Fall Break Road Trip

Since our school system has a one week Fall Break, we decided it would be a great time to take a road trip . . . to Sarasota, Florida.  As a family, this would be our first and longest trip away from home.  We knew the girls in no way would survive driving straight through to get there, so we made the decision to drive it in two days.  We arrived at our hotel about 12 hours after we started out Saturday morning.  We arrived at our final destination Sunday afternoon about 4:30pm (after about 9 hours of driving).  It was sooo good to finally have made it!

Here are just a few of the many, many pictures that were taken along the way.

The traditional "welcome to Florida" picture :o)

On Monday we headed to the beach.  A perfect day for it too!  The temps were in the upper 80's with higher humidity.  The water was great.   The waves were fairly low.  And the best part, the beach was not crowded.  This time of year is the perfect time to go . . . all of the "winter birds" have not yet arrived, and it's not prime tourist season either (Christmas Break or Spring Break).

 We were fortunate to have use of my aunt and uncle's golf cart.  The girls loved taking a ride around the neighborhood.  A quick side story . . . the second time we took it out, we discovered that we hadn't let it charge up long enough before our first ride!  On the way back to the house (once we realized we were running out of power), I told Allyson to pray that we can make it back across the main road, that way if it runs out of juice, we can at least push it back home.  Fortunately, we made it back without any embarrassment. :o)

Of course we had to take a picture of this! :o)

On Tuesday we went to Lido Beach to collect shells.

On Wednesday we headed to the Mote Aquarium. 

The girls loved being able to touch the sting rays.

On Wednesday evening we headed back to Lido Beach to catch a sunset.  It wasn't the best of sunsets, but I'm not complaining.  I love the beach!

On Thursday we headed to Legoland (about 2 hours away) . . . a great place to go if you are ever in Florida.

This day was overcast and cool, and I'm not sure if it got much above the low 70's.  Once again the perfect time of year to go - not crowded at all.

Yes, this car is made out of Legos.

They have an area called Mini-Land.  All of the different places depicted are made out of Legos.  A few examples of the places they made are The White House, NASA, the Statue of Liberty, The Capitol, The Daytona Int'l Speedway, etc.

Just goofin' around while waiting on Rodney :o)  I think it turned out great even if Janae's mouth got cut off.

On Friday morning, we started back out in the direction of home.  I know the girls were ready to be back as they were already asking earlier in the week "when is it time to go home?"  Like I said earlier, this was the longest they've been away from home - ever!  I know they thoroughly enjoyed themselves, but home is always a good place too.

We finally made it home Saturday evening, and what a great feeling that was!  Kaycie immediately went to her room and started playing.  Rodney made the comment  that she acted like she had a whole week's worth of playing to do.  :o)  Before we left I made sure the girls had clean and tidy rooms (I like coming home to a clean  house), but I'm not sure why.  I think that within a half hour or or less, Janae and Kaycie's room looked like a tornado had gone through it!

With all this said, vacations are always a good thing, but coming home is too!