The Pariseaus: Florida 2013: 1

We went to Florida to visit Grandma Mary and Grandpa Chuck! We're so lucky that they live in sunny Orlando - it was a great 5 day getaway.

The boys were terribly excited to go. Unfortunately they had to sit through a 3 hour drive to DC first, though. Evan mastered the, "Are we there yet? How about now? How much longer? This is taking sooooo long. Are we still in Virgina? Virginia is too big!" commentary during the ride, and Drew tried to count cows out the window. "Cow! Cow! Cow! Cow!..." Whew. We were all glad to get to the airport. The boys did great on the plane. This was Drew's last non-ticketed ride, and I was worried that he'd need more space than our collective laps could provide. But JetBlue has great legroom, plus 40 channels of DirecTV, making it a pretty easy trip. After wearing himself out playing with gel clings and coloring and snacking and climbing up and down and up and down, he slept the second half of the trip, so mommy could enjoy the ride too. Evan was perfectly content to watch a couple shows and enjoy a little peace and quiet with his headphones. Success!

The boys loved exploring Grandma and Grandpa's house. They even had a room with two beds just for the boys! Drew ended up sleeping in the pack and play so he wouldn't fall out of the bed, and of course it didn't stay the boys' room for long... those Cars and Jake blankets are quite comfy... mommy knows firsthand. :) The weather was a little overcast, but great to be outside, which we were every chance we got. There was lots and lots of golf practice! And we got to meet Sallie - she's so sweet! The boys were a little afraid of her as they are with most dogs, but they loved taking walks around the neighborhood with her. We explained that Sallie is deaf so needs a little special care just like our blind Ernie does, but they kept trying to talk to her anyway.

We got a great surprise Saturday when Auntie Chrissy came down from Tennessee for the day to play with us! It was such fun to see her and we can't wait for another visit. We spent most of the day mini-golfing at Pirate's Cove - all 18 holes! Evan showed off some serious skill in putting, and Drew tried... but seemed to feel his skill would be in collecting all our balls after our first putt and placing them carefully into the hole. So we all had pseudo-holes-in-one.

"Who are YOU?" Drew tries a Captain Morgan pose.

A helping hand from Grandpa. Drew helps all our scores.

When he did actually golf, Drew had a bit of a wild swing. Ok, a VERY wild swing. So Evan decided to help him out, just like Grandpa and Daddy helped him. He walked right up to him when Drew was struggling and said, "No no, Drew, let me help you. Like this!" Be still my heart!

Argh, Matey!

The golfing was great, and for some added fun, Pirate's Cove has a water canon. Yep, a small canon sits on the edge of the pond and fills with water... you press the button and BOOM - water sprays everywhere across the pond. Evan couldn't get enough, especially when a poor unsuspecting duck swam right in the target. She got quite the bath! Good thing the canon takes 60 seconds to refill and my kids' patience isn't that long... after only 10 rounds of the canon they finally decreed that it was taking too long and time for lunch. Otherwise I think we'd still be there.

Time for lunch at Auntie Chrissy's fave: Bubbalou's BBQ. It was perfect weather to sit outside and watch the people and traffic - especially the big Harleys - roar past. Drew discovered that while he isn't adventurous enough to try a pulled pork sandwich, he loves their sweet BBQ sauce on mac 'n' cheese. Sounds good to me!

Nothing goes better with yummy lunch than kisses... except maybe icees!

After HUGE naps for everyone (we did all that in one morning??), we drove just down the street to Downtown Disney for dinner. We spent hours there and only saw maybe a third of all there was to see. Stores, trains, food, rides, street dancing... everything is so much fun at Disney.

Does this count as a photo with a character? This was as close as they were comfortable getting...and only after being reassured that they were statues and wouldn't move.