Our Florida Family Vacation.

Well I finally have all the pictures and video uploaded from our trip to Florida a week ago so thank you for those who have been waiting. We participated in Disney's "Give A Day, Get A Day," which gave us free tickets into Disney World. We hadn't taken the kids before so figured it would be a good way to end the summer and have some fun. We were lucky that Jennie's grandparents house was still in the family (made it by a week and a half) and we were able to stay there for most of our trip. We ended up leaving Cleveland Friday night, after work, and made it do to Clearwater Saturday afternoon. The drive was fairly uneventful outside of the speeding ticket that I got at 2:30 in the morning in Virginia. I have since found out that Virginia is pretty strict on its tickets and could cost me a pretty penny. Some people just have a need for speed and I seem to be one of them. Other than that little hiccup the ride went very well. The kids did great and slept most of the ride down.

The first couple of days we just hung out at the beach and an outdoor pool that we found. The weather was perfect and despite a little afternoon shower every day we spent the majority of our visit outdoors. We then headed over to Orlando to start our Disney trip. We stayed at the All-Star Movies Resort and spent the first day walking around there and swimming in the pool. We then spent the entire next day at Disney World. We got there a little before the park opened up and ended up staying until they closed at 11:00. It was a very long day but the kids had a blast. I was surprised at how family oriented the park was. I think there were only 3 rides that Payton couldn't go on. Other than that we rode on every ride at least once and most twice. The kids especially loved Space Mountain and Splash Mountain. The first time Brooklyn saw Splash Mountain she wanted to do with the ride and would not go on it. The second time she decided to go on it and absolutely loved it. I was surprised at how much they liked the rides and their lack of fear to go on them. That was my main concern going into the day and they loved every minute of the day. We then stayed for the Electric Parade at the end of the night as we got great seats for the show. The day was extremely action packed from beginning to end but was worth every single minute. Both of the boys fell asleep before the bus even pulled out of the park to head back to the hotel.

We then went back to Clearwater to get ready for the trip back home. We did manage to visit the Tampa Aquarium which I was a little disappointed with. It is touted as one of the best in the United States and I guess I was expecting a little more. The kids had a good time, which is the important thing, but I wouldn't have spent the money if I would have known what to expect. We had another uneventful trip back home and made it back to Cleveland Saturday afternoon. Overall it was a great trip and may be the last trip to Florida for quite some time as we no longer have any ties down there. We are grateful for the opportunity that we had to go and visit and grateful that we made it down and back safely.

Here is a photo recap of our trip and week in Florida. I apologize for the number of pictures but had so many that I just couldn't leave any out. We got some really great pictures of the kids down on the beach with the sunset. There are also some great pictures of Payton's first trip in the ocean. She absolutely loved the ocean even after a couple swallows of the salt water. Maddux loves going out as far as he can and make it a couple of times out within 10 feet of the swimming buoys. Of course Nolan wants to be just like his big brother and follows and does whatever Maddux does. Brooklyn is just happy to be there and just does her own thing. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we do.

Here is some video of the kids jumping off the diving board at the pool. I was surprised at how comfortable they were jumping in and some of the things that they could do. As you will see in one of the clips Maddux has no problems doing flips off of the diving board. Brooklyn is still just about running off the board into the pool but Maddux has the jump and form all down. Nolan has no problem going off the diving board but was not able to pass the test of swimming one length of the pool.



Sorry again that this took so long to get posted but I hope you enjoy. We have a blast and had the perfect vacation to end the summer with. Now it is time to turn our focus to soccer and school which start next week. I am so glad that we are fortunate enough to be able to do these type of things and just hope that these memories stay with the kids throughout their lives.