Christmas Vacation 2012-- Florida

So, I have gotten wayyyyyyyy behind in our family blog, but I thought I would be better about updating it in 2014 and what a better way to start that than to share our wonderful family Christmas vacation that happened in Dec. of 2013. We had 2 weeks off of school so Jeff and I decided to do something special for our family. We decided to go to Florida and see Magic Kingdom, Sea World, Lego Land and Gatorland and try and hit both coasts beaches in a weeks time. We also got to see two awesome families that we haven't see in a long time, and two sets of Aunts. We were exhausted by the time we got back almost two weeks later, but have a ton of memories. 

We left Friday night after Kaylie's dance class and started our long drive, got there late Saturday night. The best thing was when we walked into our condo the kids said, "This is not a hotel room this is an apartment!" The next morning we went to sacrament meeting which was 5 min. from the condo we were renting for the week, than came home and took a nice long nap. After our nap we head to the beach which was a 5 min walk from our condo. We all got to enjoy the Gulf of Mexico for the afternoon (see last collage for photo). Daniel also lost a tooth while we were gone. He was worried the tooth fairy wouldn't find but she showed up, as did Santa Clause.

On Monday we started the week of with Magic Kingdom at Disney World. It was 85* and muggy, so not NY in Dec. We had a blast. The very first ride we went on was Space Mountain. Everyone loved it and it started our day out great. The one down side was that we didn't get to meet many Disney Character because they all have special homes and you have to wait in line for an hour get your picture taken with each one. Other than that we had a blast and wore everyone out as you can see in the bottom left hand corner. :)

The next day we did Sea World. It was 62* and overcast, I was loving it!!  One of the first things we did when we got there was feed sting rays. Everyone was having so much fun we forgot to get pictures. We were also soaking wet within 10 minutes.  Here are a few pictures of that day. Another neat thing we did was reserve a table at the Shark restaurant. We got to sit and eat our lunch while all these huge sharks and fish swam by us the entire time. The kids also got gummy shark sundaes. We also got to see the dolphin show, the Orca show and a Nativity Show that day. The Nativity show really made it feel like Christmas!! The kids loved seeing all the animals and the rides. :)

We took Christmas Day off and had a relaxing morning and than spent the afternoon with Jeff's Aunt Carol and her husband.



Thursday we went to Daniel's favorite place; Lego Land!  By this time Peter knew what rides where all about and got really upset when he wasn't big enough to go on one. He'd say "I big mommy, I big," it broke my heart and made me laugh at the same time.  It was so cool to walk around and see everything built out of legos: people, animals, star wars characters, cities. I have a picture of Peter's favorite ride at Lego Land; it is the one where you are raised into the air and then dropped strait down over and over again. He had the biggest grin and was laughing so hard everyone watching was laughing. Below is a picture of Jeff and the kids getting ready to ride this ride. They also had an amazing tropical garden there that they have grown Lego Land around. All in all if was a great day.

Our last full day in Florida we went to Gatorland, visited my Aunt Jeanie and Tim, and tried to hit Daytona Beach but a storm blew in and we didn't get to the beach. It was so cool at Gatorland!! They have alligators and crocodiles there. You can feed all the gators there with turkey-hotdogs, and sit on a real alligator and get your picture taken with it. They also had some cool shows were they got the gators to jump out of the water and gator wrestling.

This last collage is a conglomeration of the first day, Christmas day and our last day with our friends in VA.  All in all it was a wonderful trip. Now the kids want a bunny!! Thanks to all who helped build all the memories!!!