Our Fabulous Florida Vacation

1168 pictures over 12 days.  And my clicking finger is not even sore! 

We had a great time.  I could try to give a short summary of our vacation, but it'd turn out long anyways and well, I want to relive it anyways.

We left bright and early on Day One and drove for twelve hours, from Cibolo to Crestview, Florida in the panhandle.  The boys did awesome, not even one complaint about whether we were there yet.  Plenty of "I'm hungry's", but those are just the norm with my growing boys.  Anna did okay but Chrisotpher was a champ sitting next to her and helping her fall asleep with her pacifier.  Leah got frustrated sometimes and would throw her pacifier in protest, and would then cry because she wanted her pacifier back.  A whole day in the car with her paci pretty much got her attached to it for the whole of our vacation...not good but whatever, she was happy.  Anyways, I ended up going all MacGuyver and found some dental floss and tied her paci to her carseat so I wouldn't have to climb over the seat with Chris driving 75 miles per hour to search for it.  It worked like a charm.  Meanwhile, I read all of a book about Adoniram Judson, missionary to Burma, over the two day drive at the request of Christopher.  The younger boys in the third row mostly watched movies.  I enjoyed watching things turn bright green once we crossed the Louisiana border instead of whatever brownish green color that Texas is (although the wild flowers along the interstate were beautiful in Texas!).

Mother's Day was on Day Two and I woke up on a comfortable Hampton Inn white duveted bed and hung out with Anna while Chris took the other four kids to eat the hotel breakfast and sweetly brought me back a plate of yummy waffles, eggs and fruit and I enjoyed breakfast in bed.  No mess to clean up; it was great.

Happy Mother's Day to me...what wonderful children I've been blessed with.

The boys slept together in the second bed.

Leah slept in a portable crib.

Anna practicing her ballet.

As for the gift Chris and the kids gave me (other than my awesome new camera), let me back track to Day One when we ate dinner at Cracker Barrell.  They had their boxes of candy taunting me in their store and I was debating between the peanut butter chocolates and the coconut chocolate patties and asked Chris which I should choose.  "We don't need those," was his reply.   So I didn't get either and figured he thought it cost too much or was trying to keep me "on track" on our vacation.

Back to Mother's Day.  After breakfast, what does Chris pull out but that yummy box of coconut chocolate patties that I was debating getting.  What a sweet, sly guy I have!  He even bought it before I looking it over, which shows just how much he knows me.  They were indeed, very delicious.  I love little surprises like that.

On the road again for another eight or so hours when we got to my dad's house in Largo, Florida.  Everyone piled out of the car and we spent Days Three and Four there, going to the park, going on my dad's sail boat, going to the beach, and going out to play miniature golf.  Anna didn't care for any of those activities.  The rest of us had a lot of fun. 

At the park in Largo, Florida

Anna was not quite ready for the swing.  Check out her feet holding on for dear life!

My dad's sailboat was a big hit with the boys.  It was too windy to put up the sail, so we just cruised around Clearwater Harbor.

Anna taking a nap below deck.

My dad named his boat after Leah!

Leah wasn't so sure of the beach when she first tried it out.

But Grandpa eased her into it and she was like a fish in no time.

Having fun in the waves.

Got a wave in the face!

Maybe not so fun!

Finding shark teeth.

After a full day on the sailboat and two trips to the beach, we spent some time at Grandpa's house with Mai's grandson, Landon.

Anna wanted to go wait inside to nap in the cool air condtioning.

Back at Grandpa's house, Leah and Landon had fun playing in his sand pile.

To be continued...