The Domestic Diva: Finally Florida

So now that we have been home now for over a month, it's time to finally write about Florida. We drove down for Spring Break and meant my mom and her hubby in Venice, where she rented a condo for the month. I was so nervous about driving. At this point, we had a terrible drive to Colorado at Christmas, and a terrible flight to Arizona in February. Something had to go wrong. We left a few days early to beat some traffic and extend our vacation a tad. So we got up bright and early Wednesday morning and drove to Chattanooga, Tennessee. We had an easy drive and the kids did wonderful. We brought our laptop and wedged it between the driver and passenger seat arm rests. The battery only lasts 2 hours so we let them watch a little at a time. The rest of the time they had snacks, played Leapster, colored on ColorWonder paper, listened to books on tape, or took naps. David was in charge of making the hotel reservations before we left, and he chose a Super 8. Really? A Super 8? It was what you would expect for $50. Not so super. We had dinner and let the kids swim in the pool.

The next day we only had to go through Georgia and Florida, but it seemed to take forever. I think we made it to Venice at 4 or 5. I'm glad we drove though, the kids got to see a lot and loved going through each new state. I think it helped Jake understand how big the US is knowing it took us 2 days to get to Florida when he looks at his map on the wall.

We spent a majority of the rest of our vacay at either the beach or the pool. The kids spent hours swimming. It was so fun to watch Jake. He went from learning how to paddle around with no water wings in Arizona to doing cannon balls in Florida.

On Friday, we took the kids to the Mote Marine Aquarium in Sarasota. We thought about doing Disney or Busch Gardens, but I wasn't up for big crowds and a lot of hassle. It was perfect. There weren't many people there, and they had a lot of hands on exhibits.

Stingray with barb removed

Panning for sharks teeth

Mr. Sea Turtle

Dolphin doing tricks
We all really enjoyed the aquarium. On the way home, we found a cute restaurant right on the water and had a great lunch.

Mom and Bob at cute restaurant

On Saturday, Venice held an Easter egg hunt in a park downtown. The boys have never really done a hunt besides our own so we thought we would give it a try. For some reason, I really thought it would be a hunt but no, they roped off an area, and dumped some eggs. There were quite a few kids there so I guess I can see why they do it this way. Tyler was pumped. He is usually my shy guy, but he wanted some eggs and was ready to gather. Did I bring my video camera? No. It was hilarious to watch him. He was in the 0-3 age group so he had the advantage understanding and knowing what to do. They announced it was time to start and he was off, collecting those eggs as fast as he could. There was no stopping him. He was on an egg mission. It was so nice to see Tyler come out of his shell- (that one is for you, Bob). Jake was in the 5-7 age group and those kids were fast. He had a harder time finding as many as Tyler, but he did find the "golden" egg and won a stuffed Pat the Bunny. That night we went to another fun restaurant right on the water. I had some great fish. Normally I don't care to much for fish, but I was craving it while we were on vacay. I had it every time we went out to eat. A pelican pooped on my shoulder while we were having dinner. This is all part of eating by the water. You take the good with the bad.

Easter was on Sunday and the kids dyed eggs in the morning. Then we spent the rest of the day at the pool.