Florida, here we come!

Our summer break started out with a bang this year. With two days still left of school, the kids and I flew down to Florida to join the rest of my family for a week-long stay in a condo on the beach.

George had reached the last two weeks of his residency program and wasn't able to come (again). We were bummed, but looking forward to spending some quality time with him later in the month after he graduated.

The day before we flew out, George came with us to run some errands while Lance was at school. That is one of the great things about working in the ED. Sometimes you get a random Thursday off. We grabbed the boys their favorite food while we were out: dumplings!

That night we said goodbye to George and drove to Ashburn where we spent the night. Glenn drove us early the following morning (June 5th) to Reagan Airport. We got through check-in and security in record time and found ourselves waiting at the gate with more than an hour to kill before we could board the plane.

We grabbed some breakfast and settled in for the wait. These kids were great!

Once on the plane, we ended up having to wait on the tarmac for another hour. No fun. The kids did the best they could, but we were all ready to fly when it came time to take off.

We landed in Jacksonville, two hours from New Smyrna Beach where we were staying. We grabbed our rental car and started the third leg of our trip. We stopped at a local Costco for lunch and some snacks and then finished the drive to the beach! I was pooped already, as were the kids who all slept in the car. Yes!

My mom, Stephen, Jason, Amy, Laura and her family, and Aunt Linda, Bethany and Kailey were all already at the condos waiting for us.

Around 5 in the afternoon, we finally finally made it! It had been a long day of travel, but as soon as we saw the sand and waves, we forgot how tired we all were and immediately ran out to enjoy the beach.

The water was so, so warm! Jude jumped right in.

Lily was excited about the sand. She wasn't feeling great and had a low-grade fever that just developed on the car ride, so she spent most of her time waddling around on the beach.

Lance was excited about it all! This kid LOVES the beach!

This picture makes me laugh every time. I think she's pointing at a helicopter.

Thank goodness for Aunt Amy! She readily volunteered to come out with me and the kids. A good thing because with the undertow Jude kept getting washed up shore. We'd look up and he'd be about a tenth of a mile up the beach. It was great to have an extra pair of eyes.

That night we had Hawaiian haystacks for dinner and Aunt Dawn and Uncle Tubby came over and made dessert--fresh berry pie.

Our view from the balcony:

We were so happy to be here with our family! This next week was going to be awesome!