FLORIDA, and...

9 day vaca, with only one day not jam-packed! Our kind of fun!!!
1st stop: St. Augustine Florida, the oldest inhabited city in America.

Next stop: Kennedy Space Center

So Kennedy was way, way more than I was expecting. I thought one building, and a tour, right?  5 hours should be good. Umm no. Try more like 10 buildings, 2 Imax movies, a tour that takes like an hour and takes you to another building exhibit in the middle of that.  It's expensive too. Glad we went though.

Touching a moon rock

The real Atlantis! Such a cool exhibit.  Let's just say a winding grand entrance, movie, interactive exhibits, play areas, space shuttle ride, multiple levels, and that was just one building at this place!

Blair's new favorite pizza place.

stuffed pepperoni

balloon animals

ORLANDO, fun hotel.

Sea World!

DISNEY WORLD!!!

Magic Kingdom

Haunted mansion

Got stuck on Pirates of the Carribean. Got to see this scene for like a 1/2 hour, until we moved around the corner and I saw another scene for maybe another 15min.

We had to exit out the back and go on an insanely long walk to get back into the park. Not so "magical" out back lol.

The gate to get back into the park.

Dude, I was taking this game super serious. Had to beat Blair.

Claire quite excited to be on It's a Small World

The boys being manly posing with Kind Triton.

The first of many princess encounters for Claire. You will be amazed at how many princesses we saw.

"see mom, I told you she was real."

Disneyworld's Animal Kingdom

Disneyworld's Hollywood Studios

Indiana Jones show

Backlot tour

NY behind us

stunt car show

Disneyworld's Epcot

This is what goes on inside the Epcot ball.

Xander wants this car when he grows up, he says.

Princess lunch (worth it not to have to wait in lines for more princesses lol).

Here are Frozen's Ana and Elsa. I snapped a picture of the back of them as they were coming back from break. The line was 2 1/2 hours to see them. Yep you heard me. There was no way we were waiting in that, so I was ecstatic when they walked by us while we were in the Norway section of Epcot, to go back into their private room where you have to wait in line all day.

I snapped a picture of Mulan with another kid, because I didn't want to wait in line for another princess, and she was outside in plain sight ;) Wasn't she cute though?

The Terracotta warriors in China.

Italy

Japan

The Epcot show at night.

Special meet & greet and freebie pics for having a Disney visa card:

LEGOLAND

a full size car made of legos

Saw our friends, the Loftins, who used to live across the street from us here, on our way back in Destin, FL.

A quick Happy Birthday to Blair and I, and then he had to leave us and go work 3 hours away for the rest of the month on a rotation up in Jackson, MS.

Until next time Disney!  And it might actually be quite a bit longer than we've been used to since we have gotten word that we are probably relocating to Anchorage, Alaska this summer! Surprise!!!

visits & awards

We went to the World War 2 Museum in New Orleans and it was phenomenal!!!
I left with a lump in my throat, and a deepened respect for those that fought in it.

Claire posing in front of some destruction

Blair's sister Chame and family came into town for a visit. The kids were in heaven with their cousins! We kept busy and had a lot of fun.  Beach, food, swimming, playing, that was the gist of it.

The 1st day there was fog at the beach, but that didn't stop anyone.

Guess who got his Bear badge tonight in cub scouts?

Is Xander really this old already?

The Blue and Gold banquet.

We all made cakes for it. Peanut butter frosting in the middle, chocolate on the outside, peanut butter m&ms. Yeah we had fun with that one.

awards

Here's our pack and families. Fun stuff.

We're proud of the boys for making the honor roll so far this year.  Here's Will showing off his All A's certificate, and free crazy bread coupon from Little Caesars ;)

Snow in MS!? Atlanta & friends

 SNOW IN MISSISSIPPI!!??

It doesn't happen often. It was just a tiny bit, but the ice was everywhere. School closed down for 3 days!!

ice-sand

Here we were on our way back from attempting to go to the mall which had been closed down minus the bookstore. We couldn't understand what the big deal was about.

We had lots of game time. If anyone knows how to play "Killer Bunnies" you would know that I had so many bunnies that it was picture-worthy.

Look at who is a big Sunbeam now!!!

Even big enough for laser tag with her brothers now.

The beginning of last month was beautiful weather! Picnic and hike this day.

ATLANTA

We did a weekend trip to Atlanta while it's within driving distance.

The hotel was just a Holiday Inn (Express) but it was new so it had a bunch of fancy features.

...and it ended up being on a lake. What a deal.

 Georgia Aquarium

We went to the Georgia Aquarium to see what all the hype was about with the biggest aquarium in the US or something.  It was fine, but the price tag is hefty (even more than our family annual pass to the New Orleans aquarium which is pretty great)!

The best part of this trip was meeting up with our med school friends Sean and Cara and their family. We met in Nevada, and now here we are across the country for residencies. They are in Georgia, and it was great to spend the day with them!

Dolphins!

The kids thought it would be a good idea to lay down on the slow-moving walkway lol.

The Coca Cola Factory

This place shares a parking lot with the aquarium, and did end up impressing!

At the end of the tour, movies, museums etc, they have free soda sampling from around the world with around 65 flavors of soda. You get a cup and they tell you to keep using it and there is everything you could ever think of and more such as "Mango Fanta," one called "Beverly," and the "Thums Up," from India got a thumbs down in our voting book lol.

Xander was in HEAVEN!

At the end of the day we went over to IKEA Atlanta for some dinner and dropping the kids off to play a the play place. It was super fun to catch up… and oh how I miss a local IKEA.

Bye Sabrina!

My friend Sabrina left on her mission to NY NY Spanish speaking. She got baptized in the Biloxi ward, transferred to UT about a year ago to go on reserve with the AirForce, and now came back as we're her declared home ward which she's leaving from for her mission. It was fun to spend the weekend with her, speak at her farewell, and say our goodbyes again.  She'll be great!!!