I have not posted in a long time but I have a good excuse this time.  The kids and I have been in Florida the last week!  This post might just be the longest post ever since I have lots to report.  It was a trip full of new experiences for the kids and the first one was a ride in an airplane.  The boys got to look inside the cockpit of the first plane we went on.

The next day instead of resting, we went to Disney World!  It was a very long day and a strange mix of really fun and super nightmare.  It was really crowded and we were there on one of the three weeks of the year that Disney classifies as 'uncrowded'.  I'd hate to go any other time of year.  We got there a little before it opened and it still took us an hour to get through the front gate.  We took the ferry ride from the parking lot to the park.

We finally made it!  We had perfect weather all week and our Disney day was no different.  It is beautifully landscaped and we saw lots of ducks and ducklings!  It's a lot to take in when you first get there.  We took advantage of a few photo-ops first.

Then we rode lots of rides.  Not all of them but we hit the major ones I think.  The first thing we rode on was Aladdin's Magic Carpet.  It's basically like the Dumbo ride but with magic carpets.  Here are the boys before we got started.

I just thought this was cute!

Adelaide was sitting next to me.

Here is Austin as the ride started going up.

And here is Adelaide!

Adelaide loved all the rides she went on!  I think I'll have a roller coaster buddy in a few years!

We went on this one a couple times!

After exploring a little more we stopped for some lunch, nicely packed for us by my aunt.  Do you see all the people?  Not exactly uncrowded in my opinion but I guess by Disney standards...

Then we went back to Main Street to watch the Move It!  Shake It! Street Parade.  Adelaide played with this Minnie Mouse she somehow acquired.  It has a button that makes her skirt spin and her skirt lights up which we didn't even realize until after dark.  Either way it kept her occupied for most of the trip so it was worth it!

This is Adelaide dancing when the music began.  I'm pretty sure that this was her favorite part of the entire day.  She danced along the whole time!

We saw Mickey and his gang.  We didn't get any autographs because apparently the characters hang out on Main Street and you have to wait in lines to get their autographs.  We chose to do other things instead.

We even saw princesses dancing...if only Adelaide was a couple years older!

Here is Gavin spinning the Tea Cups.  He's all wet because he was playing in sprinklers.

I thought this one might scare Adelaide but she liked it.  It might have helped that she wasn't tall enough to see over the edge of the tea cup.

Of course we had to go on the Dumbo ride!  Austin and Adelaide were with me on this one so I didn't get a good picture of them.

I think we should do this to our bushes in the front yard.

Gavin got an official driver's license and then drove a race car, that went all of maybe 2 mph when I floored the gas pedal (he was too short).

This might have been his favorite ride.

I have no idea who these people are but they were very excited to get their picture taken.  I assume they work there but it's hard to tell with hardcore Disney fans sometimes.

We went to the Celebrate Parade in the afternoon and then made it back to Main Street in time to watch the Electrical Parade in the evening.

Finally we stayed for the fireworks, complete with music telling me that Disney movies apparently make all my dreams come true.  It was very moving...

And, Adelaide learned the word 'castle' while we were there!  By late afternoon every time we saw the castle she would point to it and say 'castle'.  She may have bought in to the propaganda a little bit.

The day after Disney (the kids slept all the way to 9:00 a.m.!!!) we finally made it to the beach.  Gavin's been telling me for at least a year that he wanted to see the ocean and he finally had his chance (this trip is also why we had the abrupt change from Chemistry to Oceans in science a few weeks ago).

Checking out the sand...

Believe it or not, this picture was unprompted by me.  They were very excited!  We had perfect 80 degree weather all week but that water was super cold.  After the first day Gavin was the only one who would go in it.

Adelaide preferred to sit in the lounger with me.  She wanted nothing to do with the water.  She looked like the perfect beach baby though with those pretty blonde curls :)

They also had a great kiddie pool and it was heated and had an amazing water slide.  Most importantly, they served very tasty margaritas.  Apparently I was too busy drinking these because I did not take any pictures while we were there.

We took a couple other excursions.  We like to pack in as much in as possible since we never know if we'll ever get back.  One side trip was to an old Spanish fort.  We got to take a boat over to it.

We were the last tour of the day so Gavin got to go onto the roof top lookout and take down the flag.  It had cute little turrets. (It was a very small fort. I think there were only six or seven men there at a time.)

I think Adelaide is going to be a warm weather beach lover like me!  She was very at home there.

We stopped briefly at another beach before spending the evening in St. Augustine.

The next day we went to Marineland, which is a small aquarium that has twelve dolphins.  They used to film old movies there back when movies were black and white.  We took the behind-the-scenes tour and it was fun.  The kids loved the dolphins!

This is Adelaide waiting for our tour to begin.

We even got our picture with the dolphins!

Then it was back to the beach.

The reason we went to Florida was to celebrate my grandmother's 85th birthday.  The whole family was there and most of them have never met Austin or Adelaide.  Here is Adelaide at my grandmother's birthday.

She was spinning around in her dress, which was perfect for spinning!

The whole time we were there I wanted to get the kids down to the beach for some pictures.  This, of course, got pushed back to our final morning, which was fine except it was foggy!  The only time all week it wasn't sunny.  That's what I get for procrastinating.  I took pictures anyway.  Not the bright blue sky I had hoped for but that's okay.

After a quick costume change we had about 45 minutes to play before heading to our room to pack and check out.  We were all very sad!  Especially when we got home and had a car covered in snow.

We got back Sunday about 10:00  p.m.and Monday evening was Gavin's birthday party!  It was a lazer tag party and it was the perfect party for an eight-year-old boy.  I felt bad because I did nothing to prepare for it but Gavin thanked me about ten times before he went to bed for letting him have his party there so I guess it was worth it.

I didn't even make his cake this year.  Since I knew it wouldn't happen since it was our first day back I had a friend's husband make it.  He is a professional baker and he made a fabulous cake.  Gavin said it was the best cake he ever had...so much for the 3D castle, blue dragon and robot I made in previous years.  It was a great cake though!  It tasted good too which is the most important part.