A few more pics from St. Augustine

More pictures from St. Augustine!!

I just realized that we hadn't downloaded all our pictures from St. Augustine.  I couldn't resist sharing a few more.  We are headed about 70 miles north for our last stop in Florida, Amelia Island.  Good luck to all my teacher friends with conferences and have a WELL DESERVED SPRING BREAK!!

 The historic Fort Castillo Des San Marcos

 Here is a picture of the world's oldest schoolhouse...how interesting it would have been to teach there.

 And I know you have all been waiting or a picture of the ULTIMATE OREO!!  The best treat we have ever had...imagine oreos, carmel and lots of chocolate!! YUMMY!

St. Augustine Florida and a birthday celebration at Disneyworld

Anastasia State Park...St. Augustine, FL

March 24-31

Happy (early) Birthday to our favorite 40 year old...CURT!!  We surprised him with a trip to his favorite restaurant in Disneyworld...O'Hana. It has a Hawaiian theme with a huge open fire pit that cooks endless types of meat and delivers them to your table.  We had a great day seeing parts of Disneyworld that we hadn't visited before including Wilderness Lodge Resort..which was stunning.  We had to get a few cupcakes from the Boardwalk as well!  It brought back great memories of our family trips to Disneyworld a couple years ago.

 The Birthday MOUSE!!

Wilderness Lodge Resort reminded us of the Northwest.  We sure live in a beautiful place!

 We spent the week at the beach in St. Augustine.  It is a huge beach area with tons of wave breaks.  The boys loved skimboarding and Jordan even rented a surfboard one day.

 Of course there are endless holes that need to be dug!

 We also spent a day visiting Fort Castillo De San Marcos...one of the oldest forts in the United States.  It is amazingly intact from over 340 years ago.  The entire fort was constructed from beach sand/shells and it is super strong.  It took them 2 months last summer to blast through a 20 foot wall to install a bathroom with all modern technology.  We also visited the historic district of St. Augustine...so cute!  Ask us someday about the "Ultimate Oreos" we enjoyed for a snack.

On Monday we head to Amelia Island for a few days...our last stop in Florida.  In case you were wondering the tick count for the trip has gone up to 4...YEP...3 for Abby and 1 for Bradley!!  GROSS!!  We love nature...but a few less bugs would be nice.

Legoland and Orlando

FUN IN ORLANDO!!

March 17-23

We celebrated Benjamin and Bradley's 9th birthday in Orlando.  They had a special birthday dinner with Pappa Bob and lots of letters, cards and presents from friends and family at home.  They felt very loved!!  Their class even sent them birthday letters...which was so sweet!!  Grandma gave them these awesome SuperBowl shirts...they have barely taken them off since they got them.  We surprised the boys on the night before their birthday with the news of a trip to Legoland on their birthday.

 We had a great time at Legoland.  The park was practically empty because of fore-casted rain.  We could walk onto every ride without hardly a wait.  PERFECT!  It started to rain in the late afternoon...so we were pretty wet when we headed to the campground...but it was worth it!

 We are staying at a great state park about 20 miles outside of Orlando called Lake Louisa State Park.  On Wednesday the little boys and I went to the Orlando Science Center while Jordan and Curt went to the shoot around at the Amway Center for March Madness. Jordan had been wishing he was in Spokane to go to the games with Uncle Dave...so it was nice to see a little basketball action.  

 The science center was awesome!!

 They had a cool center atrium at the museum that went up to all 4 floors.  On the bottom they had a habitat for some alligators and turtles.  This was a baby alligator kids could pet.

 The campground is near tons of lakes and citrus groves.  We went on a great bike ride and saw 4 land turtles in their natural habitat.  When they saw us they would scurry to their holes and disappear.  We also saw a snake on the road.

 One of the highlights of our time in Orlando was meeting up with our good friends from Whitworth...David and Sarah and their sweet little girl Zoe. We met at an awesome park between Orlando and Tampa for a picnic lunch.  It was such a blessing to be together and meet Zoe.  

 Benjamin and Bradley are on TOP OF THE WORLD now that they are 9!

We will be in Orlando for a couple more days and then will head to St. Augustine, Florida.  Our cell phone is now working...so keep in touch..we miss you!

Sebastian Inlet State Park/Satellite Beach, Florida

Family Fun in Florida...March 10-17

We have had a great week at the beach with lots of family nearby.  Curt's Aunt Betsy and Uncle Boyd live close by and we got a special visit from his cousin Debbie and her wonderful kids.  They live in a beautiful condo on the beach which provided hours of fun skim boarding, boogie boarding and surfing.  

 Benjamin and Bradley pooled their money to buy a skim board from Ron Jon's.   They LOVE IT!!They must have fallen and gotten up hundreds of times.  They would even practice falling while waiting for their next turn...just for fun!!

 The kids had a great time with Debbie's kids.  They were so sweet to our boys.

 Waving goodbye to our wonderful hosts!!

 Aunt Betsy is one of the funnest people you will ever meet.  She arranged for us to borrow a friends kayaks and explore the bay and canal near her home.  We even saw some dolphins, which was so cool.

 Here are Betsy and I relaxing by the pool.  It was such a blessing to be with Boyd and Betsy.  They are so sweet and hospitable. I wish they lived closer.

 One day we explored the Melbourne Zoo with Papa Bob. It was a great zoo and we got to see so many animals up close.  We even got to feed several of them.

 Here was our view of the cheetah enclosure.  That is Bradley's hat and a glass window to peek in.

 The giraffe was trying to "photo bomb" our pictures. :)

 All of the boys got to feed the giraffes...wow!

 We fed the bird and a deer too!

 We had a fun day with family at our campground.

 We visited a really cool museum where we learned all about a ship wreck in the 1700's right off the coast of Sebastian Inlet beach.  They are still discovering treasure from the ship wreck and sometimes that washed up on the beach.  The boys are hoping to find some treasures!

 The beach at our campground had the most beautiful shells.  This was Jordan's collection.  The boys collected shells for hours.  Now the question is...how do we store them??

We are sad to be leaving this area as we have just had a great week.  Tomorrow is Benjamin and Bradley's 9th birthday and we surprised them this morning with a trip to Legoland tomorrow.

 Much love to you all!

Surf School at Ron Jon...Cocoa Beach, FL

SURFER BOYS!!  Cocoa Beach, FL

We had a great day yesterday at Cocoa Beach learning to surf.  Papa Bob surprised us on Christmas with surf lessons at Ron Jon's surf school in Cocoa Beach, Fl.  It was a perfect place to learn and especially fun that Papa Bob could be there to see the boys in action. I wish I could have joined them...but I threw out my back a few days earlier.:(  Thankfully it is feeling better each day.

We were so surprised that everyone was able to really "surf" on their 1st or 2nd attempt in the waves.  Getting to the beach was a challenge as each boy had to carry their own board.  The first time Bradley kicked his up to his head it knocked him right over.  It was also tough for them to get past all the breaking waves to wait for "just the right one" to come.  But once they got the hang of it we couldn't get them out of the water. They literally surfed for 2 hours straight.  You can see the action shots below.

There they go...

A little practice on the beach and they were ready for the real thing!

There is surfer Benjamin.  He was easy to spot with his orange sleeves.

Here is surfer Bradley!!

After surf lessons Jordan spent 3 hours with his 2nd cousin Raquel determined to master a "real board."  After trying and trying he got up 6 times and was so proud!!

Bradley is so proud!

Curt did a great job out there...he looked huge on his board!

Jordan is catching a wave!

The boys have decided that if we lived near the beach they would give up their sports and activities and become beach bums!!  It was such a fun day...thanks Papa Bob.  

Alligators EVERYWHERE in Everglades National Park!

Everglades National Park and

Big Cypress National Preserve

March 9 and 10

We (I should say...the boys) have been waiting to see some alligators.  They were not disappointed by the 67 alligators we saw on our 15 mile bike ride in the Everglades.  Some were literally right next to the road and others were in the marshy area or on the river banks.  It was like a giant "I Spy" game of who could see the next alligator to add to our count.  This was such an interesting ecosystem to explore, both swampy and grassland marshes.  The two parks together are over 100 million acres...AMAZING!!  They encompass a great deal of Southern Florida.  We are constantly amazed by how God has protected and provided for our every need on this trip.  We had a great example when we arrived at the Everglades to bike.  An important bolt for Curt's bike was missing...somehow it had fallen off while we were driving and it looked like he would not be able to bike with us.  But as we were looking on the ground we found two extra washers, then unscrewed the reflector to find an extra bolt and we were on our way.  Praise God!

Halfway through the Shark Valley trail, there is a really tall observation tower.  It looked like something out of a Star Wars movie.  It has beautiful 360 degree views of the area.  You might notice that Benjamin has binoculars around his neck...it is quite a trick to ride a bike while looking through binoculars all while staying on the path as not to be eaten by a waiting alligator!

We got up early to arrive at the park at 8 in order to avoid the heat and keep Abby safe in the trailer.  We had the whole park to ourselves...which was really special.

 We also saw lots of turtles and very interesting birds.

 These two pictures were taken at Big Cypress.  It has many cypress trees and a very swampy feel.

 The cutest baby alligator we saw.  We discovered that alligators grow just 6 inches per year...so this was about 2 years old.

We arrived at Sebastian Inlet State Park last night in time for a beautiful sunset.  It is south of Cocoa Beach.  Pappa Bob (Curt's Dad) is flying in today to visit for the week.  He is staying with Curt's Aunt Betsy and Uncle Boyd in Satellite Beach.  We cannot wait to see them all!!