Coming Home

I don't have really have any pictures from our flights on the way to Florida. I am fairly certain it's because I was was too stressed about them to bother getting out the camera! :) I did get a few on the way home for documentation of the kids' first flying trip.

This is Ali's "stop taking pictures of me" face. :)


There was some fighting over the window seats. They loved taking off and landing.

And these were the pictures in the van on the way home before we were even out of Indy. They were all vacationed out I think. It was a very quiet ride home. :)

Florida Part 3

There were a couple of days that we had fairly cool temperatures but we still enjoyed them! We spent some time at an indoor play place for the kids, Paul took the older two out on the kayak and we went down to Fort Meyers beach to walk around a bit. And it didn't keep us from the beach completely, we just wore jeans and sweatshirts! :)

As you can see by the walls, the play place was dinosaur themed.





Checking out the pier at Fort Meyer's Beach. It was REALLY windy that afternoon!

The kids thought climbing this small rock wall was just great!

Trae enjoyed the very fine sand at this beach. The fact that he is in jeans and sweatshirt makes it almost look like he's in the snow at first glance.

Mom and Dad's rental house came with a kayak. Paul just took the kids out in the bay behind the house. Jess and his roommates actually braved taking it into the ocean. If you'd like a laugh, ask him about it sometime. :)

My one and only picture from the date night Paul and I went on!

Florida Part 2

We took the kids to Disney for a day and we went to Magic Kingdom. Orlando was 3 hours from where we were staying with Mom and Dad, so we rented a vehicle and went down the night before. We stayed outside the Disney park at Nickelodeon Suites where the rooms are character themed and they have a few water parks within the hotel properly. It was very chilly the evening we got there but that didn't keep the kids from swimming in the heated pools and Ali even braved some of the slides. To give you an idea of how cold it was, the life guards were in windbreaker pants, jackets, hats and gloves. :) Ali and Dakota were also very excited that we ended up with a Spongebob room. In the morning before we headed to Disney, we attended the character breakfast at our hotel where the kids got pictures with some of their favorite characters and got a chance to dance around the room with them.

Dora


Patrick


Diego

Spongebob

Pablo

Disney was so fun! The kids loved it! We were a little disappointed that we didn't see any of the characters walking around like they usually do so we don't have any pictures with them. I think they stick to a certain part of the park and by the time we headed there, they were done for the day.

The beginning of our day!


The Parade down Main Street....


...which Ali and Dakota were enthralled with!

The Winnie-the-Pooh ride has a play area as you wait in line, an awesome idea!

Ali says the Dumbo ride was her favorite

Trae wasn't so sure about it.

The grin on Dakota's face is so large because we were FINALLY riding the train that goes around the park. I'm fairly certain this was his favorite part of the entire day.

End of the day group shot. I don't think we look nearly as tired as we felt! :)

Florida Part 1

My parents are spending the month of January in Florida and they invited their children to spend some of that time with them. Paul and I were able to go last week and we had a WONDERFUL time! The weather was beautiful most days and we enjoyed it! Paul and I don't travel much so I was pretty stressed about the flights but the kids did awesome.

We spent a good chunk of our time just relaxing and hanging out on the beach. Paul and I did rent a minivan and take the kids to Disney towards the end of the week and they loved it, of course! Since I have MANY pictures I'm going to break it down into more then one post. I'm not sure how many "parts" there will be, but I do promise I won't bore you with all 300ish pictures that I took. :)


Sometimes on vacation mom let's you get away with stuff that you normally can't. Such as drinking from the Pepsi bottle and sitting on the counter. :)


All ready to head for the beach!


Trae was a little hesitant at first.


Ali and Dakota however, headed right in!


Trae preferred to sit and relax


Ahhh, I love to have my feet in the sand


I just love this picture!


Dad still has to conduct business, even from the beach!


Danielle was obsessed with collecting conks.


Trae thought they were pretty interesting too, especially when they would move!

I think the beach wore this little guy out! He slept like this for about an hour underneath the beach umbrella.

Happy Belated Birthday Babe!

I do have slightly valid reasons for this being late! :) His birthday came the day after we got back from vacation and I spent a good chunk of that day without electricity due to a power outage. Which also did not bode well for the birthday dinner I had planned, but we made it work! Happy 31st Birthday Babe! :)

Video

Some of you may remember my posting back in October about the Francesville community coming together and harvesting Dad's crop for him. We were so thankful and it was an amazing turnout and a wonderful day! They had 12 combines, 22 semis and I'm not sure how many grain trucks and people, along with donations of fuel for the equipment and food for the volunteers. The following link is a video my Uncle Andy made about the day.



Thank you for your continued prayers! Dad is making progress little by little. There are times of discouragement, but he keeps plugging along! The evenings are the hardest, as the pain tends to increase as he is tired and trying to relax. Mom is hanging in there also! She spends quite a bit of time helping Dad.

They are currently in Florida for the month and Dad is enjoying the relaxation and theraputic qualities of taking walks on the beach! :)