Still in Florida

Well we just can seem to bring ourselves to leave this beautiful place.  We have extended our stay and will be leaving on Feb. 5th now.  We have all been enjoying the place we are in right now.  Although we did have some nasty weather the other night, it still is nice to be in the warm sunshine.  We will be headed for California when we leave...hoping to stay in the sunshine.  Can't wait to see friends and family out that way!

January 20th 2011

Mom I want a golf cake...not bad for an amateur

Sibling Love!

Happy 12th Birthday

Jake!

Travelers Rest Resort - Dade City, Florida

Golf course

Yes we are still here!  Can't seem to want to leave the sunshine.  It's been awhile since I blogged, we haven't been doing much but normal life stuff.  We have been taking full advantage of this campground.  We school each day and then the boys will golf and we have all been swimming for about 2 hours every evening.  This place is our favorite so far...the people are extremely friendly and there is plenty of fun and relaxation.  I have included some photos of what we see each day out our windows, we also sit in our chairs and enjoy a drink and take in the view.  The cranes come up each day to the bird feeders the guy next to us has set up.  I will post some more pictures of our lovely campground soon.

Dade City, Florida

It has been so nice being in Florida and only hearing about the snow and cold weather in other places.  We have been taking full advantage of our campground...swimming and golfing everyday!  What a life!  On Thursday we drove Bryce and Jake into Orlando so they could play Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Golf Course on Friday.  Jake's birthday is this month and for his 12th birthday he wanted to play Bay Hill.  He ended up writing a letter to Arnold Palmer asking him if he could play with him.  His assistant wrote Jake back and said that he doesn't play with people, but if he was at the resort when Jake was there, she would arrange a meeting for them.  Well we told them they were coming on Friday, but they said he only had about 15 minutes to meet Jake on the following Tuesday, so of course we said yes!  Anyway, the boys golfed on Friday, and as they were going out to hit balls, they ran into Mr. Palmer.  Then the girl at the desk asked if they wanted to go upstairs and meet him...WOW!  So they did.  They got autographed hats, pictures, and a flag from the greens.  Then they found out he was teeing off a couple groups before them, and his caddy said that if they wanted to they could go hit balls right by the roped off section, since that is where Mr. Palmer hits.  So they did and they watched him and he even watched Jake hit some balls, needless to say they were ecstatic!  Bryce said they treated Jake like royalty when they knew he was there for his birthday. They gave them a room over looking the 9th hole.  He received all kinds of pins to put on his hat.   Everyone was very gracious.  While they were gone Rees, Trent, and I swam, played games, and watched movies.
On Saturday when we picked up Bryce and Jake we hung around Downtown Disney.  We gave our kids the choice of Disney World or going to Cabo San Lucas Mexico again, with my mom...they chose to go to Mexico, but we did tell them we would do Disney World some other time.  We will be headed there for a week in February!

Happy New Year from Florida

Happy New Year everyone!  We had a very mild New Year, in fact both Bryce and Trent fell asleep before the midnight.  Jake, Rees, and I toasted the New Year with sparkling white grape juice!  Friday and Saturday Bryce and Jake spent the day at the PGA learning center, I think they would have spent the night if they let them.  You pay one price and can hit as many balls as you want.  They were in heaven.  Trent, Rees, and I went to find a manatee in the wild, and guess what, we were lucky and got to see one hanging out around the power plant/manatee center area in Fort Pierce.  I think we spent an hour just watching this manatee hang out by the  warm water.
Monday we left Fort Pierce and headed to Dade City Florida.  We arrived at the Travelers Rest Resort here and just so happens our jack motor broke and we could not lower our camper in order to get it leveled, so we had to have someone come fix it.  Luckily they had someone here to fix it.  What a score on the campground...we are backed up to their nine hole golf course, what a view.  Dad, you would love this place!  This place is run by volunteers, the people who live here year round.  That is turn keeps the cost down (it's one of the cheaper places we have stayed) and the place looking beautiful.  They have their own TV channel that scrolls through all the activities that are taking place and their own newspaper they put out, boy there is not one thing missing.  They have a huge heated pool and spa, post office, laundry, their own fire department, tennis, golf (of course) just to name a few.  They had a welcoming committee that came around and talked to us and gave us some goodies.  I think it will be a wonderful 2 weeks here, may not want to leave!

Sea World

On Thursday 12/30 we headed out to Sea World.  We found a ticket deal that was buy one adult ticket and get a child's ticket for $5, but it had to be used by December 31st.  We had a 2 hour drive to get there and boy was it crowded!!!  But hey we are at Sea World!  I finally got to see my manatee and I was shocked at how huge they are, but very cool looking.  They had a few roller coaster rides, but only Trent and I like the roller coasters and Trent is usually not tall enough yet, so we did not ride many.  Trent and I did however go on the log/roller coaster ride and came off completely soaked.   The kids did go on another roller coaster in the kiddie section.  We went to the dolphin, seal/otter, and Shamu shows.  The problem with so many people was that you had to get in line about 45 minutes before the show was to start, or it would fill up and then you couldn't see the show.  They had a few shows that were special for the Christmas season, it was very fun to see the place all decked out for Christmas...very very festive.  So we saw the Shamu Christmas show, Twice.  The first time it was packed and we had to sit in the soak zone, and yes we got wet, but not as wet as many others.  The show was fantastic and the kids loved it.  It is amazing how they can train those animals to do the tricks they do.  It was a great day, but a long ride home!