florida: day 1

We pulled out of Troy, OH yesterday at 6:45pm. We were on the interstate headed SOUTH! We made a few stops on the way down. Thanks to Nick's midnight shift, he drove the entire 15 hours here! There were horrible storms when we were driving through North Carolina and South Carolina and part of Georgia. I was sharing the back seat with Connor and I woke up several times wondering if we were still on a road or in the ocean somewhere. The kids did great. Of course, it's never an official family vacation unless you have hitting, kicking, fighting, name calling and tattling, but thanks to Maddie, we have survived!

With about 4 hours left in our trip and everyone awake, we stopped to eat at Cracker Barrel. Another travel staple in our family. The kids were able to run off some energy before getting back in the van.

We decided to stop at Ron Jon's Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach, FL. Josalyn and Connor picked up some pretty cool skin boards. We don't know how to use them but we figured they have 11 days to master it. We will probably just leave them down here so the cousins can all enjoy them and then we won't have to haul them back and forth every year.

We pulled in and unloaded the van. The kids were ready to hit the beach in less than 10 minutes. We spent about 2 hours on the beach. The kids are doing great with the ocean. Parker runs up to the waves and then turns around and runs right back to us. Josalyn and Connor are surfing and diving in like old pros. We are headed to a local pizza parlor for dinner. More pictures and posts to come!