fLoRiDa FuN~Alligator Alley/fun with the De Vries's

The last part of our vacation was at Alligator Alley! Mitchell and Connor both love to see the alligators! Mitchell was pretty excited because he could take pictures of the alligators with his new camera that he got from Christmas! Elden kept on teasing Mitchell that he needed to take one of them home to show to his class on Monday! The boys really enjoyed listening to the Park Ranger talk about the differences between alligators and crocodiles and used Mitchell and Connor to help her do her presentation!

shh..don't tell, it's spiked!

The last day was spent at Denny and Karen's home. The kids always love to play in their pool! That's where they spent most of their time! They really enjoyed practicing kayaking in their pool so they'd know how to do it in the canals! It was perfect weather while we were there, mid 80's. Every time we are there we get fed way too much and drink way to many fruity drinks! Thanks to both Grandma and Grandpa DV and Denny and Karen for letting us come and visit!

fLoRiDa FuN~Busch Gardens (part 2)

This year while we were in Florida, we decided to take the kids to Busch Gardens for the first and last time! We've never taken the kids to an amusement park, so we were excited to bring them there and give them the experience. Although we about had a heart attack after paying to get in, we did have a great time together as a family. If you've never been to Busch gardens before, I'd recommend it. We stopped at McDonalds b/f we got in, so we wouldn't have to pay for a lunch there, so that was nice. Busch Gardens is a combination of an amusement park and a zoo. When we first got there we were greeted by some flamingo's, so that was kind of neat.After that Mitchell was getting pretty hot, so we decided to go on some water rides! Before we got to the rides though, we were all standing next to a roller coaster that sprayed water at the end of the roller coaster ride, which we didn't realize and we happened to be there at the wrong time and we all got soaked! I'm sure our faces were priceless! We figured we might as well go on some more water rides,since we were already dripping with water! They has a Raging River, Log ride and several other water rides that we went on. Most of the water rides Connor could go on, so that was nice, we could go as a family. We then went on a train ride that took us on a African Safari. There were no gates between the train and the animals, so that was neat to see them in their natural habitat. There were zebras, rhino's, giraffes and buffalo to see. The train ride took about an hour, and I think the kids really enjoyed that. There were animals that were there that you don't get to see around the zoo's around here. Mitchell and I decided to try to get dried off, so we went on Mitchell's favorite ride, "The Cheeta Hunt" rollar coaster! Mitchell is into Cheeta's lately, so this was right up his alley! It was a blast, he talked about this for days! Mitchell was pretty excited too that they had Cheeta's there as well! Elden and I took turns going on rollar coaster rides since Connor couldn't go on some of them. There were also jungle gyms that we climbed on as well, there was alot for every age! We were at the park for 7 hours, and I felt that we covered everything we wanted to in that time! The kids did great, we didn't stop once to rest! At the end of the day, the kids were getting hungry and thirsty, so we stopped and let them each get a drink from a stand. That made them happy till we ended the special day at Mc Donalds once again! It was a great day full of family memories that we will always treasure!

fLoRiDa FuN~Beach Time (part 1)

It's already been two weeks since we've been to Florida! How time flies! We had such a great time there. I thought I'd break it up in three parts so I won't have such a long post. This year we were fortunate enough to bring my mom along with us to Florida. We left on a Sunday afternoon and drove all night and got to St Petersburg on Monday afternoon. We arrived to a sunny, 86 degree day, it was a nice welcome! The kids immediately went out in the sand and started to make sand castles. Connor wanted to get into the oceon right away. and Mitchell was content with making roads and castles. Elden was gracious enough to get into the oceon with Connor and had a great time with Connor. After the oceon swim, Mitchell wanted to dig a big hole to put water in. So Mitchell went back and forth from the oceon to fetch more water while Elden, Connor and I kept a diggin! We decided to put their feet in the hole and burry their legs, the kids thought that was pretty funny!  The next day we walked along the beach to John's pass. They have been working on a "lift up bridge" that the boys called it and we happened to be there when a boat needed to get through. The boys were so excited! I also managed to get a few pictures of our family as well!