Jen's Journal: Family Fun in Florida

Last week our family went on our first family of 4 vacation and we spent it in Fort Myers, Florida. Kevin's dad's fiance has a trailer there which we were able to us for the week. It was a much needed vacation that provided us with a break from work and an escape from the cold, yuckiness also known as winter in Indiana. We decided to drive the estimated 16/17 hours down (actually 19 hours for us on the way down only stopping for dinner, potty breaks, and a vomiting incident, and 23 hours on the way back (this was divided into two days because we decided to get a hotel for the evening)). I know, driving that distance with a 3-year-old and 9-month-old sounds crazy (and it kinda was) but overall it went much better than I had anticipated it might. Here are a few things that we learned on our drive down and back:

Nolan DOES get car sick (learned our lesson on the way down and brought a sick bowl with us on the ride home...which did get used)
13 hours in a car will make a 9 month old, red headed boy looney!
Tennessee and Georgia have many questionable "spas"
If you need fireworks you can also find them in Tennessee and Georgia
If you like Waffle House or Cracker Barrel you're in luck because they are at almost every exit
It is not always a good idea to try to get around a 3 hour traffic jam by taking back streets because chances are a lot of others thought that would be a good idea too....
pumping in the car gets easier with practice

Now for a recap of our trip: We left Indianapolis on Sunday (3/10/13) around 2:30 pm We arrived in Fort Myers, Florida around 9:30 am the following morning. We went straight to a local restaurant, Sunflower Cafe, for breakfast. As I mentioned above, we stayed at Kevin's dad's fiance's place and they were there with us for the first part of the week, so Kevin's dad came and joined us for breakfast. Following breakfast we went to Tammy's to unload and get settled. Nolan quickly found the sandbox and immediately began playing. We enjoyed the wonderful sun and relaxing outside before taking naps. After we had all rested we decided to explore the closest beach, which was located just a short car ride (less than 5 minutes) from where we were staying. It was so fun to see the boys's reactions to the sand and water...both of their first times seeing the ocean. They both loved it!

Here are some pictures from our first day....

I think he likes it here!

Nolan thought the golf cart was pretty cool.

Had to get Lucas out of the sandbox for a while...before he ate all the sand. haha

Nolan was heard saying "this is the life"...I agreed! :)

Lucas loved standing with his feet in the water and sand. He would look up at me with his big blue eyes, with a huge grin on his face and happy shrieks coming from his lips.