Now, the kids knew we were going to Florida to visit Dave’s parents. They didn’t know that we had a surprise planned before then. Dave and I pretended that the GPS accidentally sent us through the Orlando Airport (not a huge stretch, since it really did send us through the Atlanta Airport the night before).

The first of our surprises for the kids was that my mom had decided to join us for two nights in Florida.

As we slowly drove through the arrivals area, Luke nonchalantly pointed out, “Hey, there’s Mabel.” Adam, on the other hand, was completely flabbergasted.

This was the first of the two days we spent driving down to Florida. Adam was off from school. so when Dave got home from his class we loaded up the van and started our vacation. You can see Maggie in there all buckled in and ready to go (the mittens were her idea).

We stopped for lunch a couple of hours into our drive.

We also stopped at the Tennessee welcome center.

The kids were excited to do a little exploring and stretch their legs.

We had a lot of delays which added to our trip. We saw this car on fire, by the time we got up to it the flames were out. Thankfully it didn’t look like anyone was hurt.

So we got to our hotel in Atlanta later than we wanted to, but it all worked out okay. A couple of weeks ago, I got an email about  hotel points that were going to expire soon. They were from before we had kids and I used to travel for work. So we ended up being able to stay in a really nice room for free (well we had to pay $8 for parking, but still – a great deal). I still have points left too so we have two nights booked for another adventure in June.

The kids loved their big bed for the night.

We got up really early the next morning to get back on the road. Luke especially was not happy with this decision. He woke up so crabby – poor kid.

Thankfully it didn’t take too long for Luke to get back to his normal happy self.

The kids really did great during the drive. I had packed some new sticker books and magnet toys to help entertain them. Adam and I visited the library before we left and picked up some books on CD. I wasn’t sure how the kids would like them, but they loved them. The books were part of the “Magic Tree House” series and each one took about 45 minutes from start to finish. We listened to seven on the way to Florida and six on the trip home. I was really surprised by how much the kids enjoyed them. It almost has me looking forward to our next long drive so we can listen to more.

Two and a half weeks ago (I’m playing catch up here), the kids participated in our neighborhood’s Easter Egg Hunt. They had a blast and the families that organized it did a great job.

Adam was thrilled to see a bunch of his friends there – especially his best bud, Isaiah.

Syracuse went much further in the NCAA championship tournament than they were expected to this year. Maggie even got to wear the dress I made her two years ago – though now it was more like a shirt.

Then:

Now:

Still super cute and it makes me want to sew more clothes for her.