Florida or Bust?!

So, since we're expecting our third child - (pause here for gasps of shock) - we decided to take one last vacation, to Florida. On a pleasant Thursday afternoon, we saddled up and headed out in the trusty minivan. Lucas started practicing his methods for getting attention from the ladies on the beach:

We learned from our last trip that driving to Florida takes a long time. So we wisely decided to make some stops along the way, starting with an overnight stay in Clarksville, Tennessee and following up with the Chattanooga Choo-Choo.

The Chattanooga Choo-Choo used to be a train station, but now it's a hotel. Behind the main building are restaurants and shops, scattered around a garden which is framed by a retired engine and passenger cars.

Lately Connor has been trying out our camera. He takes some really good shots! One of these days, his gallery will be on display in the sunroom.

Next we went to Lookout Mountain, another Chattanooga landmark. Trolleys running on steep tracks carry visitors from the bottom to somewhere slightly higher than the bottom.

Apparently, there were lots of people who had the same idea to head to Florida, because we had a tough time finding a hotel. We finally snagged the last room at an Ocala hotel and, after fighting traffic, made it to Treasure Island on Saturday afternoon.

Carl, Kristen, Ben and Ella had arrived the day before and stayed a couple of days. All of the boys got along pretty well. Connor and Ben were particularly inseparable, and Lucas compensated by being particularly hyper during the day and particularly exhausted at night.

We were down there on Easter Sunday, so we assembled gift baskets and hid plastic eggs around the condo for the boys to find. We learned that 1) there are not as many sanitary places to hide eggs in a spartan condo as you might think, and 2) putting candy inside each and every egg was definitely overkill.

An obvious perk of Florida was having swimming pools at our doorsteps. When we last swam in Grandma & Grandpa's pool last summer, the boys were getting around well with water wings. This time around, Connor finally gave them up after some gentle suggestions from his new friends at the pool. Lukie wanted to do the same, but we vetoed that suggestion.

The beach was just as much fun. There were fishermen reeling in baby sharks, pre-dug holes to host monster truck races, and pre-built castles to play with.

Ella even got in on the action!

The last couple of nights, we visited the beach at sunset. There were fewer people around and the kids could be more active and loud. It was the perfect setting for the last hurrah before bedtime.

Lest anyone think that we ran the boys ragged all the time, there was plenty of downtime as well:

On our way back, we stopped in Murfreesboro to see Finn and Brody (and Mike, and Jaimie, and Anne and Jeffrey and Gina!) Finn and Brody are both adorable and Finn is quite a talker!

Mike casually mentioned that they had a swing set which needed assembly and Matt offered, or maybe demanded, to help. We ended up spending an extra night in Murfreesboro (thanks Anne!) to finish putting it together. Both days we were there were gorgeous and we were outside a lot of the time.

We got back at 9:30 on Sunday night, and it was great to be home. Matt had work the next day and Connor had school, but we wouldn't have done it any other way!