Florida for Christmas - We're on our way!

We decided we wanted to pull one more Florida trip before the year ended. The kids had two weeks off of school, my office was closed the 24th throughout the rest of Christmas week so Christmas seemed like the perfect time. Hurray!

We left after some last minute church stuff that Eric had to do, which was around 7pm. Thank goodness for DVD players in cars and kids that sleep well in cars. We dropped off Miles and Karen, who had been at our house since the night of the 14th, at the Walkers around midnight (Tennessee time - 1 am Indiana time) and then continued our journey.

We hit the Florida state line around 7 and got out at the Welcome Center. SUNSHINE!!!! We stepped out of the van without our coats or jackets and were SO HAPPY to be someplace warm.

Aurora and Neta at the "Welcome to Florida" sign.
Palm trees in December is great!

They served orange juice, of which we were happy to partake. Graigry decided he wanted to try some grapefruit juice, which was also an option (apparently he's not a great fan of OJ). His reaction?


Not so happy about grapefruit juice.
Why does he have his coat on?

We took a few more pictures before climbing back into the van to finish the trip to Crystal River.



Merry Christmas Mr. Astronaut!
Neta went to school in her footies and wore
them for the next about 36 hours.

Eric also decided it would be a good idea for the kids to run around a little. SO, we did. I decided to join in their laps around the building. I think he said they need to go around three times and whoever got done first got something (obviously very memorable - probably pick their seat or get first dibs on breakfast). I made it around twice and then was done. I cut in the center open hallway of the building and grabbed Neta and encouraged her to cheat her way to number one with the shortcut. It didn't work.

One more picture before loading in the van.
See those jeans, won't see them until we leave.

We gathered back into the van, split up some pumpkin bread, apples and some milk in poured into water bottles and we were on the last few hours of the trip!!