Family Vacation--Florida Keys--Day 1 :)

Our first official family vacation was to the Florida Keys. The closest we could get to the Caribbean without a passport :) Ryan and Jaina did such a great job on the way down, they are great road trippers! Good to know for next time! We made a pit stop in West Palm Beach to stretch our legs, get a little lunch, and let the kids run around for a bit. This was the perfect place, so glad for the recommendations. Playmobil Fun Park :) The kids could have spent hours in here, and it only cost a buck to get in, sure do wish it was closer!

His royal highness, Prince Ryan!

Jaina and Daddy playing dollhouse :)

Even puppy got to come in and play!

From there we got back in the van and didn't stop until we were at Hawks Cay :) The condo was even more beautiful then the pictures showed, and the owner was super nice to work with!

It was 1350 sqft, 2 bedrooms & 2 baths, the kids shared a room, and everyone survived!

It was pretty cute to hear them talking to each other at bedtime. One night Ryan was so tired, he actually said "Jaaaiinnnaa, be quiet!!"

Ryan and Jaina so happy to have made it to the condo and out of the van!

I'd have to say the best part of it was the wrap around balcony, the view was beautiful!!

full kitchen (which was great because we were able to eat some of our meals there, instead of eating out all of the time)

Art of Sand Festival

We braved the "cold" last night and went to the Art of Sand Festival at Space Coast Stadium.

I've never seen anything like it, definitely a unique experience

Jaina our future sand sculptor, practicing her building skills in the kids learning area!

Daddy and Ryan had to get a picture next to the lion!

Since we were down on the field, the boys are showing off they're Babe Ruth moves!

We will be back next year, the kids really enjoyed it....although I think Ryan's favorite part of the night was running around the massive outfield with dad!

Green Meadows

We took a field trip with the church folk to Green Meadows Farm in Kissimmee today. It was sooooo much fun, well up until we got stuck in a torrential downpour. It was pretty funny looking back on it, all of the moms and kids were huddled in this little shed with animal feed!! Good times :)

The kids leading the way, they were so excited...I guess we were going to slow for them!

Our first stop was the chicken coop. Ryan and Jaina working together to catch one!

Daddy got one...there is a reason mommy is the one taking the pictures, no way I would have been able to do that!

Taking a little break, getting ready to milk a cow....poor cow!

Ryan was all pumped to do it, until he actually saw the cow, then he was like....you want me to do what, I don't think so!

Baby chicks!!!

Ryan was so brave, I didn't think he was going to hold the little guy~

Baby ducks!! This place was awesome :)

Jaina has no fear....a good and but sometimes dangerous quality that we love about her!

When we were ready to go, we each got to pick a pumpkin to take home.....

.....this is the one that Jaina chose!

It was a fun filled, adventurous, exhausting day, so glad we went. Ryan is still talking about it!

Firestation #47

I think this is our 3rd fire station tour so far, but it never gets old :) This one was put together by the Moms Club of Viera. I guess things got mixed up and the guys weren't expecting us today, but they put on a good show nonetheless!! We rushed home from preschool, inhaled lunch and high tailed it to the station.

Future Firefighter?!

nope....fire chief!

Ryan and Jaina were paying VERY close attention :)

Ready to ride!

I love this part of the tour....the firemen probably don't since it's about a million degrees in those suits! But they do it so the kids will not be scared if they come in to help them in an emergency.

Jaina's very beautiful, very concerned face. She had a death grip on my leg, and calmly kept saying, "no....no....no" :)

So many buttons to push and knobs to turn!

At one point she picked up one of the firefighters walkies and started pressing buttons, yikes!

Faith Viera Open House

We love, love, love Ryan's preschool. Just cant say enough great things about it!! Tonight we had a super fun time at his open house. The walls were lined with all of the kids art work. It was cool to search for the Ryan original in the art show!! Here's a pic of his featured art piece:

Next we took a tour of his classroom, he was very excited to show us all of the things he does here. This is the library corner with books that go with the theme they are learning about, right now they are discussing Fall. Cute side story about that....when he woke up on the 1st day of Fall Ryan was very excited to look out the window, then he quickly realized he had been jipped because there were no leaves on the ground :)

Jaina is already wanting to start school!! It's not a pretty picture when I have to drag her out of Ryan's class after drop off!! Maybe we'll try the 3 year old program a couple of mornings next year!

Wet&Wild

We were so fortunate to get a hold of SUPER discount tickets to the waterpark. We had never been before, and from 5-9 the place was closed to the public, totally awesome. We of course spent most of our time in the kiddie area, but it was a great time playing with the kids. It was really great to see Ryan being brave and trying out the water slides. He's not a fan of water in his face, but he did really well!!! Alicia took our Ryan and Jaina so we could go on some big people rides, that was nice....not something we get to do very often so we really appreciated it! Our ticket also included free all you can eat BBQ dinner and all day drinks. After dinner we floated around, many times on the lazy river. Jaina hung out with me in my tube, and Ryan played musical tubes with Dad, Alicia, and Dennis. At one point he even got into the river and floated on his own with his life jacket!! LOTS of fun....can't wait to do it again next year :)

*these are the only three pics I managed to get....next year a waterproof camera is on my list!