FL here we come!

Dan, Will, and I took a trip last week to visit my sister and her husband who live in Ocala, FL. We decided not to bring along little Andy. A 10 hour car ride sounded challenging enough with just one kid. But don't feel too bad for Andrew. He got to spend a week getting spoiled by Nonnie and Papaw all by himself! :) (Nonnie has some pics from his vacation that I will post later.)
So, we took off on Thursday heading for Central Florida. Will was AMAZING in the car. We brought along a portable dvd player, a bag full of goodies and snacks(thanks, Nonnie!!), and books on tape to keep him occupied. He actually went almost 8 hours into the trip before we had to break out the movies. Like I said...amazing!
We had such a fun trip. We hung around Ocala on the first day and did a little shopping and of course, eating!
Then, on Saturday, we decided to head to Orlando to go to Downtown Disney. When planning this trip to Florida, we had contemplated going to a Disney park one of the days, but decided that Will was still a little young and that we would save that vacation for another year. But, being that close to Orlando, we had to do something Disney; so, we checked out the shops and restaurants of Downtown Disney. What a cool place! We sort of got the whole feeling of Disney without the cost and crowds of one of the parks.
**Quick note on the pictures...I am still without a computer of my own, so I am not able to edit the pictures or make any cute little collages like I normally do. So, there are lots of pictures to view and lots of red eye and not a lot of cropping.**

We also found a store that seemed to be created just for Will. RideMakerz is a store where you can build your own play car....think "build-a-bear" but with plastic cars. For anyone who knows Will and his obsession with all things automotive, this was heaven on earth.

He picked out a fire truck. He then got to "build" it.


Then decorated it with stickers and took it for a test drive.


We walked around all afternoon going in and out of stores.






Toy Story 3 things were everywhere!! It was pretty fun for Will since he had just seen the movie a couple of weeks ago.



Then, we ate dinner at T-Rex cafe. Sounded like a fun place for Will because of the animated dinosaurs that "come to life" ever 15 minutes...but Will was little freaked out. He was not expecting them to move. And when they did move while we were waiting in line for our table, Dan and I had to go into crisis recovery mode quickly to get him to go back inside and have dinner. Once he got used to it, he was happy and enjoyed watching the dinosaurs(still very cautiously though).


One more fun thing...we rode a water taxi back to our parking lot! Will was thrilled!

On Sunday, we spent most of the day at Erin and James' house. They cooked a great dinner and then we shot some fireworks outside. Once again, Will freaked a little over the noise and surprise, but was happy just to watch safely from inside the front window. That's what I love about Will. He is a very cautious kid and can be kinda scary about things, but we can almost always reason with him and find some way for him to participate. He is such a fun kid!!

He did enjoy a "sparkly" though!

On Monday, we headed to St. Petersburg for a Tampa Bay Rays/Red Sox game.
We ate brunch at this cute little dive, Skyway Jack's, that Erin and I had read about in the Food Network magazine. It was sooo good!

The rain tried to keep us from tailgating before the game, but a quick stop at Walmart to buy a tent, and we were on our way...rain and all!



Our seats were in a great spot...right behind the Red Sox bullpen.


Matsuzaka

Papelbon and Bard

We had a blast at the game! The Rays won the game and Erin even had Will cheering "go Rays" on his way out of the park, wearing his Red Sox shirt and all! :)




We had a great and much needed vacation. Thanks Erin and James. Let's do it again soon!!