Our Road Trip - Tallahassee, Part 1

I thought our road trip to upstate New York was long two years ago...

We drove 3,000 miles on this road trip to Tallahassee and Atlanta and lots of places in between. But it was so worth it! Usually our summers go like this:
*school gets out
*kids go to VBS
*Matt goes to an island or a South American country
*I get phone calls from him
*maybe we have a fun visitor from out of town
the end.

So when we knew that Matt wouldn't be going on any trips this summer, we knew that we would take a road trip. The prospect of going to Tallahassee to see his family was a good one because we normally don't get to stay with them but for a long weekend now and then. I said 'part 1' in my title because we broke our trip up into three stages: Tallahassee, part 1, Atlanta, and Tallahassee, part 2. My goal (and Matt's too) was to spend lots of time with his family and see lots of friends we haven't seen in awhile. So here it goes...

We started out our vacation by going to Wakulla Springs with his parents. Both of us had been there back in college but our kids had never experienced the home of Tarzan before. Normally they run glass bottom boat tours but the water is unusually dark these days so we went on a normal boat. Ok. I took a stupid amount of pictures of trees, birds, and alligators. Old lady-ville here I come!


Look at this devilishly handsome fellow! Don't let the smile fool you. He was bored, but what 5 year old boy is going to flip out over the flora and fauna of a North Florida spring. That's ok. I made up for his lack of excitement with my overexuberance in picture taking. (I spared you the many pictures of the trees I took. Come on! They were so pretty with the moss and the big roots!)




We didn't bring the kids' suits but they could have gone swimming here if we had. Matt and Kenzie put their feet in the water and it was pretty cold. It sure would have been refreshing on that H*O*T summer day. HOWEVER...I vowed last summer to no longer swim with creatures that have sharp teeth (no matter how big or small those teeth might be), and one of those creatures (an alligator and a few dozen of his closest family members) was in the water about 100 yards from where the swimmers were frolicking. That would be a big NO THANKS for me!



I got to see one of my friend's who lives in the area. And I got to meet her beautiful baby girl! Evie was sooo cute, and it was fun catching up with Kiley.


Seeing babies like this one makes me wonder if I should have a third one. She was so cute! (Don't worry. Ethan reminds me daily why I won't have a third child. :)

We spent the 4th at his parents' house. Apparently there aren't many big displays of fireworks in the area, and Matt likes to buy those big packs of firecrackers so that's what we did, aside from spending a good part of the day in the pool with friends and family.


The kids having chicken fights on Matt and Joey's shoulders. Joey was the best man in our wedding. We enjoyed time in the pool with him and his wife and their adorable baby girl Katie. It was fun catching up with them.




Cowabunga!




Where there are fireworks or any loud noises you will find Ethan assuming the position- fingers in his ears. He takes after me. I'm not a big fan either.




Have you heard this one? How many people does it take to light a firecracker? There are actually two little people missing from this picture who also assisted in the firecracker display we put on in the driveway. One chose the next firecracker to light and the other one sprayed the smoking, spent firecracker down with a hose.

So there you have it. Part 1 of our fabulous '09 road trip. I'll post about the second leg of our trip soon.