Friday was an ice day at home. A night of freezing rain left everything shiny and looking like glass. And we had no school/work. You'd think this left me with a lot of extra time to get ready to leave for Florida bright and early Saturday morning. But really, it was a little harder I think. :) I got done what I needed, put them to bed a tad early, and started taking down the tree (real). Half way through our power went out! I hauled out a flashlight and finished the job, but the load of dishes and getting on the computer to look at cameras wasn't happening.

This was the view out our door:



I called the insurance company during the day, but the camera doesn't meet my deductible, so I'm out of luck getting my money back from the camera. And no one around us has "mine" in the store, only online.

I went to bed that night after loading the van with what I could and was exhausted. The power came on during the night. I got the rest done in the morning, we ate breakfast and got ready, and left by 7:30am. We drove straight through and the kids did pretty well.
This is Braeden watching Video Now, can you tell he can be a little couch potato!? :) He was up front by me and Olivia was Liam's "car buddy."


We were also joined on our ride by our Elf on the Shelf, Tom.


And this is Braeden once he let himself fall asleep. :) Unfortunately I couldn't get pics of the other two as they were back farther and I was... oh yeah... trying to drive! I had found my "old" camera and it still had a little memory left on the compact flash, so that's what I'm currently using.


We made it to Clearwater at 4am our time, 5am Florida time. We saw Grandma and Grandpa for a little bit, ate some breakfast, and took a nap! :) Then we played, brought things in from the car, ate lunch, took another nap, and went to dinner. A pretty good first day. Tonight: I have it on good authority that Santa is giving Liam a new tricycle and I have to put it together, so I'm doing it tonight!

Hope to update often, pictures load SO MUCH MORE QUICKLY here! :)