and the water.  There was a nice little tide pool that most of the kids enjoyed playing in most of the day. It was nice because it wasn't very deep and we could let the kids run all over that area without too much worry.  Rex loved jumping waves in the ocean and would have been out there all day if he could.  Will and I took turns taking him out in the ocean and staying with Grant at the tide pool.  We even snuck in a mile and a half run down the beach to the pier.  Now I can cross that off my bucket list: go running on the beach. check!  
It was a warm day but there was a nice breeze and we stayed cool in the water and it was really pleasant all day.  Sally and Lily and Grant and I liked sitting on the edge of the beach and letting the waves come in and cover our legs.  Grant, Sally, Titus, and I built a big sand castle.  Aaron and Titus and Hannah enjoyed some time in the waves too.  Will tried boogie boarding a bit and was out in the ocean with Rex a lot. All the kids liked finding sea shells and we brought home quite a few with us. Before we knew it it was time to start packing up and cleaning up for dinner.  

Teenage Mutant Titus

Fun in the sun

our sand castles with moats.

the tide pool

Lily had fun in the tide pool too....just don't eat the sand Lily!

Ocean boy

Family pic!

After we all got cleaned up a bit and as much sand off of us as we could we headed to Mango Mango a favorite beach side restaurant.  It was nice to sit and hear all the kids stories from the day.  The kids slept all the way home and even transported into their beds.  We all assessed and medicated our sun burns.  Will and I said it was as much fun as last time, actually maybe even a little more fun.  The boys were 2 years older than our last visit to the ocean and able to enjoy it and do more.  I think we are all already looking forward to our next trip to the ocean.

Aren't these 2 cute?

My yummy bean and rice dinner with fried bananas!

tired boys on the way home

FRIDAY:

Friday Sally was back at work but the rest of us ventured out for a morning outing to the Gainesville Zoo.  It is a small teaching zoo were all the workers are students working towards a zoology degree.  It was small but very well done and just the right size for the kids.  The kids enjoyed walking around and seeing all the animals and playing at the zoo playground.  After that we split up for a bit. Aaron and kids went to do some errands and we headed to Jason's Deli in town for lunch.  The boys must have really worked up an appetite because they ate and ate, it was a nice long relaxing lunch.  Friday evening we just enjoyed hanging out at the house and playing out in the yard.  

checking out the monkeys

Hannah and the Gator

Buddies

Monkeys!

SATURDAY:

For our last morning before we headed of we enjoyed a big pancake and egg breakfast and found a local playground to let the kids run around at.  We had a quick lunch and loaded up and headed north. We ran into several traffic jams and lots of road construction slow downs all the way Saturday.  We finally got into our hotel and were able to make it to the pool for a bit.  Rex was very excited to swim and Grant did well too and even swam on his own a few times with water wings on but mostly just wants us to hold him still.  

pool fun

SUNDAY:

Sunday we were treated to the Embassy Suites amazing free breakfast.  Made to order omelets for me and Will and French Toast Stick for the boys.  Our final day of travel was also going to be our longest day of driving for the whole trip.  The boys did really well overall.  They both had some new Teenage Mutant Turtle Legos that kept them quite happy and lots of shows and snacks too.

Papa Rex gave the boys $1 to spend on the trip Rex purchased a bag of candy corn and Grant bought circus peanuts.

We made a stop in Metropolis on the way home to visit the home of Superman.  The boys liked the big statue and the gift shop.  We made a final stop at a McDonald's (we hadn't been since our first stop a week ago) and made it home before dark.  

Our vacation by the numbers:

16-the number of movies the boys watched in the van there and back

3.5-the most hours we drove between stops 

20 mins- the least time we drove between potty breaks

5- the number of fast food restaurants we ate at while traveling (surprisingly low I think)

2- the number of hotels we stayed at

6-the number of nights we were away from home

99-the number of potty stops we made for Grant (ok not really but sometimes it felt like that was all we did)

32-the approximate number of hours we traveled to and from Florida

2- the number of hours we were held up in traffic

10- on a scale of 1-10 how much fun we had on vacation!