Florida Family Reunion -8/27/14

 Early August took us to Florida for a family reunion to see Dad's family.  On the trip out, the girls' first ever airline ride, was seamless.  After a late arrival and short stay in a hotel, we were off the beach in Melbourne.

Brooklyn was quite the explorer and happy to test the ocean.  Madison, on the other hand, was clear that the ocean was not part of her itinerary and that the pool was the only water she cared to approach. 

After the reunion, we were off to central Florida where Papa J lives (near Orlando).  It was a packed trip, and included some excellent food, such as this lakeside restaraunt complete with a pier to walk.  The girls had a nice meal of catfish and enjoyed every bit of it.

We also made appearances at more than one kid friendly animal park.  The girls chased the ducks, goats, emus, and others.  At a gator park, Madison enjoyed the Florida panthers while Brooklyn pet a skunk (Mom wasn't looking when Dad let it happen).  They also fed peacocks right from their hands. 

We spent time, almost every day, in Papa J's pool.  There were cool inflatable toys, a small waterfall to play in, and we enjoyed Dad's cannonballs from the diving board.

(Papa J with the girls)

(Cousins)

(Brooklyn trying her hand at diving)

In between all the swimming, Dad wanted to make sure the girls got at least a little exposure to aviation.  There's no shortage of it at Papa J's house.  Since Dad couldn't convince Mom to take any small children to the sky in personal aircraft, he settled for letting them watch him go instead.  It seems they now pay just a little more attention to the shining objects in the sky. 

The trip home was a bit more eventful (and much less fun).  After a 3 hour delay on the last flight of the day from Orlando, the flight was cancelled.  As much as we would have loved to stay, we weren't happy with the 2 days they said it would take to get us home so we grudgingly accepted a non-stop flight home, early the next morning out of Jacksonville instead.  Downstairs we went to rent a car, drive 3 hours, pay for a hotel for just a few hours of sleep and do it all again.  Oh well, in the end, we made it!