Florida Trip DAY 5

SPA Day! The day I was SO excited for. We all got to go to my sister's spa and get pampered. Well, all except for my sister who I made give me the MOST amazing facial EVER! Like really ever! It was 90 minutes long and while it was painful at times (good skin comes at a price), my face hasn't felt this good in YEARS. Thanks sissy, for pampering me when you didn't have to.

Ashlyn was very excited for her mani/pedi. And loved snuggling in the pink robe.

Leah was a bit tired by this point in the trip. She threw a little bit of a fit over the robe, which was funny cuz I never said she had to wear it. Once she took it off she was fine. 

After our spa day we headed over to my Dad's house. He watched my girls while me, Dez, and my mom went to see "Snow White and the Huntsman". I really liked it. I don't think Kristen Stewart is the greatest actress, but whatever. It was still really good. Then we came back to my Dad's house and grilled out some tasty BBQ pork chops. It was another late night, but it was fun as usual!

Taking a walk down my Dad's deck to check out his lake (well it's not HIS lake I guess. Just the lake at the back of his property).

Florida Cat Tails. AKA- weeds. But I still think they are cool.

My Dad built a mobile chicken coop so he could move his little chickies around the yard and not kill his grass. He said he should get up to 40 eggs a week from these chickens (once they get bigger that is). Wish I lived close enough to cash in on those fresh eggs.

Relaxing after dinner, watching a movie. 

Florida Trip DAY 4

Thursday was our big beach day. My sister booked a hotel on Cocoa Beach with an awesome pool and great private beach area. We rented some umbrellas and lounge chairs and hung out at the beach for the first part of they day, and then spent the rest of the day at the hotel pool. The girls were having non stop fun. It was such a good day. And the weather was perfect. Warm, but not too hot. And not a single drop of rain until we were loading up to leave. Then it started down pouring. But that didn't stop us from grabbing an ice cream at Dairy Queen on the way home. 

The girls were digging for seashells.

Me and My Sis. We had a fun week together. I just love her!

Me and my Dad. So glad we got to spend so much time with him and that my girls know and love him so much. He's an awesome "Pop"!

Leah's attempt at a drip sand castle. She didn't get it much bigger than that before she was off and running to the next fun thing.

Jumping waves with Pop.

Chillin with Grandma.

Ashlyn's "snow" sandball.

Exhausted but still smiling after a fun afternoon swimming in the pool.

Before heading home we ate at the ocean side restaurant. They had a live Jazz band playing. Lucky us because they are only there one night a week.

Ashlyn, Zoe (Brent's half sister), Leah, Chad and Dez.

It was such a fun day at the beach. I'm so glad we got to go and that the weather cooperated. I really couldn't have asked for a better day! It was fun and relaxing and everything just worked out perfectly.

The only thing to complain about was that it went WAY too fast!

Florida Trip DAY 3

Day three was the reason we came to Florida for the week in the first place. My nephews high school graduation. Wow....can it really have been 18 years since he was born? It's still pretty vivid in my mind. 

The day started out with swimming with my girls in the hotel pool. Then we got ready and headed out to see "Pirates: Band of Misfits" with my Dad. I thought it was a cute movie but I like all the Aardman movies. Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, Curse of the Ware Rabbit. I love the British sense of humor. The girls thought it was pretty cute too. My Dad must have too because he was cracking up at all the jokes.

After the movie, we headed out to the graduation. It was held at UCF auditorium. It was a long ceremony, as they usually are, but it was so fun to get to watch Brent graduate. Most of the speeches were hilariously awful. Like the valedictorian probably highly embarrassed the Principal (who actually gave a really nice speech). One girl did a nice job, but the first girl (I think who was Class President) just rambled on about how every was a "failure" over and over and over. That and how they were all baby sea turtles trying to get to the ocean. Seriously I don't think I ever care to hear the words "baby sea turtle" again. 

Ashlyn will be thoroughly embarrassed when she finds out I put this story on my blog, but oh well. It was too cute. At one point in the presentation of diplomas she turns to me and says, wow there sure are a lot of people with the same last name. I said, really? I didn't notice. Then she says, yeah. Cum laude. I got a little chuckle out of that and then explained that it was title given to students based on how well they did in school. Then I told her to listen for the magna, summa and regular cum laude. We did hear it quite often. But Brent went to a Magnet High School that is VERY academic. 

The graduate!

Brent with his mom and step dad (Chad).

Brent with his mom and dad.

Brent with MY mom and dad.

Group shot of our side of the family. Plus Desiree's business partner (in the blue dress) and her husband. 

Sporting the FSU mohawk in tribute to his soon to be College! 

So another late night. We got to the restaurant (Kobe Japanese Steak house) at 9 pm and didn't get seated until about 9:45pm even though we had reservations. My boys SO would not have been able to handle this trip. Poor Leah was struggling herself. That's why you see her laying on my lap. Shoot....I was tired myself.  But dinner was SO good, I couldn't help but eat myself silly. 

Ashlyn was digging these veggies. It probably had something to do with the yummy white sauce she was dipping them in, but who cares. I was just glad to see her eating so well. 

Florida Trip DAY 2

We started the day off bright and early with a trip to Gatorland. There was rain in the forecast and it was quite wet outside, but it's Florida (where it often rains) so we didn't let that stop us. The humidity was HORRIBLE! Seriously I shouldn't have even bothered showering because once I stepped outside I was all wet again. We had to stop at Target to get jackets for the girls. They were cold. Haha....even though it was close to 90 degrees out. They weren't use to humidity. 

We were meeting up with my forever long time friend, Jamie, who I just adore, and I couldn't wait to see her. The park was fun. Nothing terribly exciting (except I did really enjoy feeding the birds). And honestly if you live in FL, you never have need to come here because no person in their right mind would PAY to see an alligator when all you have to do is drive past a river or lake to see one. But Ashlyn had a report to do for school on Florida wildlife, so my family members were all good sports and agreed to come with us.

The albino alligators were pretty fun to look at. They can't really survive in the wild, so most are in zoo's of some sort. Gatorland had four of them.

This a Chester. A 1,000 pound 13 1/2 foot long alligator that was caught eating backyard dogs in Tampa. Trappers wanted to turn him into accessories, but Gatorland saved him. My sister said she thought he would have looked better as a purse. Haha...naughty girl.

Pop and Leah

Dez, Pop and Leah

Me and Jamie. I just love this girl. SO glad I got to see her. The time was WAY too short.

Feeding the birds.

I love this picture. It just captures Jamie's happy spirit. These are her two boys Jack and Taylor, who are both very close in age to my boys.

Jamie's youngest little boy, Taylor who is just a 1 1/2 months younger than Carter. I had to hold him for a while just to pretend I had my little boy with me. He was also the only diaper I changed ALL week long. That was crazy. It's been almost 9 years since I've gone a week without changing a diaper. 

Me and my cute Leah on the train.

We went twice.

Uncle Chad, Ashlyn and Aunt Dez

Leah just adores her Uncle Chad. I had to repeatedly tell her to give him a rest from playing. Poor Chad was probably exhausted by the end of the week.

 The fam minus my Dad.

Now one minus my Mom.

Leah was a riot the entire week. Just cracking us up left and right. Here she is being eaten by an alligator. But my favorite line of hers all week has to be when we first walked into our hotel room. She looked around and said, "Where are the monkey bars?" HAHAHA....as if she was fully expecting to find some in there.

After Gatorland, Jamie had to head back home to Tampa, so we headed back to our hotel to get cleaned up and then right back out again to Downtown Disney. We ate dinner at this fun little Irish restaurant where they clog danced all around us. It was very entertaining.

Me, mom and Leah

After dinner, we walked around for a bit, waited for Brent's friend to get there, and then headed to Ghiradelli Ice cream shop to get some dessert. 

This is my nephew Brent (the reason for the trip to FL in the first place) and my sister Desiree.

Talk about HUGE dessert. I should have had the girls share a milk shake. They were SO yummy though. I had a mint brownie fudge sundae or something like that. I don't even remember what it was called. I just know I couldn't finish it.

Ashlyn didn't appreciate the flash in her eyes.

  

This is just a random picture taken on a random bench in Downtown Disney with some bronzed statue. Random huh?!

Leah was pretty slap stick by this time. It was at least 10 pm or later. She said her belly hurt after her ice cream (surprise, surprise), so she said, "Daddy told me if my belly hurts, I should lay on my tummy". She so lunged herself over the side of the chair. Then on the way home, she crashed. I guess the sugar rush wore off by then.

All I know is that by the time we got to bed, we were ALL exhausted and ready to not have to wake up at the crack of dawn the next day.