Florida Days 8 and 9--Wrap it up!

Sunday's task was to drive from Macon, GA to Lebanon, IN (a medium-sized city outside of Indianapolis). We weren't really on a schedule of any kind, so we made a lot of stops. The best one was Sugerno's Coffee Shop in Louisville. It came recommended by 2 different Facebook friends, so we made a mid-afternoon stop. The kids enjoyed their hot chocolate and chocolate chip scone.

We had a rough night in Lebanon--Sammy was awake until 10:30 and Anne until 11:30. I was awake until 12:30, and Daddy woke us all up by 6:00. It was a little rough there for a bit... :)

Monday was the drive home to sweet Minnesota. No offense to Erin and Todd, but how do you people live in Chicago?!?! Worst traffic of the entire trip. We left Indiana at 6:30 a.m. and reached our driveway at 4:02 p.m. We were all anxious to be home and enjoy our own space. Sam and I both slept hard last night on our familiar pillows!

Here are some random facts about the trip:

--Gas averaged $3.50 per gallon--most expensive was in Chicago ($4.12)

--Our awesome Kia averaged 26 MPG

--We saw license plates from 30 different states and families on the beach from several different countries (My favorite? The super-British dad with children named Ruby and Archie)

--Sweet tea is the cocaine of the South--so good!

--DVD players are not good for every day driving, but they are awesome for long road trips. Thanks, Opa, for loaning us yours. It made all the difference.

--Also indispensable for modern travel is a smart phone. It seemed like I was constantly Googling things while we were on the road, such as "McDonalds playplace locations Indiana"

--Three states in a row claim Lincoln as their native son. We passed through Illinois (The Land of Lincoln), then Indiana (Lincoln's Boyhood Home), and then Kentucky (Birthplace of Lincoln) Get a new claim to fame, people!

--This country's time zone boundaries are senseless and confusing. We spent several hours of travel not knowing for sure what time it was.

This trip was excellent and we will definitely do it again. Feels good to have some new family memories!

Florida Days 6 and 7--Catching Up and Heading Home

Friday:
We stayed inside most of the day. Sam golfed with his uncle Dave and had a great time. I kept the kids inside--Sammy was acting weird and seemed like he needed some time out of the sun. We spent the evening having our picture taken by a professional photographer. Since ALL of Sam's family was together we had someone come out to capture the moments. It was all fine until little Sam decided he had had enough and had a total screaming meltdown when Claire tried to take his picture. So embarrassing. We spent the remainder of the evening sharing a meal and conversation with the rest of the family. Pictures from that day will be coming soon :)

Saturday:
We packed up and headed out of Orlando about 8:30. We took a short side trip to the national cemetery in Bushnell to see Sam's grandparents. Grandpa Jack died a while back, but Grandma Diane died just a few weeks ago. We had planned this trip to see her and celebrate her 75th birthday. She used to tease us and say "I hope I get to meet your son someday...." and we would laugh about how she was guilting us into coming to visit. Turns out she was right, and she never did get to meet Sammy. We went today to say our official "goodbye". It was pretty emotional, and inspired a difficult conversation with Anne about death.

We continued on up the road and are now in Macon, GA for the night. We are enjoying everyone's Southern accent. Tomorrow we'll drive to Indiana before heading back to Minnesota on Monday.

Florida Day 5--The Gatorland Photo Essay

As we've said, today's main event was a trip to Gatorland. Gatorland is a zoo of sorts with alligators, crocodiles, snakes, and other assorted animals. We had a very good time around the park, and our kids' behavior affirmed our decision to NOT invest in Disney tickets or anything crazy-expensive. They had fun, but not the kind of fun you want your children to display when you've sunk a lot of money into something, you know? If we'd dropped hundreds of dollars for Disney tickets, I would've wanted my kids to think everything they saw was the most amazing thing ever! When you invest tens of dollars into an alligator-themed attraction, it's okay if your kids whine a little bit. :)

On with the show!

Dad, Anne, and Sammy at the start of our day:One of several alligator-sunning areas. These were not even close to being the biggest alligators in the park.
Sambo with the "PhotoGator" Anne would not go anywhere near it.
She did, however, enjoy these tropical birds!
The park has several shows throughout the day. We took in the "Gator Wrestling" show and watched Brett here wrestle this alligator into submission.
I was there, too! Mom is mostly behind the camera....
This was toward the end of the day, when Anne's patience was running out. We took a train around part of the park--we enjoyed the shade and the sitting!
Bobo took the opportunity to act like a sullen teenager and text his friends.
One last photo at the entrance before we hit the road:
Sammy was asleep pretty quickly! He had a rough day--strapped to the stroller, sweat and sunscreen running in his eyes. He chose the white "leucistic" alligator as his souvenir and proceeded to teethe on its snout.
Anne zonked out as well.
Upon our return to the resort we saw FOUR armadillos outside our villa. I have no idea if armadillos are ever dangerous or aggressive, but we encouraged our kids to chase them.
Daddy made grilled cheese for lunch when we got home and the children were happy again. It is good to remind ourselves that they are happy to do fun things, but they are just as happy to have their lunch laid out as a smiley face. They are easy to please.
I wasn't going to blog this one, but when Sam saw it he said "Aaah! I never get to see my bald spot from the top! It is so bad...." Judge for yourselves, folks.

Florida Day 4--The Day with No Pictures

So, today was a fun day, but I did not have the camera with me at all. We had a very relaxing day, just playing at the on-site water park and venturing out to nearby towns for dinner. The water park has a lazy river and some kid-sized water slides. Anne was in heaven and Sammy....notsomuch...apparently "tot swim class" was not as successful as anticipated.

"Sad" is not the right word, nor is "depressing", but it was very apparent as we traveled down the Interstate that America has become a very homogenized nation. Same chain restaurants in every state, very hard to find anything unique to the area you are in unless you really seek it out. Sam has done a good job of looking for local restaurants to eat at so that we take advantage of the time we have here. He found a nice tavern in Clearwater yesterday for lunch and a funky diner for dinner tonight. We had a nice walk after dinner and some delicious ice cream before we came back home. While these places are not exclusively local, they at least are not restaurants that we have at home.

Random Information:

We have seen the following bizarre wildlife: cranes, geckos, an armadillo, and a grasshopper the size of my middle finger (shudder)

We have seen stadiums for the following teams: Chicago Bears, Chicago White Socks, Indianapolis Colts, Indiana Pacers, Atlanta Braves, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Coming up tomorrow: Gatorland! (Orlando's most popular half-day attraction!)

Florida Day 3--Sunburn-free at the beach!

Someone was up bright and early this morning...no rest for the weary parents!Today was beach day. We drove from Orlando toward Tampa Bay and went to Clearwater Beach on the Gulf of Mexico. It was amazing! Sam and I have both been to the beach on the Atlantic, but it is nothing like the white sand and bright blue water we saw today. It was a perfect beach experience. Temps are in the high 90s here with a scorching sun--we wore a lot of sunblock today :)

Here's our botched attempt at a photo of me with the kids:
Anne and Sammy did not sit still for very long--they wanted to play, not take pictures.
Anne loved the water and bounced in the waves with Daddy. The salt water didn't seem to bother her too much.
Sammy stayed busy on the shoreline, lying on his belly and chasing seagulls (hilarious--he would run and them and laugh as the waddled away from him)
Being in and out of air conditioning has given both kids a stuffy nose. Today's swimming in a giant vat of saline solution left them both with extremely runny noses. It was unexpected to need a giant Kleenex at the beach!

Tomorrow we'll be checking out the swimming pools and water park here at our resort...stay tuned :)

Florida Day 2--Not as fun as Day 1

Reality hit today. It wasn't awful, but we had one bad hour with Sammy as he was restless and fussy. We drove from Louisville, KY to Orlando, FL, hitting Nashville and Atlanta on the way. We decided we love Chick-Fil-A for their sweet tea and playgrounds! That was the best stop of the trip so far :)

Here are the kids with Daddy right as we crossed the border from Georgia to Florida. We're keeping it real--the baby pooped through his shorts and is not wearing any pants!We are comfy and cozy in our resort now, resting for our trip to the Gulf tomorrow. More to come!

Florida Day 1--Father's Day Fun

We set out bright and early this morning (5:50, to be exact) and hit the road. Today's goal was to drive from home to Louisville, Kentucky and we were extremely successful!

Our route went like this: Red Wing, through western Wisconsin and south to Chicago. We had lunch with Erin and Todd outside of Chi-Town and then got back to it. Chicago led to Indiana, which is a lo-o-o-o-ong state. It was more than a little boring, but the kids slept through most of it and watched a DVD for the rest. We are resting now in Louisville, regrouping for a longer day of driving tomorrow. Today we covered approximately 650 miles; tomorrow's trek to Orlando is 850 miles.

The kids were beyond great today--they played, slept, watched DVDs, and shared very well. Anne wasn't fussy at all, and Sammy had just a few moments of restlessness. Hopefully they will sleep well tonight and we can do it all again tomorrow!

Here's what we were looking at today:


A very happy Fathers Day to my hubby, who did ALL the driving today and was in a very good mood the entire time. What a guy!

June thus far

Any teacher will tell you that the first week of summer vacation is a very bizarre week. Working in a school is extremely regimented--you live by the clock and the bell. Very Pavlovian. But when vacation comes and there is no schedule at all, we feel kind of lost! We can do whatever, whenever, and the choice is overwhelming. We here at the Westphall house have been trying to create some kind of schedule over the past 10 days. We've done many crafts, baked many things, and slept quite a bit (apparently my body's summer project is to make up some sleep debt). Here are some photos of what we've been up to:

I made Anne 2 new dresses using the "Pillowcase" dress idea from Prudent Baby. For the first one I used a thrifted button-down shirt in a green gingham. I reversed it so that the buttons go down the back. Anne likes it, and I liked being able to skip the bottom hem!From the back (look at that scraggly ponytail! Yech!)
Sambo's been great so far, playing very well with Anne and by himself, and generally being super-cute.
Here's Anne's second dress. The first one was the "practice," and this one was the real deal. She needed a blue dress and I could not find one to purchase, so I made one. She was pretty pumped about her "new blue dress!"

The child cannot resist making faces in photos.
I used a few scraps to make a bow, which I then glued to a headband.
And yesterday, as a result of that scraggly ponytail, Anne got a haircut! She lost about 2 inches in length and got some layers, which will supposedly help with the massive tangle-ball she always has on the back of her head. The stylist put some "curl creme" in her hair before we left, so it was extra-curly. All of the people in the salon were saying "What cute hair" and "How beautiful" and while I am inclined to agree with them, Anne's ego was getting quite the boost! There's more to life than being pretty, dear daughter. I felt like we needed to go home and do some flashcards or something.
So that's June thus far. Keep checking the blog next week as we head out on our journey to Orlando, Florida! It is my goal to blog as we go while things are fresh in my mind....hopefully I will be successful :)

May Catch-Up

A random assortment of photos from the month of May:

Anne being silly:Anne trying out our new batting tee:
Sammy was not really sure what to do with the bat--he treats it like a golf club.
My BoBo, all dressed up for church:
Sammy's first circle. He used a bath crayon to draw a circle on the shower wall. It is to the left of his name. He was very proud of his "suh-cuh"