Hotels...Peaches...Arch

(Note: I added a few extra pictures)

What do these three things have in common? Not much other than

the drive home from fourteen wonderfully packed vacation days.

Sunday morning we got an early start from Ponce Inlet, FL.

Day one of traveling went well.  Before we made it to Chattanooga TN
we stopped at a peach and pecan orchard in Georgia.
My hopes were that the girls would get to pick some peaches.
We took the tour which consisted of us riding around looking at trees
listening to a canned speech about the working operation. No picking! 
Well we did let them pick which box of peaches we should purchase.

The peaches are so juicy and sweet as can be.
We also bought peach cider and wine.

Over all no problems until we pulled up to our hotel.  Eww!  I
thought a Ramada would be better.  It took 3 rooms
before we found an acceptable place to stay.

Monday morning I was so happy to get on the road, I hardly

noticed I hadn't gotten my daily caffeine.

On day #2 we drove from Chattanooga TN to St Louis MO
(where our hotel was MUCH nicer and cheaper)
Our goal was to "do" the Arch.  When you think about
it, isn't $36 (for all 5 of us) a little much to ride up an elevator, look out
some windows and ride back down again?  We still did it and I'm glad
we did.  I love this picture of the arch casting a shadow on the river below.
See the dots...those are people.

Mom and girls in the arch...Chris was nervous but still made the trip.

I don't have pictures on the road Tuesday.

We all were feeling the stress of being in a vehicle for

three days, we were ready to be home.

I did have a "first" however.  Never in my life have I been

able to read in the car but I read an entire book on day #3.

Gotta have your name sign picture.

I'm a Scrap Chick

I use to be an active member of an online scrapbooking cult...um I mean club...um group.  No one ever visits that site anymore.  Many of the cult members, I mean groupies...um active members could be found at other scrappy sites as well but I was never a multi-site scrapper.  It's all about being loyal.  (I'm kidding.)  Finally after many months I have decided I need that community again.  I'm kicking it off by joining an online crop this weekend.  Not only do I have 500 pictures from our Florida vacation but I have at least two years worth of pictures to catch up on.  If you are at all interested in scrapping please come join us at this site. Scrap Chicks 

I hope to have some new layouts to post to my scrapbook page on this blog by Monday morning.  We'll see.

Beach Play

(This post should have come before the ice cream post)

 we got up early for the sunrise

God's handiwork is spectacular

 Reagan had fun with the boogie board

the pool right by the ocean

I found that funny.

Ho Daddy O's

I guess you would call this our last hurrah.  After a

long day at the beach we cooled off with some ice cream

then went back to the condo to pack up for the long drive back to Nebraska

 Free ice cream for your dog but when you snap a picture the

owner slaps his sign down there.  Kind of funny.a

I LOVE THIS PLACE
The owner has created an environment that families want to

come and hang out.  He provides free ice cream for your dog,

free bug spray and hoola hoops for the kids to play with. 

Oh, and his ice cream is yummy!

Big brother's design...Little brother loved it.

Atlantic Ocean

You can't go to Florida and not spend some time at the ocean, especially since you can drive75 minutes east or west and see a different body of water.  We went east and spent time close to Daytona. Our friends have a condo just a block off the beach, it's a beautiful home. 

 I guess back when the Daytona 500 started it was on both paved and unpaved roads.
The restaurant we ate at on our first night was at the old North Turn of the race
and so that's what the establishment was named.  Great sea food.  Olivia loved the
alligator bites but she kept calling it "chicken".

The girls ready to hit the beach

The girls couldn't believe how white and soft the sand was.

Raabe Girls with the Kirgan Boys

Livie loves the boys!

Look how those storm clouds have moved in.

At this point we weren't sure if we would be able to eat

our entire meal outside or if we would be running for cover.

Happy Birthday Dani!

In the Beach Club house

Curt and Chris in the Florida ping pong championship game.  :)

Gotta do the "jumping" pic

I have so many beach pictures, it really was a struggle to pick out just a few.

I have more daytime pictures to post tomorrow.

Hollywood Studios

Day #3 at the Disney World parks.  To be totally honest, 3 days was

enough. Maybe it was the crazy humid heat of day three that zapped us

but we were there only from 9am - 1pm.  It felt great to go "home"

and jump in the pool.  Next time we should visit Florida in December...good to

know the invitation has already been extended.

It's just the beginning of the sixty minute wait

to do the Toy Story ride.  We all decided it was worth it.

Still Waiting

Daddy and Reagan

Mommy and Olivia

LOVED this game/ride!  Wish we would have gotten the

fast pass and waited in line.  It was worth the wait to go twice.

Competitve?  Who me?  Not at all but...

 I did want to share the final score.  (Mine was the best of them family.)

Character Visits

Who doesn't love McQueen and Mater?

Phineas and Ferb

Too bad Perry isn't in the picture because all 3 days we

looked for a Perry pin.  Never found it.

The Fam

The Little Mermaid

Our girls understood that we were not going to eat at the parks, it's just too expensive.

Most of our meals were sandwichs we took into the park or food made

at the Kirgan's house.  But by Thursday, we were ready to eat out.  We found

a fun local burger shop called The Twisted Burger.  Great food!! Look it up if you are

in town.  It's only about 10-12 minutes from the parks.  Anyway, they had "creepy" (Liv's word)

artwork on the walls.  This one bugged Olivia the most so I took her picture with it.

I want to take a brief moment to thank Robbie and Charlie! 

These two men took time out of their schedules to bless our family.  Not once but

three different days.  I don't know what kind of faith either of them have but

I can tell you that they both have a servant's heart.  Thank you!

Animal Kingdom

 My hubby and Me

 We certainly had a wonderful day at Magic Kingdom...thanks Robbie!

Here we are ready to start our day at Animal Kingdom, a little tired

and worn out.  Our plan at this point was to do a few things, maybe hit

another park and go home early.

 King Louie

But which one is the real monkey?

The one thing Reagan was disappointed by at Magic Kingdom

was the difficulty we had meeting up with characters.  You'll see

in pictures below, we made up for that deficit on day 2.

 Playing the drums

 As soon as we walked through the turn stiles, we made a mad

dash to the Safari Ride for a fast pass.  Great advice. 

We saw so many African animals.

 John Smith's girl...Pocahontas

 Daffy Duck was the silliest character we met. 

He hugged, teased and goofed around with each of the girls

 Minnie Mouse in her camping gear.

We didn't ever get to meet up with Mickey.

Our first Goofy sighting of the day

 "Oh Bother...."

Chris and Eeyore

The wonderful thing about being a tigger....

Emma's favorite character.

By far, the best thing we did on day #2 was THE LION KING show.

Holy buckets, I could have watched it over and over again.