Walk through Bethlehem

It really is so easy to get caught up in the commercial side of Christmas, sometimes the real "reason for the season" is forgotten. I was so excited to see this awesome, free event to put things back in perspective. A little church in Satellite Beach put on this "walk through Bethlehem", complete with donkeys, sheep and cows :) The people acting in the walk were all very authentic in their look and their speech. There were even shepards reenacting the story of the Christmas star, and the angel messengers, it was a very cool experience!

Ryan and Daddy signing their name at the Census table

Potters

The kids outside of the market

Basket Weavers

Trying out their own carpentry skills!

The manger animals!

Oh Christmas Tree

One of the Christmas traditions that we have started with the kids is that we take them to Hallmark every year to pick out a keepsake ornament. Its really neat to take them out every year and reminisce :) Then when the get older, much older, and move away from home they will have lots of ornaments to start their own family Christmas tree! This year Ryan got a Rudolph, much to our surprise we were sure he was going to pick the Phineas and Ferb, or the Alvin Chipmunk! Jaina got a Mickey/Minnie ornament!

We've always had the tree up the day after thanksgiving, but this year got postponed due to our camping trip. And then it got postponed some more due to light malfunctions :( Angel went through every single light and found the problem, viola...good as new! We cranked up the holiday tunes and trimmed, trimmed, trimmed!!

thanksgiving 2011~Bluesprings

We did something different for Thanksgiving this year, we went tent camping. Reservations for this particular campground get booked out months in advance so we were lucky that there was one spot available! This was our first time here, but have had lots of people tell us how great it is, they were right!

Who knew that there are bears in Florida, not me!
Here's the little flyer that they gave us at check in!

It looks like Jaina is deep in thought, but really she's scratching a mosquito bite! Poor thing, she has no luck with those pesky insects!

Setting up the tent with daddy while I take the pictures....I think I had the easy job!

Ryan and Jaina entertained themselves in the tent for quite a while, it was great! One thing that wasn't so great was the train that passed every couple of hours during the night blowing its whistle! Surprisingly the kids slept right through it

I never knew there was water like this in the middle of Florida, you can actually see to the bottom. Jaina and Alicia are looking for manatees on our first night

Angel enjoying some fishing time while we played on a nearby playground

Hot Dogs for Thanksgiving, awesome!

Staying warm by the campfire!

You're not allowed in the spring while the manatees are there, from Nov-March. We're going to have to go back in the Springtime to go swimming, tubing, canoeing, etc :)

thanksgiving feast

Ryan had his thanksgiving program for preschool today. He is one of the tallest kids so of course he had to stand in the back. I got extremely lucky to get this shot of our little guy!! Jaina was so good for me while we were watching the performance, i think she was amazing at all of the gobble, gobble, gobbles!

Family vacation--Florida Keys--Day 2

We woke up bright and early, thanks to daylight savings. The kiddos were up and ready for breakfast at 530! It wasn't that bad though, because we needed to leave pretty early for our snorkeling adventure. So we ate, and hit the road up to Key Largo and John Pennekamp State Park. We go to check in and the lady says that there are 4-5 foot waves out there, and they are calling for strong swimmers only. So we decide in our infinite wisdom to do a glass bottom boat ride instead. So we popped our Dramamine and off to sea we went. Everything was fine until we stopped over the reef for an hour to look. We were all so sick, luckily we never actually got sick, but poor Ryan fell asleep in Angels lap. Probably a good thing!! We saw some pretty cool sea life, including gigantic jellyfish.....soooo glad the original plan fell through and we were not snorkeling with those guys!

Angel pointed out something kinda funny, on the way out the the reef everyone on the boat was so excited, laughing and carrying on. But on the way back it was totally opposite, everyone looked drained!

My poor guys :( I guess they'll never have a deep sea fishing career!

Having to look down to see the reef while the boat was so rocky really did us in!!

The rest of the day was a recovery time for us all. We stayed and relaxed at the resort most of the day.

Here's where we ventured out to take a look at the property

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)