The Smileys: The Rest of the Florida Trip

Keeping up our trend of being horribly behind on blog posts, hopefully we’ll churn a bunch out this weekend. We already shared tons of pictures and stories from Eliza’s first visit to Disney World in February, but there were other fun things that happened during our two-week trip to Florida, too!

Thanks to the minivan, making the two-day drive down to stay at my parents’ place in Venice wasn’t as bad as we thought. Just as Matilda had reached her threshold for time spent in a car seat, we stopped in Atlanta to spend the night and visit the Hults family. Mark recently graduated from seminary there, and since our days together in Lafayette, we hadn’t been able to visit them much. It was so much fun (and Eliza had a blast playing with Emerson and Hayden), that we stayed with them on our drive back two weeks later, too.

The girls made a mess of all the toys, and Emerson prepared Eliza for Disney World by showing her all the princess outfits she had.

We can’t believe how big Hayden is now! It makes us feel quite old remembering when she stayed with us and we went to the children’s museum.

After seeing the Hults family, we continued the drive to Florida. Georgia and northern Florida are pretty boring drives, but it’s always fun to see the car thermostat slowly increase as we head south. I remember marking those Fahrenheit milestones when I was a child packed in the minivan on my way to visit Grandma and Grandpa. Overall, the girls did well on the trip, but I think Matilda was desperate for some more “hold time” as soon as we arrived. Fortunately my parents were ready for some grandkid time.

During the two weeks in Florida, other than going to Disney World, we were able to relax, go to the beach, swim in the pool, and eat some great food, including the greatest ice cream in the world – lime soft serve at the Nokomis Groves. It’s probably the most nostalgic part of the trip for me each year, since I can remember going often when I was a child. And it’s lime ice cream, a very underappreciated flavor (especially when swirled with chocolate).

Eliza getting used to the pool

We worked on our swimming

Matilda enjoyed watching

Eliza enjoying the first beach day

Checking out the water with Grandpa

Matilda's first beach experience. Seems like it was just yesterday Eliza was this small hanging out on a Florida beach for the first time.

It was a very hazy day at the beach, but it cleared up later

She wasn't as afraid of the waves this year, but she still was hesitant to get in the water

Enjoying the best ice cream in the world!

Family picture in the orange groves

We took a day to drive down to Naples and see Eliza's Great Aunt Janet and Uncle Dave. We had a lot of fun catching up, swimming in their pool, visiting the beach, watching the fisherman, seeing dolphins, and eating some delicious food (although Eliza got a bit sick due to either the heat or car sickness).

The Naples dock

Before we left, we had to visit the beach one last time, and we went to Siesta Key, the first beach Eliza experienced back when she was a few months old. Eliza spent a lot of time in the water, and we were very proud of her.