Florida Family Fun!! (Part 1)

(At the SL airport, waiting for our plane. Jared's mom works in security there, and she came and helped us CRUISE through! It was awesome!!)

We just got back from sunny Florida! It was a great trip. We took all the kids, even though we thought about leaving Lila at home with someone, but I'm glad she went. She had fun, and was really good (for the most part!).
We flew out on Thursday. The plane ride was good. There were small TV's in the seats in front of us, so the boys watched TV most of the time, and played their game boys. Lizzie watched a Dora movie on the DVD player. I even got to watch "The Office" live, but Jared was holding a squirmy Lila, so he didn't get to watch much. Lila finally conked out and gave him a break! So, all in all, the kids did pretty well. A man in front of us told us that he would fly with our kids anytime, because they were no problem. Thanks!
We got to Orlando really late, so we stayed in a hotel there, then headed over to Venice, Florida, where Jared's Aunt Nenka lives. She lives in the cutest house, close to the beach, right by a little park, which the kids loved. She let us stay at her house, and she went to stay with her sister, Gina, who lives close by. Nenka has two cats, and when Lila first saw them, she would just scream and scream, but not like she was crying, more like she was shocked that those stuffed animals were MoViNg!!! She and Lizzie loved the cats, and followed them around the whole time. The kids then got to meet Jared's littlest cousin, Aleks (Gina's son). They hit it off right away. Aleks is a really cute little boy, and the boys loved playing with him.

(Auntie Gina & Lila)

 (Parker, Jase, & Challah-the cat)

On Friday, we headed over to a nearby beach named Casperson Beach. Jared remembered going there when he was a kid, and they have all of these fossilized shark teeth that wash up on the beach (something to do with the tide?). So, we spent a lot of time sifting through the sand looking for shark teeth, and even found a couple. (Auntie Gina then gave us some that she has been collecting for a long time, and they are so neat!). The sand at this beach was really dark, and it was really hard to get off! My swim suit will forever have little tiny bits of sand from this beach in it! That night we headed off tothe the local Dairy Queen for dinner and treats, then back to Auntie Nenka's to CRASH!
 

On Saturday, we totally vegged out. We let the kids go over to the park, explored Nenka's backyard (found lots of acorns and little lizards), had a GREAT BBQ with TONS of food, visited with Jared's aunts, including Auntie Bee who came down for the afternoon from the Tampa area, took naps, let the boys play together and watch TV (their favorite past time!), then finally headed down to another beach. It was named Siesta Beach, and it was beautiful. The sand was white and soft. We went about an hour before sunset and let the kids play. Jase and Parker had tons of fun "surfing". Lizzie and Lila mostly played on the beach with all of the fun sand toys Auntie Nenka gave them. Parker found a dead Jellyfish in the sand, then later was stung by what we think was a jellyfish! Poor guy. He was really in pain, but it didn't last too long. We got to watch the sunset before the jellyfish sting, and as soon as that happened, we headed back to Nenka's. We decided to get up early the next morning and head up to Orlando to start the Disney part of our vacation!!

(Parker after the Jellyfish Episode)