Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Christmas in Florida

 
 
Every year we try to get together with my family between Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years to celebrate the holidays together. This year we decided to go to FL to my parent's house. So we got some great deals on a direct flight from New Orleans to Tampa and then rented a car to get to my parent's about an hour south of Tampa.
 
The boys were so excited about riding on the airplane.......


 
It was a direct flight about an hour and a half long. They both did great, watching out the window for a while and then playing on the iphones and ipads once we got higher in the air.

 
Once we got to Tampa we met up with my sister's family and picked up the rental car to head down south to Venice, FL to our parent's house! 

 
We originally rented two cars to get us all there, but once we got to the airport we realized it would be cheaper to rent a 15 passenger van....SO we all loaded up together and headed out!!! It was hilarious! 


 
After a long day of traveling it was good to be at "home". 



 
We had a jam packed schedule!! The first day all of the guys went fishing and the girls went and got pedicures. Then we took the kids to play at the park and go swimming in the heated pool!




The next day we headed to an inflatable gym to let the kids run out some of their energy.....













 
Then we all headed to the mall to visit Poppa at his work and do a little shopping!

Then we all loaded up in the van and headed to the Sarasota boat parade.
 

 
The next day the girls and kids went to the aquarium and the guys went skeet shooting.



















We took some family pictures.....Florida style!




Then headed out to the beach, per the kids request!! Although a "cold" front was blowing in so it got pretty chilly and windy being right on the water. It didn't seem to phase Cade and Dani though!




We had another little photo session with the beautiful sunset peaking out of the clouds.....











After a fun weekend, the boys settled down on our last night there and watched Toy Story with Uncle Russ.



Then it was time to head back home! We all headed to the airport and took over the Tampa airport for a while with our wild kids and hungry baby!!





 
Once again the kids did great on the flight!! Cade working on writing some of his letters and coloring some pictures!! Its such a bittersweet time for me watching him grow up!!! Look how awesome he did!!!!




The boys had fun riding through the airport with Daddy.....
 
What a great trip we had!!!! It is always so much fun when we are all able to be together as a family, the original 5 and then all of our fabulous additions to our growing family!!! Even though we don't get to spend the actual holidays together, it is always so comforting to know that we still get to celebrate family and being together no matter the day or time of year!!!

Thanks Poppa, RaRa and Uncle Russ for such a great trip!!!! Love and miss you all so much already!
 
Until next time!



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