I'm way behind on blogging (more on that later, I promise I have a good excuse!) but back in October we went on a family vacation to Florida. My parents are now retired and spend most of the year down there so it was the perfect opportunity to fly over for a visit, spend some time with my Grandpa and surprise the kids with a trip to Disneyworld.
We spent most of our free time taking walks around their neighborhood and swimming in the pool. The kids would have slept in that pool if we let them. Thankfully there were some very understanding neighbors who let the kids jump, splash and throw every single pool toy in while they were playing.
Our first morning before we headed over to the pool we decided to stop at my Grandpa's house to say hello. He lives just down the street from my parents (yep, still lives at home at 99 years old!). Carter met him when he was about 9 months old but Lucy had never met him. Since they were so excited to go swimming it wasn't the most sincere visit, but luckily we had other opportunities during the week to spend time with him.
Then it was pool time!
And later that night Matt and I got to have a date night. We took a walk down by the beach, had some delicious Mexican food, went to Costco and Target (not romantic but so much easier to run errands without the kids!) and ended the night by sharing an ice cream sundae at our favorite local ice cream shop!
We came home to the kids who weren't quite tired yet so we took them on a flashlight walk around the neighborhood. It was so nice to have such warm weather all week, even in the evenings.
The next day we headed to the Tampa Lowry Zoo. Matt and I took Carter to this zoo when he was a baby and it is amazing! So many great animal exhibits, free rides and lots of good walking paths for strollers. Always a plus! Before we headed out we took a ride on the golf cart around the neighborhood. It was a favorite activity during the week and probably happened at least twice a day.
This zoo is really so great. Besides having 3 school field trips going on that day (one school brought over 800 kids, ridiculous!) we got to see and do everything. While avoiding some of the crowds we headed to the rides.
The bats were probably our favorite exhibit. So many up close to see and watch. Really cool and creepy at the same time.
So many splash pads around too. It gets so hot we needed time to just cool off.
We could always tell how the kids were feeling by how sweaty they looked. Anytime they were overheated we knew to just sit, get some water, a cold treat and take a break.
Ice cream for the win!
Carter spotted this ride (similar to Splash Mountain) and was determined to ride it.
They were completely drenched from head to toe! So fun!
Then it was time for the carousel.
Another favorite exhibit....the alligators. I think we counted 8 or 9 just slithering around.
Carter got to touch and feed a sting ray too.
That afternoon we went back to the pool to cool down a bit. We also got to meet up with some cousins who were in town visiting. Their 3 year old little boy quickly became friends with Carter. The kids don't have any cousins so meeting their 2nd cousins was a big hit.
We managed to get a family picture of all of us who were visiting on Saturday morning.
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