Sunshine State

Now that busy season is over, Derek took the whole week off work (last week) and we had a nice long vacation. Sunday, right after church, the car was packed and we set off for the Florida beaches. The kids were superstar travelers and did awesome on the 6 and a half hour drive. They just sang songs and read books, and it was a nice relaxing Sunday drive. When we got to our campsite we realized that it was not exactly the type of camping we were expecting. There were no trees and just one gravel path which you drove your car on and pitched your tent on. We were also only about 200 yards from a major highway which we could hear all night long. The next morning we packed up our things and transferred to another state park with a campsite that was beautiful. The weather was perfect, 80s in the day and down to 70 at night. The kids were so excited to be on vacation, we just hung out and played. The first morning Siesa woke up at 5:30 am and would not go back to sleep so we took a stroll down to the beach to watch the sun rise. She loved the sand but was totally freaked out by the waves. At 6:00 am when Jensen and Derek woke up we packed up our breakfast and had a lovely morning picnic on the beach. Jensen loved everything about the trip. He is a natural born camper and loved sleeping in the tent. We asked him what his favorite part of camping was and he said it was eating the s’mores. He also loved the ocean and enjoyed standing in it and letting the waves “smack” into him. Siesa was not as keen on everything about camping. For a girl that is so messy at home she was sure concerned about everything being “dirty” camping. She also didn’t really like sleeping in the tent. When she realized it was bedtime she just kept standing by the door of the tent saying, “out, out, go, go.” By the last night she was doing much better. She also slowly got used to the water and by the third day she really liked the beach, but her favorite things were to chase the birds and squish the jelly-fish washed on shore. Derek and I didn’t do much swimming because it was jelly-fish season and there were lots of large jelly-fish swimming around. Most of our time at the beach was in the early morning hours because once the weather got a little warmer the dog flies started swarming us. For those who haven’t experienced dog flies, they are biting flies that are very annoying. It was great though, because no one got a speck of sun burn and we didn’t even wear much sun block.

On Wednesday we drove over to Alabama to visit my friend Jill and see her daughter. On the way we stopped at an Air Force museum which was another highlight of the trip for Jensen. They had a ton of planes you could walk right up to and a couple of cockpits they actually let the kids get inside. We ate a picnic outside by the planes and had a great time. We also had a good time hanging out with Jill. We went to a great seafood restaurant which was so fresh and so good because they catch the fish right there below the restaurant every day. There was also a playground underneath the restaurant where the kids got out their energy before we put them in the car for our long drive home.

It was a wonderful vacation!