Florida Fun - Part 4

Besides the beach, we did do some other stuff on our vacation.  :)  As I mentioned in my last post, we managed to eat out almost every day.  There is a place close to the house that is right on the beach.  It is beautiful, and they have great seafood!

We were able to meet up with our good friends, the Reece's while we there.  I just love getting together with this family.  Miley and their daughter, Kayla, just adore each other and are always so happy to see each other, even after not seeing each other for months.  We met at a park and let the kids play for a while, then went out for gelato.  It is always sad to say goodbye to such good friends, but we are hoping to see them back in Minnesota in the next couple of months!

We always seem to find some time to shop while I am with my family.  My mom and I were able to make it to the mall for a couple hours one evening, and on night we spent some time looking for chairs for the house.  We parked by this tiki type restaurant, and Miley and Landon had to get a picture by the statue...and of course, Miley and I kept ourselves entertained on some of the drives to restaurants and shopping by taking selfies.  :)

Our last night there, we went out to Benihanas.  It is right on the intercoastal, and so the kids were able to watch some boats go by.  They thought it was fun to try to the chopsticks with dinner.  :)

On March 25th, sadly, we had to return back to cold Minnesota.  We had another really early flight, but again, the kids did great.  Landon slept on the flight from Florida to Chicago again (seriously, it was great), and we made it home right on time that afternoon so Cameron could make it to class that evening.

It was such a great trip.  It was just what we needed to boost our spirits and get us through this last haul until spring.  We are thinking that this needs to become our annual trip.  Now, back to reality!  Hopefully spring is here sooner, rather than later, because now that we have had a taste of warm weather we are ready for it to come to Minnesota!

Florida Fun - Part 3

A couple days while we were in Florida, we drove to beaches that were a little ways away from our normal beach that we walk to.  One beach was perfect...a HUGE beach, super calm water, and lots of chairs and umbrellas to sit and relax on.  We were there for a couple hours, then realized that you were supposed to pay for the chairs to use them.  Whoops.  :)  We had a great morning there anyway, though.  

We ate at a lot of delicious places while we were in Florida.  One of our favorites is the 15th Street Fishery, because they have a dock right outside where you can feed tarpon fish.  Our kids loved it last year, and this year was no different!  They didn't even want to eat...they just wanted to spend the whole time feeding fish!

I think one more post left about Florida...but we will see.  :)

Florida Fun - Part 2

As I said in our last post, most of our week consisted of the beach, beach, and more beach!  We loved it!  It was relaxing, yet kept the kids plenty entertained!  They loved building sandcastle, swimming out into the water, and just running around!

I love this next series of pictures!!  Landon absolutely loved digging these big holes, filling them with water and then jumping in them.  Kept him happy for hours!  I love the jumping action shots!  :)

Really, Landon could have been perfectly content just playing in the sand the whole week.  IT was his happy place.  :)

One evening to help the kids burn a little more energy, we went to a park that was right on the beach.  I can't even explain how good it felt to be outside, getting fresh air, and running around after being cooped up inside for months!

Still more beach pictures to come!

Florida Fun - Part 1

We just returned from a wonderful spring break trip to Florida.  With the winter we have been having, it felt so good to get out of the cold and snow for eight days!  We spent the majority of the week relaxing and just enjoying the warmth, but I was able to get a few pictures along the way.  :)

We got up really early on the morning of March 17th for our flight to Chicago.  Our flight was a little delayed, but fortunately we had a long layover in Chicago, so it didn't make us miss our connecting flight to Florida.  The kids were great travelers.  Miley was happy with her movies and games, and Landon even slept for a while on the flight from Chicago to Florida, so that was awesome!

We got in to Fort Lauderdale in the evening, so really only had time to grab some dinner, and get settled in before we made the kids go to bed to get some rest from our long day of traveling.  

The next morning was kind of rainy and overcast (really the only not great weather we had the whole trip!), so we spent the morning doing some shopping and getting food, etc.  After Landon had a nap, we managed to make it to the beach.  The kids were so happy, and were much less afraid of the water this year!

Throughout the week, most evenings and mornings we would take a walk around the neighborhood.  Landon loved it because there was a little spot where we could watch the boats go by on the intercoastal.  He could stand there and watch the boats forever if we let him!  Miley enjoyed checking out all the beautiful flowers...definitely a nice change of scenery from our ice, snow, and brown yuckiness that is our scenery in Minnesota right now!

More to come!