Florida Family Vacation Part 2

**Read Part 1 if you want for full effect


Okay so now we're at Wednesday. Wait before I go there did I mention on Tuesday night after our Key West trip I got to experience a real outdoor laundry mat! How cool is that!! The entire place had only 1 wall, and a picnic shelter roof! Some of you are probably laughing at me but you would never see that here, yeah people shivering their arcses off doing laundry in our winters...ugh. It was really neat, made a crappy job kind of interesting...even though it was pouring rain.


Wednesday all day it was still raining. This was the day we were to spend at the beach, the ocean, the beautiful sun and waves...and it was so rainy. Even when I checked all the other beaches, including Miami it was all rain. So we loaded kids up in the car and off we went to check out some of the Miami museums. With the Miami Go Card we could get into quite a few things for free. By the time we got to Miami the sun was shining (in Miami)....errrr.....but we brought no bathing suits and made these plans so we were sticking with it. We first went to the Science Museum which was cute and then the Children's museum, oh my, the big kids well, you can imagine what they thought but the little kids, especially Taylor, was in her glory!! She loved the doctors center, where she could dress up and be a real doctor and the shopping area where they had these oversized food items you go and fill up your shopping cart with. She was in love there...and I just loved watching her just play and be the sweet angel she is. Bailey he loved the firetrucks and the huge ship where he was captain...it was really cool to see his excitement over it all too. The older boys, they went off on their own and I'm just happy they didnt' get kicked out...lol. Afterwards we headed to Coral Castle, but my bad planning had us there 20 mins after it was closed. It was pouring rain again and so we just found something to eat and headed back.





Thurday we were all up early, this was one of my favorite days. We went on a bus tour to the Everglades. The bus ride was short, and we were there in no time....and what a great time we all had!!!! We rode the airboat and saw lots of live wild crocidiles and other animals not as interesting as the crocs but nice nevertheless. Then we saw a live croc show, the man was very good at his job and very very funny. I highly recommend a trip to the Everglades National Park for both kids and adults! Walked around the Croc place for a bit, bought some souveniers and then headed back on the bus to Miami. Once we got back we went to the Miami Marketplace, looked around for a bit, finally found the croc shoes I was looking for...pink ones at that, and then (I packed and planned this time) headed to Miami Beach to spend the rest of the afternoon. It was a wonderful day, the entire day, and everyone this time really enjoyed each part of it.








Thursday night we began packing and Friday morning we finished the packing and headed out for home, with a stop to Disney World. I'm going to leave Disney World to another post...because it really deserves a post of it's own....it's a real magical place and well I don't want to rush through a minute of it by summing it up here. So bear with me it might be a couple more days before you get the Disney Post.


After Disney it was about 11:30pm Friday night, I was starting to get a cold and wanted to head back home before it got worse. So off we went, the van was packed, the kids were tired and ready for sleep, so hubby and I drove all night and all day Saturday taking our shifts all the way home. We were going to stop for dinner in Buffalo before we crossed the boarder, but after an hour of driving around not finding a place, and then ending up in major getto land where buildings were falling down, half burnt, I was NOT getting out of the van, let alone drag 4 kids, no way. So over the boarder we went, took 2 hours to get through the boarder this time, going there is wasn't busy at all, and then in Niagara at midnight we finally stopped at a restaurant and ate. Now you may think Midnight was a crazy time, but really, our schedules were so messed up from sleeping and eating when we could that it was like mid day for the kids. In fact when we rolled into the door to home sweet home at 2:30am, my 5 year old daughter was ready and begging to play!!! Yeah, sure, that was not happening...some of us had not got much sleep cause we were ummmm driving...but it's amazing how adaptable kids really can be...at least short term anyway.


So that was the trip, it was amazing and wonderful and worth every effort and stress and penny. I have no regrets, each day was unique and busy and eventful and I was re-energized from all that Vitamin D, at least for a little while. I can definately tackle the rest of this winter with renewed faith that summer is just around the corner. Afterall we do get 2 to 3 good months of summer, and I CAN"T WAIT!


Thanks for reading and all the well wishes for a safe and happy trip, we did and it was awesome a true Dream come true!