Spring Break 2011

Eric and I decided it was time to take the kids to visit Great Grandma Staude, Aunt Diane and Uncle John. They live in Florida and we haven't seen Great Grandma since Xela's baby blessing. Spring break seemed like the perfect time and Eric asked for the time off. We planned to leave Friday, spend Saturday with the Keri and Gene Walker family in South Pittsburg, Tenneessee, and then head to Florida on Sunday after church. We got to Florida Monday afternoon  and spent the next four days there. We left again Friday morning, spent the night in Tennessee, watch General Conference Saturday morning and then headed back to Indy.

In short, it was a great trip. Here are some pictures from the trip. The kids had a wonderful time, as they always do, playing with their cousins. Saturday was rain all day, but when it lightened up, Xela and I went on a run to Alabama (the Walker house is only a short distance from the state line). When we got back, our shoes were soaked, as were our clothes. Graigry and Neta saw us return and wanted to run to Alabama too, so they got shoes and jackets on and went running with me. Our shoes were soaked and didn't dry until we got to Florida.

Sunday the Walker's branch had a potato bar after church. We helped clean up and while waiting for the last minute things, decided to take a picture of the cousins.

In order under the chairs:
Xela, Caleb, Graigry, Hannah, Nate, Raychelle, Neta, Sara, Ro, Elizabeth

Driving through Georgia and into Florida, it was green and pretty. We got to "The Eagle's Nest" before John and Diane had returned from a funeral so we went to the walmart near by and stretched our legs. We got together around three o'clock Florida time. They are such friendly, giving and fun people. They live in a wonderful place with three bedrooms, so Eric and I got our own room, the girls had their own room and they boys slept on an air mattress behind the loveseat in the large living room. They have five tropical birds, which the kids loved to talk too.

Monday we got settled, had dinner and went swimming. They have an inground pool and jacuzzi that is covered with a screened in porch. We went swimming every day we were there and we ate better and more food, for each meal, than we do at home. These pictures are from Wednesday, but it was all fun and swimming. We did a night swim Monday night, which the kids loved as there were lights in the pool that they could swim/dive towards. And the water was a perfect temperature.

Neta playing with & singing to a floatie while in the jacuzzi.



Uncle John has a goat that the kids got to feed Monday. His theory is "why walk?" so he drives a golf cart around his property (which happens to be about 35 acres if I remember correctly). He has two. He drove one and Eric drove the other so the kids could see and feed the goat up the lot.

"Why walk, when you can drive a golf cart?"

Nuts is the name, goat food was his game. 

Monday was a good day. Tuesday, Uncle John took us to Homossasaa Springs, a state park that houses some natural citizens of Florida. I had purchased yellow shirts for our venture to Sea World, but Eric, seeing yellow hats, bought those as well on a separate trip and it was a wise purchase. They were  more helpful than the shirts. We all wore the hats on Tuesday and it made it easy to count heads. Uncle John and Eric kept calling the kids "yellow heads."

On the boat to take us to the official park entrance.
They told us to keep our hands and fingers in the boat
just in case a hungry alligator was hiding in the dark waters.

Yellow heads watching the alligators not do much.
On of the alligators was missing it's foot and part of it's tail.

Across from the alligators is Lucifer the Hippo. No, hippos are not natives of Florida, but as the park had been an attraction for a hollywood someone, and Lu had lived in the park during that time, and the citizens of Florida had grown to love their Lu, he was granted honorary citizenship.

Lu, the Florida Hippo.
When he talks, it sounds like Jabba the Hut's laugh.

Here are some of the other animals we saw. We spent about three hours there.

Playing with a snake along the glass.

The Manatees

BIRDS!
Flamigos, swans, ducks, etc.

I liked this picture.

In the fish bowl. The fish, I can't remember what kind,
were swimming around us.

In the tube, you might be able to see a wolf.
There were three or four in this habitat.

Black Bears.
Graigry looks like he's scared.
I think I told him to smile. What's so scary about that?

Scott Yellow Heads at the end of their park adventure.
Tired and hungry - lunch ran a little late that day,
but they survived.

So that was Tuesday. We came back, had lunch, and then visited Great Grandma Staude.

Not the best facial expressions on the kids,
but a photo for posterity nonetheless.

GGMa, as they call her because that's what she signs on all the Christmas presents she and Diane send, gave each of the kids a small stuffed animal when we got there. We all visited for a bit and then looked through a scrapbook of her life. I think Nate and Neta played with their animals quietly while the rest of us enjoyed looking at pictures. We spent about an hour and then went up "Little Red Riding Hood's Path" back to John and Diane's house (there are two houses on John's property - their's and GGMa's, that he built for her).

As dinner was cooking, the kids and Eric did some swimming (refer to pictures above), after dinner, they played a little Wii and then bed.

Tuesday night, we looked at the weather forecast for Orlando to decide if we were going to go to Sea World on Wednesday or Thursday. I had originally planned Wednesday, but due to the wording of the online forecast at that moment, I decided we'd go Thursday instead.

Wednesday, we went on the man made river, as I understand it, on John's boat.

Loading onto the boat at the dock.

I told the kids, once were were out, that the first one to see an alligator got one dollar. Guess who saw the first and only one? ME!! I tried to get a picture of it, but by the time I'd zoomed my camera and the boat had slown down, the gator was gone.

It was a windy ride, but we all enjoyed it. John goes out when he wants to get away from people, troubles, life in general. Nate like watching the motor and waves. We liked looking at the birds, which there were a lot of and the plants. This is part of a nature preserve, so there were a lot of cranes, herrons, snake birds, etc nesting.

Aurora tied the end of the rope to her
and then made shapes with what was left for us to guess what they were.

One of the many birds we saw while out on the boat.

Graigry in the Spiderman life jacket.
The three youngest had to wear life jackets/floaties
just in case the coast guard decided to make a stroll down the river.

What's up with the face Nate?

Helping make it a more kid friendly experience, John let each of the kids drive the boat. He showed them where the throttle was and how to work it and the wheel. They got a kick out of going fast and it was fun to "rock the boat" when another boat passed us. I think the rocking made Neta and maybe Ro (who I think sometimes hams things a bit for a reaction) a little nervous.

Graigry feeling the need for speed!

Captian Neta sporting the official shades

Nate the Great in the shades while John sports the party hat.

We absolutely loved our 45 minutes or so on the boat. What a fun way to enjoy nature and amaze at the wonderfully beautiful creations on this earth.

On the way back from the boat, we stopped to feed John's neighborhood two horses and goats. John had brought some carrots and goat food and it was fun to watch the kids, who did and did not want to feed the horses. Xela was afraid the horse would accidentally bite her. Neta was a little nervous as I remember, maybe it was Nate. The muzzles tickled them as the horses and goats ate out of their palms. They enjoyed petting the horses and being up close and personal with the animals.

Goats first. They are the same size as the kids,
so not as intimidating.

Uncle John had to prove to them that the horse was as nice as he said.

"Hey, little lady, my neck doesn't stretch that far."

Daddy helping Neta reach the horse.

When we got home, while dinner cooked, we all got into the Wii. They only have one controller so it was a good opportunity to exercise patience and take turns. We bowled, biked and played archery. I only got one good picture of Daddy helping Nate try and get a strike.


I can't remember why, maybe it was after the swim, Graigry's hair was spiked up, so Aunt Diane told him she had some mousse to help it stay spikey. Nate wanted spikes too, so she tried with his hair. Unfortunately for Nate, his hair is a little to long and heavy to hold the spike, but he enjoyed it while it lasted.

The Spikey Brothers

When Nate's hair finally gave in to gravity, he would ask me to make it spikey again and I tried to explain to him that his hair was different than Graigry's. It wasn't much consolation, but there wasn't much I could do about it either.

Our last event of the night, while I packed some things for our trip to Orlando (about a two hour drive one way) was for the kids to play Qwirkle with Aunt Diane.

The game was close, but I think Graigry ended up winning.
If I'm wrong, the winner will be sure to correct me
(not that I'll get around to correcting this).

We went to bed with the intention of getting up at six so we could be out the door by seven-ish and be able to spend the entire day at Sea World.

I will finish our trip on the next post. This is already long, this has taken me all day to finish (with some important interruptions, like church and meals) and it's ten o'clock. Hopefully I'll finish blogging about our March trip before April ends.