Day 5- St. Augustine

Monday morning, we drove to St. Augustine for the day. I went to the Fort once when I was in the 4th grade, but hadn't been back since. They have a darling little historical district. (I'm a total sucker for that kind of stuff) Chris and I decided that we're soooo meant for each other (good thing we figured that out haha)As I was walking by the little shops we both said "I (Mommy) could bankrupt us here" HAHA!

We walked over to the Fort. Preston thought that cannons were pretty cool!

After the Fort, we drove over to the beach.... The kids had a BALL!!!! We literally had to drag them off the beach.

Buried alive!

We had a blast making sand castles on the beach.

On the way home, we stopped at the mall for some Gator apparel. The kids thought the big gator was pretty darn cool.

We left Florida on Tuesday morning and got caught in the storms Tuesday night. We were all pretty freaked out when the air sirens started going off as we drove through town. Luckily, we didn't get caught in anything too bad but it definitely got our adrenaline running! The trip was SO much fun, but the drive is something that we will NEVER do again!!!!...EVER!!! HA!

No Words Necessary

Day 4---oh goodness!!!

While we were doing some shopping on Day 3, the girls found something they wanted to try....a human slingshot... OH! EM!! GEE!!!! We made them behave all day on Friday in order to be able to "ride it" but they were able to earn it. On Saturday, we went to the mall and let them have a go. I honestly didn't think Shelby would do it, but SHE DID!!!

 

 Chris took the kids to my Uncle Norman's to swim while I went to "play" with Charon.  I'm going to do us both a favor and NOT post the pics that were taken since we both looked like a hot mess by the time the night was over haha! It was so good to hang out with her though. It's nice to have the type of friendship that can withstand 10 years and 2,200 miles apart and still feel like we hang out all the time!

Day 3

Day 3 we went visiting people. We met up with my mom's dear friend SteviAnne and her husband Frank. I always called them Aunt Steve and Uncle Frank, but she has my kiddos calling her MeeMaw!! SO DANG CUTE!! I didn't get any pictures with them, but we had a great visit.
On the way home, we got Preston his birthday cake so he could celebrate with Granny. It's a pretty sad looking bday cake but oh well... it tasted good!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Preston had his 6th Birthday while we were in Florida, so we thought what better way to celebrate than by taking him to DISNEYWORLD! Ok I have to be honest, Disneyworld is seriously one of my favorite places in the entire world!! I LOVE IT!!!

 

When we bought our tickets, we told them it was his birthday and they gave him a special "Happy Birthday" pin. He was a little embarrassed until one of the cast members (also named Preston) approached us and gave us a fast pass on the Buzz Lightyear ride. Suddenly he was showing that pin off to EVERYBODY!!!

The kids had a ball riding all of the rides!

When we went to Disneyland, Shelby had a "traumatic" time with the Autopia ride. She was BARELY tall enough to ride by herself then, so she couldn't really reach the pedals. By the time she got done, she was crying hysterically and swore she'd never ride it again. Well she did ride it again and this time she was plenty tall enough. She was SO excited!!!!! And proud of herself.

Preston wanted one of these at Disneyland, but was able to purchase it with his "trip $" this time!

Always the Daddy's girl!!!

Waiting for the parade.

When we got ready to eat dinner, Chris chose a fish place. (YUCK!!) As I was standing in line, a cast member approached me and asked if we had ever sat at the "Captains Table" I told her no and she explained that it was a special section reserved for special guest and she would like to invite us to sit there for our meal. They served us our food and brought Preston a free cake. He was STOKED about the cake, let me tell ya!!!

Poor Shelby has just had it. I haven't seen her fall asleep at the table since she was a little baby!

She's GOOFY alright!

Preston was sitting on a trash can to watch the fireworks late at night. All of a sudden I realized he was sound to sleep!!! Luckily Chris caught him just as he tipped off the trash can!!! Poor little guy!!!

All in all I think he had a pretty decent b-day. The DW staff definitely made it MAGICAL for him!!

Florida Day 1

 We're COUNTRY HAHAHA

The kids are POOPED!!!!

Griswald Family Vacation....

For the last month, Chris has been joking that our vacation would turn into something to rival the Griswalds....weeeeeeelllll...not quite, but good grief!!!!
We left Saturday night at about 10:30. We'd planned on waiting until Sunday to leave, but decided that if we left Saturday night, then MAYBE the kids would sleep for several hours. We left Cedar City at about 10:30 Saturday night and drove aaaaaallllll night. Luckily the kids DID sleep the entire night!!! YAY for sleeping kids!
We got to Albequerque, New Mexico and decided to stop at Denny's for breakfast.... Heaven help me, those kids need to get out of Cedar more often. First, we weren't quite sure if the waitress was male or female which was a HUGE topic of discussion for the kids. Then, Shelby whispers to me, "um...Mom, we don't look like everybody else in here." To which Preston yells, "That's cause everybody else in here is black." NICE!!! Oh my hell I was mortified!!!
We got back in the car and made our way to Dallas, TX. We stayed in a hotel for the night. Can I just tell ya'll how much I LOVE Texas! It's one of the few places where people are unappologetically PROUD of where they come from. The hotel even had a Texas shaped waffle iron! On the way out of town, Chris got pulled over. I have to admit I was EXTREMELY excited for him to get a ticket. Not because I wanted to pay the fine, but because I'm tired of catching crap from him about getting tickets. But get this... he got pulled over for going 73 mph in a 70 mph... Guess they aren't joking when they say "Don't Mess With Texas". But sadly for me, he got off with a warning! Ha!

Next, we went into Luisiana. Just inside the state border, Chris had to make a stop at the Bass Pro Shop. They have an alligator pit and the kids were FASCINATED!!!!

Mississippi brought a whole new experience for the kids. They got to see their first high speed car chase. HAHAHA Gotta love Jackson, MS!!!! We made our way through the rest of MS and onto AL. That trek was pretty uneventful. (Thank Goodness!!)

We stopped in the Florida panhandle for the night. The next morning, we got up for the continental breakfast.. Morgan walked into the dining room, took one look around and said, "Oh no! This place is for the elderly." To which Shelby replied,"That's cause Florida is God's waiting room!" HAHAHA OMG I thought I'd die laughing!

We made our way to Tallahassee, FL. We stopped at one of my FAVE burger joints. Steak-N-Shake. TO DIE FOR!!!!

 

After leaving Steak-N-Shake, we stopped at K-Mart for Preston to use the restroom. While I was sitting in the car, I heard a big "GUSH" sound. Our radiator had broken and exploded all over the ground. It took us about 3 hours to get it up and running.

We finally got to Granny's house about 9:30 and CRASHED!!!! It's so good to be home for a while.!