Our Florida trip

We had a really nice trip to visit Eric's folks (aside from the loooong drive!).  It took about 13 hours to get there; we ended up leaving Sunday (Christmas) around 6:45 and got to their place at 8:00 am Monday morning. Eric drove most of the way - he gets a little crazy like that! The kids are awesome travelers. They both slept most of the way there and were watching movies on their little dvd players the rest of the time. On the way back we broke it up into two days and stopped just north of Atlanta at a hotel. Still, even with 6 - 7 hours in the car both days, we only had to make one stop per trip to go potty and get food and gas for the car.

The weather wasn't awesome, but it was still warmer than at home!  We made it to see some manatees, some crocodiles, went to a beach called Siesta Key which is so nice (the kids got in the water even though they were wearing their shorts... luckily I actually thought ahead for once and brought them both a change of clothes!).  We also spent a day at Legoland, which Conner adored.  There were some really neat Lego creations; one area, called Miniland, had lots of different cities represented.  Some of the recreations of the Washington DC buildings were amazing! They also had Las Vegas, Miami, NASA, Hollywood.  That was Eric's favorite part.  My favorite was the fireworks in the evening. They gave out free (!) 3-d glasses so that when you looked at the fireworks you could see legos coming out of them!  So cool. It's a small amusement park really geared towards 3 - 9 year olds, so the kids had a ball. Audrey rode all of the roller coasters (and there were some good size ones!) with her hands up in the air the whole time; she's not scared of a thing!  (Unless it's a little puppy like we saw last night at a friend's house!)

Eric's folks really live in a nice area. There are 3 golf courses, 3 outdoor pools (and 2 indoor) and 2 big clubhouses with all kinds of activities. They bought a golf cart to ride around in - they can even take them out of the neighborhood to get to some of the stores and restaurants that are close.  It's going to be awesome for them to be there but hard for us to have them so far away.

Exams are next week at school - I can't believe we're halfway through the year already!  And yet I'm ready for summer!  My classes are all going well; it's so nice to not have a "bad" one this year. Of course I have those students that I could really do without, but they haven't been able to ruin a class like they can.  I always like exam week because of an altered schedule and not much to do on my part. Two of my exams are ready to go and the other I just need to edit a bit.  I'm hoping to take advantage of the free time and get my next book club book read - we chose Eragon (by Christopher Paolini) which is a young adult book but everyone's seemed to like.  Next month is Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (by Ransom Riggs) and I've got that ready should I get through Eragon.  I've been reading a lot of Lee Child lately, who writes mystery/crime novels. Definitely a change for my normal!

Conner's got a basketball game tonight - it's been quite an experience with the boys!  I'm coaching (because no one else stepped up) and it's really shown me why I wouldn't want to be an elementary teacher. The noise! The energy! The fighting/hitting!  Oh my goodness.  They are fun, though, and Conner's liked having me as coach. I'm just hoping that I haven't committed myself to doing this every year!

I'm going to attach some pictures from our day at Legoland - they really make me wish it was summer!  Although with beautiful blue skies and temps in the 50s today I really can't complain.