Florida

   It seemed like a good idea at the time.  Well, I guess that I knew better, but I was trying to be optimistic.  We decided to take a trip to Florida.  A 1,500 mile trip.  That wasn't the bad idea.  The bad idea was leaving at 7:00 p.m. hoping that our girls would sleep all night as we drove.  I knew better.
   My girls don't sleep well in a vehicle.  I have always known this, but my dear farmer convinced me that when they got tired enough, they'd just drift off into dream land.  HA!  Not so much.
   My hubby was driving and listening to an audiobook on my iPod.  I was left with the job of soothing two very upset little girls.
   A teary little voice pipes up from the back, "Mommy, I want to go home to my own bed."
   "Don't you want to go to the beach and play in the sand?"
   "NO!  I want to go home and sleep in my own bed."
   It is 12:30 a.m. and I am at my wits end as to what I should do.  I tapped my hubby on the shoulder and asked, "Don't you think we should stop?  The girls are miserable and I'm at the end of my rope."
   "Naw, they're ok.  They'll go to sleep soon."
   It was at this point that I wanted very badly to smack him.  (And I don't mean kiss either!)
   We had borrowed a couple of little DVD players from a friend, but I really didn't want to have to pull them out unless I absolutely had to.  I decided that I HAD to.  I found myself watching "Veggie Tales" at 1 a.m.  Not something that I ever really itched to do, but it was better than the tears.  To my dismay my girly watched all 80 min. of the movie and wanted another!  (She doesn't get to watch very many movies, so this was a treat.)  I put my foot down and told her that she needed to sleep.  Just as she fell asleep, my 1 year old woke up and began the second verse of her woes.  It went like that pretty much for the rest of the night until about 4 or 5 in the morning.  My hubby was still listening to an audiobook completely oblivious to what was going on in the back.  I glared at the back of his head, but unfortunately he didn't feel my frustration.

Notice the fat lip. This
happened about 3 min.
after our arrival.

   Finally we arrived in Sarasota, Florida!  It was beautiful!  It made the whole long van ride seem like a distant bad memory.
   The house that we had rented was beautiful!  It was clean and comfortable.  We unloaded the van and thus began our week of relaxation!  Ahhh, what a treat to not have responsibilities pulling at us!  Well, other than the two girls, some cooking, and a bit of laundry.
   We visited a fun little place called "Jungle Gardens".  We meandered through the garden on a twisty little path.  It opened to a large pool with flamingos wandering around.  For 25 cents you could buy a hand full of flamingo food and feed them out of your hand.  Of course my husband thought this would be fun.  I wasn't opposed as long as the scrawny necked birds stayed away from me.  Soon we had a flock of tall and very pink birds surrounding us.  I tried to stay out of their way.  They have creepy looking eyes.

"Hey!  Get back here!"
She couldn't figure out why they didn't want to eat
sea shells.

   All was going well and everyone was enjoying themselves until the farmer told me that I had to feed the birds.  I protested.  I don't touch animals and I don't allow them to touch me.  He insisted.  I sighed and handed over the camera and took a bit of food.  I held out my hand and looked behind me to see if my girls were okay.  Just like that a flamingo snapped the food out of my hand! I screamed in surprise and disgust!  There was flamingo spit on my hand!  I nearly gagged.  My husband was almost doubled over laughing.  He had caught on camera my horrified expression!  I was told that I was NOT to delete the nasty picture.  So I shall share it with you. Maybe you can find the humor.

Flamingo spit.  Gag.

   We did visit an aquarium and got to go on a boat ride.  It was rather cold and windy, so we were kind of glad to be back on the land.  I think the most exciting thing we saw there was a giant dead squid.  Totally rocked my world.  (Not)  The sea lions were pretty fun to watch, but it nothing can quite compare with the beach!
   After a couple of days in Sarasota, it finally got warm enough to go to the beach!  We were SO excited!  This was what we had been waiting for!  We packed up and drove the 5 short miles to the beach!

Hours of fun in the sand.

I unloaded the toys, spread my towels, and arranged our stuff.  That's when I realized... my only responsibility for the day was to relax!  Hubby and I took turns keeping an eye on the girls.  They were thoroughly entertained by the sand, which left us plenty of time to go wading and searching for sea shells.  It was such a fun day!

The view from my beach towel. 

My little sand baby! Can't help but love her!

You can take the farmer to the beach,
but you can't make him leave the Pioneer seed cap at home!

   We ate our picnic lunch and continued relaxing and looking for sea shells.  The sea gulls left us alone (Much to my relief.  I had a dread of getting bombed.)  I vacillated between reading and daydreaming.  

Blissful.

Can you tell that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves?  When we could tell that the girls were getting a bit tired, we loaded them up in the stroller and took a long walk down the beach.  They slept and my handsome hubby and I had a mini date on the beach.  It brought back memories of when he proposed.  That also took place on a beach.  Maybe sometime I'll tell you about it...maybe!

This is what playing in the sand does to you!

   Our day couldn't be complete without eating sea food!  We went to a swanky restaurant on the water and ordered shrimp and grouper.  It was delicious!  We sat by a window and watched the sun go down over the water.  It was beautiful!

I think she's ready to go to the beach
again!

   My little chickies were raring to go to the beach again the next day, so we piled in the van and did it all over again! 

   We also went to an animal sanctuary.  In my opinion this trip was getting far too "animalistic" for my taste, but because everyone else enjoys the beasts and birds, I smiled and packed the van.  

   They had bears.  I now know why it would be a very frightening thing to meet a bear in the wild.  Those guys are HUGE!  I was very glad to have two fences between me and those beasts!

   They also had emus.  Have you ever seen an emu?  If you have, then you know that God definitely has a sense of humor.  They are UGLY!  Very scuzzy and look a bit diseased.  To my complete horror and disgust, a fellow visitor wrapped her arm around the neck of an emu and pulled that very ugly and very scuzzy head up to her cheek and started talking all lovey to it.  I nearly lost my mind.  

   There were little pygmy goats wandering around at our feet.  I'm not a goat fan.  I think that goats are a pestilence to the world... that is I did until I saw this...

She fell in love.

She was SO cute!  She hugged them tight and wouldn't allow anyone to take them away.  I'm a hard nut to crack when it comes to animals, so this was pretty spectacular.

Of course my big girl loved them too!

Seriously. Would you really want to have this thing looking at you through your bedroom window?

The very next day we packed up and started the 1,500 miles towards home.  We made it safely.  A few brain cells might be missing from drinking gas station coffee.  I don't normally drink coffee, but when I do, it has to be weak coffee and it has to be 75% hazelnut creamer and 25% coffee.  Gas station coffee is like draining the oil from your John Deere and then drinking it.  It is NASTY!  

I drank a large cup of coffee and then a smaller one.  Later in the day I consumed a Mt. Dew.  Needless to say, I was WIRED!  I called my Mom to chat and I think I had her worried.  I could not stop laughing.  It reminded me of highschool  days and OD'ing on Mt. Dew with one of my good friends.  We had such fun!

My cell phone took an extended vacation and stayed a few extra days in Tennessee.  My daughter's favorite doll is still somewhere in St. Louis, but we can honestly say that we arrived safe and sound!  Praise the Lord!

Oh, and I'd do it all over again! 

Sorry if this post bored you.  It was mainly to my family who is anxious to see pictures and hear about our vacation.