I’ll give you two guesses where we went this year for family vacation. It’s a hard one.
The sunshine state is one of those places that I can’t love enough. I remember family vacations there in highschool…and when my parents accidentally left my sister at a Wendy’s there…and when my darling boyfriend popped the question there…and when we got caught in the rain at Disney. I do not, however, remember going to FLA when I was little. My mom said it happened. She’s got pictures to prove it…but I can’t recall it. Not at all. Apparently we went to Sea World…and ever since, I’ve kinda always wanted to go back. That is what this vacation was all about…family…Sea World…and being together.
On Thursday morning, we loaded up the car and everyone piled in. Things you should know:
- we switched Will to a forward facing carseat for the trip because he has a tendency to scream bloody murder when riding backward. Don’t judge us for breaking the 2-year-old rule…and yes, we had zero screams due to Baby Einstein.
- My bro, Timmy, and Little Debbie and my Pops rode with us. They probably thought I was crazy for taking random photos.
- I believe that a vacation starts the moment you drive out of the driveway…therefore, I document things like the car ride and the stops.
- I downloaded 1024 photos of our trip. That’s after I deleted the ones I didn’t like…and I tried to restrain myself from taking pictures constantly.
- Three times during the 8 hour drive we stopped for ‘Baby Breaks’. That is when Will gets to run around in random parking lots and throw balls and the rest of us stand around awkwardly and watch. (check out Will’s butt cut! He’s like a mini Tom Brady…except he throws less hissy fits.)
- Will is obsessed with watching trucks. I would not be surprised if one day he told us that he wants to be a truck driver when he grows up. Of course, on that day, I will drill into his brain about how the Jade Spa massage parlors are places that inject worms into your legs that you can feel squirming around while you try to sleep.
- On one of the Baby Breaks, I convinced the family to head over to a citrus fruit center slash gas station.
- Will had his first real orange there. The jury is still out on how it tasted.
- When we finally arrived, it was late…and the little guy was cranky and the truck my sister was driving down had all our luggage so we had to wait…BUT….we were excited for Friday because that is when we were going to Sea World and so far, our trip was already swollen with time together.
- Tomorrow I’ll share some of the house photos where we stayed…let’s just say it was themey. And hopefully I’ll have some Sea World pictures to share too!
Hope you guys had fun on your vacation! I live in Florida so I’m excited to see all the places you visited!
P.S. Will is super cute. But you already knew that 🙂
I grew up in Indian River County so I LOVE seeing the roadside stands advertising yummy citrus! Makes me miss Florida…. Hope you had a great trip!
Gotta love the I-75 Florida Citrus Centers. I think I have three I can get to in less than 20 minutes. I hope you bought a gator head there. You can never have too many, you know.
I’m located in Ocala, so it’s fun to see you guys enjoying the FL.
Sounds like a great trip. All this time I only thought you had to keep the kiddos rear facing for a year, then again maybe the rules changed since I had a baby seven years ago.
We were just at Sea World on Mother’s day! Well, it was the one here in San Diego. Still fun! 🙂
Can’t wait to see this ‘themey’ house y’all stayed in!!
I live in Florida! WOOP WOOP!! Thanks for bringing your touristy $$$s down here! 🙂
With Will’s hair getting so long, he does look like a mini Tom Brady!
Yeah, I havent checked up on it, but didnt know the forward facing age was two now- my Ped didnt mention it. I mean, I know there are people out there that say keep them rear facing as long as possible, like until 4!! I mean great if you have a short kid, but that would not work with my oldest son (who is 5 now). Plus, I wouldnt want all the grime and wet melting snow all over my seat (we do live in Buffalo,NY). With my youngest son who is now 17 months, I turned him forward a little early (after he was a year, but I know he wasnt quite 20lbs) b/c the convertible car seat just didnt seem tight enough and I felt it was safer for him to be forward facing with a nice and snug seat. We have a 2009 Honda-CRV, so we have a pretty safe car anyway. You do what you gotta do. Ahh, the Indian River Fruit signs- I remember those when my mom and I used to drive down to my grandmother’s in Tampa. I could use a vacation right now, preferably the beach. We will be heading down your way to Roswell hopefully in July to visit my dad and his family. Cant wait to enjoy his pool!
Random pictures are the most fun. It really captures what is going on during a trip,
Great pictures! I’m sure that the trip down was great especially since you had so much company 🙂 It definitely helps time go by faster.
When you say your trip was already “swollen with time together,” is that a good or bad thing? 🙂
Rear-facing until 2 is now the “suggestion”. But reality is, most kids HATE riding backwards (at least all of ours did) and by 1 you have to turn them around if you don’t want to go insane. So no judging here. I won’t go off on how the study just states how this reduced injuries in a small amount of accidents and how tiny the numbers are. I just think its crazy.
haha…I guess it depends on who you ask 🙂
xo – kb
Yeaah! Hello from Jacksonville, Fl!
Have fun!!
Great pictures Katie, those are sometimes the most memorable parts of a trip 🙂 PS Will’s new carseat looks like our Graco Nautilus and if it is, you will love it. Noah’s had his since he was one and he is now four. It’s survived many, many roadtrips and airplane rides and is still holding up wonderfully. Hope you had a fabulous trip!
Katie, I love your blog. I always look forward to reading it….your sense of humor just cracks me up. I can always count on you to make me smile!!!! Thank you!!!!
Can’t wait to hear more, sounds like fun – but everything you do sounds like fun, even ridding a bathroom of a massacre LOL. If Tim complains of the random pics, just explain it’s for the blog, for your fans (being Tim’s fans) again..LOL 😉 In Australia, we can turn our seats forward facing at 6mths 9kg, although all the experts recommend leaving them rear facing as long as possible. We have just had a big change to all our car seat regulations for older kids, so maybe the rear facing thing is being discussed in more detail. Will is adorable, please add to your brood soon, you guys have such great genes. xx
Great pics… I wish there was somebody like you in our family…
I love photos, but always seem to forget getting them taken on the spur of the moment…
Only to try and recall the best moments trusting my memory (which, between the two of us, could certainly use some improvement)…
keep up with the good habit!
Ooooh buuuurn on the Tom Brady comment.
We took our 2 little boys to FL in April and had the time of our lives. Sea World was included in that trip and it was a wonderful family place. Hope your trip is great too!
Hope you enjoyed Orlando…the weather has been perfect the last few days. I love Sea World and so do both of my girls. We go frequently since we live in Orlando. It’s great because we have season passes and can just go for 2 hours and go home and not feel like we have wasted our time and money.
Can’t wait to see the pictures of will’s first trip to Sea World.
Have fun trip Katie! I live in Orlando – please let me know if you are interested in making a photo session. I love you work and my girl bday is coming!
Thanks,
Ira
Wow! Two years old is recommended now for forward facing? I have a 4yo and a 9yo and it was one then. Recommendations sure change fast. Although my 9yo is still in a booster b/c she is on the small side. I wonder when she will complain about that?
I take random inside car pics and driving breaks pics on road trips too. I think you are crazy if you don’t! One of my favs is of my daughters little feet crossed while she was napping. I love the gulf coast, haven’t yet been to Disney or Sea World. Can’t wait to see more pics!
I NEED that last picture. Seriously. I’ll send you bacon-related gifts for it. 🙂
Hahaha I second this!
This is exactly what I was going to write! And also that I loved the bit about a mini Tom Brady who throws less hissy fits!
That last picture is gorgeous! Hope y’all had fun!
Cute pictures! I can’t wait to hear more about your vacation…but take it easy with the comments on my boyfriend. AKA Tom Brady. 🙂
I cannot get enough of Will’s face in the third orange-trying picture! Too stinkin’ cute!
Will is so adorable! We live in Jacksonville and took our little guy, Haeden, on an 18 hour trip last summer to Buffalo! I don’t recommend it! lol… but H is also OBSESSED with trucks. And busses, motorcycles, trains, bicycles… anything that goes! On our way to daycare each morning he points out all of these things!
Super cute pics! I have to say I was surprised when I saw the little guy forward facing already but to each their own- I wouldn’t like it if someone told me what to do with my child.
I probably need to ask my pediatrician about it but Will is so long that he was literally bending his legs in the backward facing seat. He was able to push on the seat back and push so hard so often that he was hitting his head on the top of the carseat bar. He is in the 90th percentile for length…so I wonder if anyone else has this problem.
xo – kb