We Made It!

In April we took a family vacation to FL. I must admit we had a lot of anxiety leading up to this trip. The thought of flying with six children and then driving all over FL and GA seemed a little scary. It was an amazing trip. We got to see so many beautiful and wonderful things. Paul got to show us a lot of his mission areas. We got to spend a long time with my brother and his family. I don't usually do travel log posts, but I wanted to share FL with you. We would go again in a heartbeat.

First an explanation- we tend to think a family vacation is not complete unless you drive at least 1000 miles. True to form, when we turned in our rental car, the attendant went to write down our mileage and then had to ask us if it was accurate. I guess most people don't consider driving over 1500 miles as a vacation!

So here is our itinerary:
Day 1: fly SLC to Orlando
Day 2: drive to St Augustine, spend time at Crescent Beach, Drive to Savannah
Day 3: Savannah, Fort Jackson, Tybee Island, Paul's mission, Drive to Waycross
Day 4: Okefenokee Swamp, drive to Gainesville, strawberry farms, Museum on UF campus
Day 5: Church in Gainesville, walk on campus to see alligators and bats
Day 6: Drive to Sanibel Island
Day 7: Fall in love with Sanibel Island
Day 8: Drive to Everglades, FL Keys
Day 9: Key Biscayne near Miami, Drive to Orlando
Day 10: Fly home

Brothers in the Atlantic Ocean (this was my first time seeing the Atlantic Ocean!)
I don't know why we didn't have the kids change into swimming suits! I said "Let's just go stick our feet in the ocean and we will only wade a little. Yeah right!
Walking over the moat to Fort Jackson.

Alligators and Okefenokee Swamp. This is the picture that our kids will hold against us when we are old- "Mom and Dad said- "go stand right there next to the alligator and we will take your picture!""

This cute boy thinks he is in Heaven!
Sunset on Sanibel Island

Sanibel Island is known for its shells. The kids were afraid we weren't going to find any shells.

We did.
Cleaning shells to ship home.
Nathan kept watching the ocean upside down. It was hilarious.
Pretty much how we spent our days on Sanibel.
Rachel with a new friend.
Joseph piloting the air boat through the Everglades. He thought he was cool until he saw our boat: