Florida Trip - Part 3 Family Time at Orange Lake

We were able to sneak away for a little family time this trip and it was wonderful! A huge bonus to Jeff traveling on business throughout the year is that he earns Holiday Inn hotel points - we decided to cash in a bunch of these points this year and treated ourselves to a 2 bedroom condo at Orange Lake Vacation Resort. We had a blast! The pool that was outside our room was amazing - we spent 2 1/2 days just swimming and floating down the lazy river, and sipping fruity drinks by the pool! It was so relaxing and wonderful for Jeff and I to have some family vacation time together with Evan and Sophia. The kids haven't stopped talking about the resort and can't wait to go back - they loved the pool and were thrilled that our condo had a Jacuzzi tub which Evan swam in both mornings when he woke up! He has never been in a Jacuzzi tub before (at least not an indoor one!) Their bedroom was complete with their own bathroom and a TV - Evan thought he was a king, waking up and watching cartoons in bed!! Definitely incentive for Jeff to keep traveling for work!! (That's Evan in mid-air in the last couple of pictures - I used my zoom lens to catch Jeff tossing Evan around in the pool!)

Florida Trip - Part 2 - Disney!

After Bonita Springs, we drove to Orlando to visit our Pelletier family and Mickey and Minnie! We had a great time! We had beautiful weather - bright blue sun and temps in the 70's, warming into the 80's as the days went on. We had fun at Grandma & Pepere's visting with aunts, uncles and cousins and also had a great day visiting Dave and Linette and the boys at their house and swimming in their pool. We were able to head to Magic Kingdom twice and Epcot once - Sophia met Jasmine and Alladin, Ariel, Rapunzel, Snow White, Stitch, Chip & Dale, and Woody and Jesse - she got autographs from all of them and pictures for her new album! She was able to at least see Anna and Elsa from the movie "Frozen" which are her two new favorite princesses - the wait time was very long to actually meet them so we were in the viewing area only. I was able to snap one picture! Sophia also went on her first rollercoaster - Goofy's Barnstormer - and she started out with her hands in the air shouting "no hands"! Evan's favorite rides were Thunder Mountain (3 times he went I think??) and Buzz Lightyear. It was a great visit in Orlando! Thanks Grandma & Pepere for having us and treating us to the magic of Disney again!

Florida Trip Part 1 - Bonita Springs!

We had a wonderful vacation to Florida over February school break - it was a much needed escape from the arctic winter weather that we have had this year. We started out in Bonita Springs visiting Grammy and Grampy. Although we were all pretty sick the entire visit, we still managed to have a lot of fun! What a beautiful spot they have - back and front views of the ocean, dolphins swimming by as you sit on their back porch, beautiful sandy beach across the street, and of course lots of palm trees! We can see why Grampy enjoys being a "snowbird" these days!! It took Evan all of 10 minutes his first day on the beach to go swimming - in his shorts. His sister was pretty much right behind him! She turned into quite the fish during our vacation. Here are a few pics of this wonderful spot!