Floridian Christmas

Oh Florida, I was sad to leave you. You, and the fam. Well, mostly the fam. 

SO - our little FL vacation began on Dec 12th. Mom flew the kids and I out early, while Greg finished up finals. I was thrilled to be there - Aimee and Jack had a blast too. 

Here they are dining in the "Florida/Sun Room" (used to be the back patio - but previous owners expanded it, added walls, windows, and now it's kind of a play-room/man cave - complete with mounted flat screen TV, AND jacuzzi - also note the mini-fridge)

I love Jack's face in this one!! 

So this is Megan. She is the darling daughter of some good friends of my parents and Aimee absolutely adores her. AND apparently, Jack does too. He was SO shy around her! He'd look over, smile, and then when she smiled back, he'd look away - burying his face in my arms. And when she held him, he was star struck. It was the cutest thing ever. Sorry little man, I don't think she's going to wait for you.  But you can bet we took plenty of pictures, to embarrass him when he's 13. 

 The kids coloring...

...And the fun is over when Jack colors on Aimee's page! Every time I look at this one I laugh a little... perfect timing.

Aimee watching Pop-pop play on the computer. "Get the bad guys!"

And you can't go to Florida without at least one quick visit to the beach. Which is what we did. And it was kind of cold that day. But the kids didn't seem to mind. 

Downtown Disney! We all drove up to Orlando to do some sight-seeing. We stayed for a couple of hours, perused the shops, rode the ferry... and planned on staying for the fireworks but when we realized they were another hour away - we decided we were over it. It was still lots of fun though!   

(Aimee was truly excited to be there - really, I promise) 

The Bayba's (quit hiding mom!) 

 Jack in awe of... 

Dinosaurs!!

 More fascination...

Carousel time!! 

Aimee wanted to sit by some random little girl. "Mom! Look, it's my friend!" Um... ok Aimee!

Dance party time!! Good ole live music, crazy stiltz-dancing-man. Poor Whit, she got pulled up to dance! (Yeah, she totally loved it) I pretended to be super busy taking pictures - to avoid getting picked. *whew* 

Oh! And I need to mention our little Rain Forest Cafe experience. I've been to the one in CA a long time ago - but I think this one is bigger. The kids LOVED it. Jack could not get enough of all the animals... that is until it started to "storm" (and for those of you unfamiliar - it "storms" in the Rain Forest Cafe every 20 minutes - there is thunder and lighting - and all the animatronic animals go crazy) I wish I took pictures of that because he looked absolutely horrified at first, but when we all started to clap and say "Yay!" He did too... but still with a look of anxiety on his face. It was hilarious. 

And finally... Christmas morning! Every year I mean to take more pictures Christmas morning and every year I fail. Oh well... 

Jack's newfound love (besides Megan) 

ELMO!

We showed him a couple of clips on mom's iPad when he was acting fussy - and he's seen a few Elmo clips here and there, but something clicked. EVERYTIME he saw my mom's iPad he'd get all excited and start requesting, "Elmo! Elmo!" 

I wish I knew before Christmas that he was going to be so fanatic about it... I may have attempted to get him some sort of singing/dancing Elmo (not the $200 kind, obviously) I guess if he's still into it by his birthday...

Here he is, watching intently... 

And upset that it wasn't the exact video he had in mind... 

There you have it! 

As always, for me - the trip was over too soon. I think the kids were more or less ready to be back. I always hate coming home after a long trip. It always feels SO lonely for a couple of days.  Thanks again mom, dad, and Whit! Love and Miss you!