Florida

This past week we took a trip to Florida with Luke's family. Our drive to Denver was interesting. The wind was blowing like crazy and it was a white out in some places but we made it OK around midnight. Of course Jax didn't want to go back to sleep and our flight left early so we only got like an hour of sleep. We flew out of Denver with Zach and Jayme and kids. People at the airport gave us looks like "Oh boy, I really hope all those babies aren't on my flight!" Fortunately when you only sleep for an hour the result is an unconscious little boy for the entire 3 1/2 hours.

Since most everyone (we missed Jesse, Tiffany and Leah) was going to be in Florida, we did our gift exchange where we could all be together. Derek had to leave the next morning to be home for work so we did it the first night when we were all worn out from traveling. We are looking a little bit like zombies.  

 

The next morning we headed to the beach that was right behind our resort. Good thing we did because it turned out to be our one good warm day. We made sand castles and a sand snowman thinking it would be funny to send friends a picture of us on a beach with a snowman while they were at home in the snow. Joke was on us when it was freezing cold for the next few days in Florida.

 Jax loved running around in the shallow water. 

 Jayme, Zach, James, and Hayden splashing around.

Hayden was our little water baby. We loved her little bear crawl. 

 

Kelsey and Caleb playing in the waves. 

 We finally got to meet our newest niece Hailey, standing here with Andrea and Cindy. She is such a happy, smiley girl. Georgia is too far away for her to live :(

Our resort was really close to the Kennedy Space Center and they were launching a rocket Tuesday morning so we got up at 6 am to have some hot chocolate and watch from our balcony. There was a NASA channel counting down then we ran outside to watch it actually blast off....and then nothing happened.

 

They had to cancel it so no rocket launch for us. Bummer. 

 Our resort had a lazy river, which is one of my favorite things so after Ron Jon's we headed out to the pool. It was a little too cool outside to really enjoy it but we came to Florida for the sun so we stuck it out and had some fun.

I love that these two cute boys are so close in age. They are playing together a little more each time we get together. 

The resort was really family friendly and had a huge indoor play area which was perfect for us. Each morning Luke or I would take Jax down to play so we didn't wake up Phil and Cindy too early. It also gave us a way to entertain the kids on Wednesday which was super windy.

Cute boys playing on a fire truck during a pit stop on the way to visit the fountain of youth.

There was an astronaut statue in our resort that really freaked out Jax. Every time we walked by it on the way to the pool he would cling to us and say "No, no, no." Apparently that applied to all statues because he was less than impressed with Ponce de Leon. Also Jax's new favorite thing is to stick his finger up his nose as you see in his picture.

 We went to St Augustine which claims to be the oldest settlement in the US.

 The Fountain of Youth! (according to Ponce)

We drank from it but the water tasted bad and we didn't get any younger.

 There were other historical exhibits, including firing of a replica Spanish cannon and demonstrations of life in the era of Ponce DeLeon and the Spanish and English settling of America. 

 It was a cool place. These old trees are covered in spanish moss, which we learned is not actually moss but an air-plant related to Pineapple.

 On another not warm day we tried to find some manatees and didn't.

 Tried to see a space museum, which was closed, then tried to go to a dinosaur museum, which was also closed. We did walk around the dino store though.

A random Egypt section. "Ear. Nose" 

 The only dinos we got to see. 

 Hanging out in the hot tub staying warm. 

 Our last day we headed to Orlando. It was so cold! They had an awesome swimming area with heated pools so we decided to brave the weather and swim anyways. It wasn't warm enough!! After freezing for about 15 minutes it was back to the hot tub for us.

Waiting for our flight home which was, again, ridiculously early. 

 

 We found this little bunny warming his bum on our tire. It felt warmer in Denver than it was in Florida. We survived the trip with sick kiddos, two plane rides, and cold weather. Still an awesome adventure with family.