Florida Trip

It's tough to sum up our six days in Florida and to go through my 400 pictures, so I decided the best thing to do is..."just do it!"

We flew out at 5 pm, which we really liked. We always go for the break-neck early flights to make the most of the arrival day, but we found that we were able to make the most of the departure day, too. Normally I start our vacations in a snit because Shaun doesn't move as fast as I think he should first thing in the morning. We've never missed a plane but I still choose to get angry and impatient instead of letting it go. Nice, I know. (I'm working on it)

Anyway...we arrived at Shaun's grandparents house, hung out for a bit and went to bed. The next morning after breakfast we headed to Orlando and the girls' first time at Disney's Magic Kingdom.

Day 1

We spent lots of time at the carousel. No lines, no waiting and the girls kept asking for it.

We had a front row view of the A Dream Come True parade. It included Mickey and Minnie, all of the princesses, even Mary Poppins and Burt. The girls were absolutely star-struck. They were waved at, blown kisses and Amanda especially drew in many of the dancers.

Glamour girls.

They each got to choose their own design

Chillin' at Minnie's house

The spectacular fireworks show at Cinderella's castle

Day 2

We met up with Shaun's sister Sarah, Tony and Jared, who were on their last day of vacation. The cousins were happy to get some time together.

We ate breakfast together, then headed to a Red Sox spring training game.

We had half real seats and half lawn seats. I chose to stay on the lawn where the girls were free to roam. Amanda caused quite a stir with the workers and by the time we had left she'd been given stickers, balloons, chips, pins, etc. Here the workers are showing her the Chicken Dance in between innings. She had them eating out of her hand.

Day 3

We had a quiet day and were able to spend time at the pool.

Day 4

The girls enjoy looking for and chasing lizards just outside the house. I think they (the lizards) were happy to see us go.

We went to St. Petersburg's pier and went on a dolphin sighting tour. We spotted quite a few, at one point there were five together.

Later we went to The Melting Pot, an amazing fondue restaurant that we like to do on our visits.

Day 5

The four of us went to the beach.

This is how Amanda likes to spend her time...

...and this is what Avery likes to do. She also found a nice collection of sea shells. Such different kids.

And this represents the many hours we spent in the Tampa airport because of a flight delay and the fact that we arrived home a day later then we thought we would

We had a great trip and feel so blessed to have been able to go. Shaun's grandparents totally spoiled us and I think the girls took lots of good memories with them. We had such a great time and as always we were so thankful to be home.