Florida

Yay! We made it through the storm and finally got a real vacation. It was so much fun. We started off a little rocky with the pink eye, cough, etc. But the true testament of what our vacation would be like was the fact that Isaac was an angel, as usual, on the 7 hour plane ride. We had a layover in Houston, which was great to feed, change etc. It was a perfect flight. Then our good friend Joe picked us up at the airport and drove us to his house in Ormond beach. Joe and Heidi were AMAZING. They drove us to and from the airport, gave us an amazing guest room in their spectacular new house (pack n play included for isaac), let us borrow one of their cars for the entire week AND were amazing hosts taking us to all the hot spots central Florida has to offer.
The first day was a dream come true for Kevin with deep sea fishing of the coast. He had a great time and caught all sorts of fish and even a couple of sharks. We naturally had to make the best of the shark photo op with Isaac at the beach later that evening. Then the boys cooked up all the fish (shark included) and we had a seafood feast for dinner. I had a wonderful day sleeping in, shopping, seeing the alligator in their local pond, and hanging out at the beach with Isaac, Heidi and her two kiddos.

The next day we had some family time and went canoeing on the intercoastal waterway. This started off excitingly. As I got Isaac out of the car, Kevin packed up our canoe and ran up to the shop to pay.... only to see our canoe floating away. He ran back, grabbed a kayak, and rescued our canoe from the gator infested waters. The rest of the time on the kayak was much less eventful. Nonetheless, I have to admit I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to gators. The water we were in has aligators, dolphins, and manatee. Everytime our boat hit an unexpected bump in the murky water, I was convinced our boat was going to tip and our child eaten by an alligator. This high stress level made the canoeing seem much more adventurous and made the 3 hour nap we all took when we got back to the Atkin's house all the more enjoyable. That evening we spent enjoying the Atkin's neighborhood pool.

The next day we went to a natural spring and had a great time floating. It was beautiful and the pictures absolutely don't do it justice. Kev was holding Isaac when he bumped up against the edge of the river, and noticed a huge snake in the foliage. Needless to say, we were more careful to stay away from the edges after that. Supposedly these are also gator infested waters but, thankfully, we never saw any.

Thursday was an event. Both Kevin and Isaac's first Disney experience. We only went to the Magic Kingdom part of disneyland since it would take a week to do more than that. It was so much fun. Kev's favorite ride was Splash Mountain. (I forgot to mention that in yet another testament of their awesomeness, Joe and Heidi took Isaac for a while so we could go on a few grown up rides.) My favorite ride remains space mountain. Isaac seemed to enjoy all the rides but he definately fell in love with Minnie Mouse.

Friday we went to the Alligator farm and then Heidi and I got our kid free time (like the boys fishing) and we went shopping. It was fun to just relax and actually be able to try clothes on! That night we went on a walking tour of the city and learned all about St. Augustine, which is the oldest, continually inhabited, city in North America. It was fun learning about pirates and seeing the forts.

Saturday was just a relaxing day at the beach. I managed to read a book! Kev and Isaac had a great time building drip castles and boogeyboarding. Isaac seemed to love the beach, the only downside was his faceplanting in the sand or surf and trying to eat his way out. Luckily there were beachside showers that were super convenient. That night we went out to eat at the Riverside Grille which was delicious and really fun. It was located right on the intercoastal waterway and there is a dock at the bottom (and a wild alligator).

Oh and I forgot to mention some other unsung heros of our vacation. Jason brown, our neighbor and friend, drove us to and from the airport on the salt lake side of things, also at very inconvenient hours. And of course my dad who is Jezebel's guardian angel.