Girls Gone Wild -- Spring Break 2009

Spring Break started before the crack of dawn on 3/14/2009

at 3:45am when my baby sister Pam, her three girls and I hit

the road on our way to Florida. This was our second year,

so we knew what to expect with 2 days on the road.

Assuming that our little road warriors -- Maddie (8),

Skyler (6) and Emma (4) -- all managed the trip well,

we'd have 2 fun-filled days in the van before walking on

Florida beaches.

So how do you survive 2 days in a van? Well, you break out

the chocolate bars and Twix bars at 4:00am. Lemonheads and

Jr. Mints didn't come out until around 7:00am. We had to balance

the sugar with real junk food and around 8:00am we made our

first stop and picked up McDonald's.

Let's just say we didn't lose any weight on this trip:-)

It also takes lots of good movies. We watched several, including

Mama Mia and Madagascar 2. Thank goodness for the DS's

as they provided good entertainment when the movies

weren't capturing their full attention. We made great time

and stayed our first night just south of Atlanta, GA. We were

back on the road at 6:45am on Sunday. Skyler

reminded us of the chocolate bars around 7:40am that morning :-)

We arrived at Lido Key around 2:30pm on Sunday and hit the beach!

Pam had taken the girls to get pedicures right before our trip,

so we had to get a souvenir photo of their toes in the ocean.

The beach at Lido Key was covered with shells and we spent

hours going up and down the beach collecting shells and fishing

sand dollars out of the ocean. Pam and Maddie got up

early on Monday so they could have a better selection of shells.

The girls enjoyed the pool at the hotel and ended up with

a little too much sun. Poor Skyler was really red. When we

finally settled down for the night, she was lying in bed, crying

because her sunburn hurt. She had to get up and go to the

bathroom and as she got up, she said "I hurt so bad,

I can hardly move. I feel like an old Grandma."

If she only knew...

We all got up early our second morning at the beach and headed

up the beach in the dark so that we'd be in the right place

to get really good shells. We picked up lots of conch shells and

several other types of shells, even found a sea urchin.

We ended up with several whole sand dollars. They are so cool!

We saw some men fishing and one of them let Maddie reel

in a fish. Everyone along the beach was very friendly and very tan.
Our last morning at the beach, we had to do an official photo shoot.

The girls wore their pretty new dresses Pam had brought along and

Maddie wore her suit (no dresses for Maddie). They were so cute

in their dressy clothes and bare feet.

It was a little overcast, so it was perfect lighting too!

We left Lido Key on Tuesday around noon and headed south.

We went through the Everglades and took an airboat ride.

It was really fun and we had the best airboat driver.

We got to see Chuckee, the alligator, who only had one good eye as

his other one had been injured in a fight. He was rather calm,

which was good since we were very close to him. The airboat driver

actually reached over and touched him so he'd open his

mouth for us -- that's close! Once we finished the ride,

they had smaller alligators that Maddie and Skyler each held.

They were very brave to old one. We arrived at the girls great Aunt Linda and Susan's house

Tuesday around dinner time. Of course, the first thing the girls

wanted to do was get in the pool. They love the water and

performed all sorts of fancy dives and synchronized swimming

moves for us. We had a couple days of rain, so we just

relaxed at Linda and Susan's on Wednesday while

the girls played in the pool.

On Thursday, we went to Sawgrass Mills Mall, one

of the largest malls ever. The girls went to Build a Bear and

each made a new stuffed animal. Auntie Linda finally got to see

what Build a Bear was all about. On our way out of the mall,

we went by one of those massage stations. Emma grabbed her

neck and said "I need a massage -- my neck hurts

right here". I guess vacation is harder on a 4 year old than we'd realized:-)

On Friday, Auntie Susan took us to the Miami Sea Aquarium on

Key Biscayne. Maddie held and iguana and Skyler held a big,

blue exotic bird. We went to the sea lion, killer whale and

dolphin shows. We also saw manatees and sharks up close

and personal. They had a large inside aquarium and the girls

were amazed by this gigantic grouper. That's Maddie's reflection

in the aquarium glass next to the gigantic grouper.

On Saturday morning, it was time to head back to Iowa.

We hit the road around 5:00am EST.

The girls were all asleep by 5:30am.

We were successful in wearing them out on vacation!

Sunsets in Florida, can't be beat! Hopefully we'll get to

go back and enjoy them again next year!