SNOWQUESTER (thanks Ann)

The kids and Dave were home from school today with what was too be a huge blizzard for us.  We got about 4-5 inches of slushy, messy snow.  We had enough though to play outside, build snow buildings, go sledding, swinging and cupcake decorating.

 

A view of the backyard this morning.

 

Girlsies sledding.

Best place to watch the snow come down.

 

Cupcakes!  The finished product.

                                     Jenna modeling the hat my Grandma knitted for me when I was a kid.

BACK TO SCHOOL!

Jenna returned to Kiddie Hawks today!  She was very excited to see all her "pretty girl" teachers.

FAMILY ADVENTURE- FLORIDA IN FEBRUARY!!

Our first stop - A great empty park with a carousel by the beach in St. Augustine, FL.

Horses go round are always fun. 

The carousel was all OURS!

and OURS! 

This is our first show at Sea World.  The dolphin show - a favorite for us all.

 

Ava was the only one brave enough to take this ride (Journey to Atlantis) with Dave.

 

 One of Jenna's favorite times.... feeding the birds pizza for lunch. 

Getting reading for The One Ocean show. 

See Dave and Jenna's heads?  They are in the splash zone.

 

Jenna's favorite ride - Shamu the roller coaster!

Ava & Amelia on the jellies.


Up and down on this Crab Crawl ride.



Amelia finally seeing the beluga whales whe wanted to see so bad.  They are diving in this picture.


The sting ray tank.  Lots of babies.

 

Jenna before our character breakfast.

Ahhhh!! Minnie!!!  Fake Minnie!

Everyone posing with Minnie.

Girls with Donald.


Swimming - another must on this trip!

Happiness

Nighttime at our hotel in Orlando.  Ava, Andrew and I were on a search for chocolate chip cookies.

Viera Beach, FL - Home of Nationals Training camp.



Our hotel in St. Augustine-World Golf Village - this is our view while eating dinner.

Jenna cracking up at dinner! We haven't seen her laugh that hard.  It was cold too!


Our next morning in downtown St. Augustine.  Lots of pretty scenery and shops.

St. Augustine


The beach.  A little chilly, but empty and beautiful.

Lunch by the beach.  Drew ordered crabcakes.



Waiting for our lunch.

Just chillin on the hotel grounds with pink rabbit.

We decided to make a last minute trip to Florida to escape the cold winter!!  I took over 300 pictures and tried to post the best which are posted above.

The main focus of this trip was a visit to Sea World.  We drove down, stopping in Yemassee, SC.  We took a detour once we got to Floria and headed to the beach.  We picked up some hot dogs from a beach stand and found this great EMPTY park with a carousel!  We stayed here for awhile, eating our lunch, playing, stretching and riding that carousel!

Next, we drove to Orlando and checked in at Doubletree hotel at Sea World.  We could walk to Sea World!  After several room changes, we were the only ones brave enough to hit the pool at night.  The water was warm, but the air was chilly.  We spent the entire next day at Sea World.  The highlights from the kids were, the dolphin show, feeding the birds pizza for lunch, the Shamu kiddie roller coaster, and up close and personal with Beluga whales and dolphins.  We were there with very few people when the park closed at 7pm.  We went back to our hotel and crashed. 

The next morning, we had reservations at Cape May Restaurant at Disney's Beach Club resort for a character breakfast with Minnie, Donald and Goofy.  Jenna wasn't as leary this time.  Drew was.  He didn't want anything to do with meeting those characters.  After breakfast we walked around downtown Disney checking out our favorites TRex, Lego and Disney stores.  We went home for an afternoon of swimming. 

We left our hotel on Thursday morning and headed for the coast and Viera Beach, FL where the Nationals train.  We found the team training and watched for awhile.  We then headed North to our hotel in St. Augustine at the World Golf Village.  We spent all of Friday walking downtown St. Augustine, shopping, having a great lunch at the beach and even playing and taking a stretch break on the beach.  We spent our last evening, at our snazzy hotel, walking around the beautiful grounds. 

We decided to make it straight home on Saturday.  We made it in twelve and a half hours!  We were home in our own beds by 7:30pm last night.  It's cold here, they are calling for a significant snow storm this week, but the kids have school and our "regular" life must continue.

Buddies

Father and son!

Valentine Sweet

Here are my girls wearing sweet hearts to school today. Look at that snow! 2hr delay today! Class Valentine's parties tomorrow. Sweet Jenna took a tumble off of Amelia's bed this morning...peas and carrots for her... Sweet Girl Scout cookie delivery today. Sweets for all tonight. Happy Valentine's Day

Big Girl Bed

Jenna's Big Girl Bed was delivered today! There's been a lot of talk about this day. Jenna is ready!

A little "big girl" bed advice from Ava. Quincy, Mary & Pink Rabbit's bed is there too.

Goodbye crib. Our crib was made in November 1998, we purchased it in the spring of 1999. It's served us well all these years. We will see how tonight goes.

SWINGIN'

Andrew's new/used swing was installed in his room today. NICE!!