Many of you have been wondering where this blog has been.  So here goes, my blog on our Florida vacation.... Drum roll, please!

First off, the girls did an amazing job on the plane flight.  Luckily we had nonstop flights lasting a little over two hours.  We were able to keep the girls occupied and out of trouble.  Avery thought the take off was a lot like riding a roller coaster and Mia just looked out the window and said "Whee!"  They both enjoyed getting to have a drink on the plane.  It's the little things. 

Once we arrived in Florida, we went straight to my grandparents house who live outside of Tampa, along the Gulf of Mexico, in Largo.  My grandma was so excited that we had arrived and very anxious to love on the girls.  Little did she know that Mia takes some time to warm up to kissing grandmothers.  By the end of the trip, Mia was giving her fair share of hugs to all.

We started off on Friday heading to Clearwater Beach.  The girls loved the beach, although Avery had an initial fear of all the seagulls.  She was not used to birds getting so close to her.  Avery did fuss a bit about sand in her booty, but who likes that, really?  We made a sand castle and enjoyed the salty water.  Mia seemed to really enjoy the waves, while Avery was an avid seashell collector.  I think we brought 100 shells home with us.  We got to eat at one of my childhood beach joints, Crabby Bills for lunch.

On Saturday, we got up early and headed into Orlando to go to Magic Kingdom.  The girls were tired so I was a little worried about the day.  We arrived at Disney with wide eyes and squeals of excitement.  Avery decided she wanted to meet Ariel first, so we headed over to the Little Mermaid's grotto.  My great aunt had sent Avery an Ariel costume so she changed while we were in line.  Both of the girls were so cute when they met Ariel, each giving her a hug.  It was priceless.

We stayed most of our day in Fantasy Land, riding rides and seeing shows.  It was a great time to go.  I don't think we stayed in line longer than 15 minutes for anything.  It was amazing!   It was fun going back as an adult and seeing everything through adults eyes.  I remember It's a Small World having this huge line up area and this time it didn't seem so big.  And I remember the Country Bear Jamboree being awesome.  Let me tell you, it is anything but awesome now days.  There were so many new things - Winnie the Pooh's Adventure, Philharmagic (which is super cool!), a character parade in the middle of the day, Aladdin's Magic Carpets and many other new character rides that didn't exist last time I was there.  We all had a great time watching the girls excitement throughout the day.  It did start to rain about 6:30 pm and it never stopped.  We bought ponchos and did some shopping but left before the night parades.  The girls were worn out by then so it was probably best.  We can save that for the next visit!

The rest of our trip was filled with more beach bathing, sand building, shopping and spending time with my grandparents.  Some additional highlights of the trip are listed below:

• Watching Avery chase seagulls at the beach and telling them to "Sit on a pin!" (Something she learned from a book from the library.
• Seeing my grandpa play the guitar and sing with the girls in the evening.
• Building a sand castle, sand mound and sand sea turtle while at the beach.
• Seeing Mia's face light up when she saw Winnie the Pooh and Minnie Mouse. 
• Watching Avery stare in amazement at all the Disney princesses.
• Seeing the girls in their Mouse Ears - a lasting Disney tradition 
• All the homemade yummy food my grandmother made (I'm talking about stuff meatballs and homemade chicken and noodles).
• Going out to our favorite restaurant, P.J.'s.  No Florida trip is complete without going there.
• Chris and I's night out, walking along the beach and sitting on the pier.

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  Having such a wonderful mom who graciously took us on this trip.

   

   

   

  Not only is she an amazing mom

   

  , but she is an amazing

   

  

   

  grandmother.