Day 4: Jacksonville

Today we woke up and went to Panera and then the pool at Eddie's parent's house. They have a beautiful home! We laid out for awhile and watched Leah play around in the pool. She is such a cutie and can entertain herself for hours. She was doing all different voices. Em and I were cracking up. After we laid out for awhile we went inside and watched a movie while dozing off. We were all exhausted because we end up talking until 2 a.m. each night. (We also got to meet Eddie's mom and sister, Erin...it was nice to meet them and get to know them a little.)

After Eddie's parent's house, we went back to Eddie and Brenda's house to get ready for dinner. They wanted to take us to this restaurant called JP Morgans, yet the wait was forever long. When you have kids, you can't afford to wait for longer than 30 min. We were all hungry and just wanted to eat. We ended up going to Ted's Roadhouse (name of place?) and got in without any wait. The meal was awesome! Em and I shared a bison mushroom and swiss burger. We also got onion rings before and they were delicious. :)

After dinner, we ended up going home and relaxing...and of course chatting all night :). It was a nice, relaxing day.

Day 3! JACKSONVILLE!

We slept in today and took our time getting out of bed. It was wonderful. I woke up earlier to the wonderful sound of my phone...Bertha (Jess G) called. I got up and chatted with her and then headed to the pool!

The four of us laid by the pool and relaxed before the girls headed back home and Em and I headed for Jacksonville! We did a lot of reading and people watching. It was so fun to watch people and see how they interact. We were there for a couple hours and then we headed out.

The girls headed to the Mall of Millenia and then back to Fort Myers. Em and I headed to Jacksonville to see our cousin, Brenda and her family. We stopped at an outlet (to get our shopping fix) on the way and then ate dinner at Longhorn before we got to their house.

We ended up talking with our waiter on Longhorn and he was so friendly. He kept coming back to our table telling us about cool things to do in Jacksonville and then at the end came to our table and said..."I would show you guys a good time tonight, yet my girlfriend would not be too happy with me". We laughed and thanked him for his ideas and headed out. Em and I discussed after we left how that stuff never happens in Fort Myers. We never meet new people or end up having conversations with our waiter. Why is that? Are we just in a perky mood because we were on a road trip or do we need to move?

Em and I ran to Wal-Mart to grab Goldfish and Peanut Butter M'n'M's and then off to Brenda and Eddie's place.

It was so great to see Brenda and Eddie and of course LEAH & ISAIAH! This was our first time meeting Isaiah, he is precious. Em and I fell in love with him. He is only a month old. We stayed up late chatting as usual and of course eating Peanut Butter M'n'M's :). Leah was the entertainment as usual. She is "a doll".

Leah got up at 4 a.m. and stayed up all night. She talked Em into making her waffles with "peanut butter on one and butter on the other". Em did as she was told. :) Needless to say, poor Leah was exhausted the next day. She was just way too excited that "her friends" were in town. We fell asleep to a movie we found on netflix: "waiting for forever" with Rachel Bilson. It was a bore. Off to bed.

day two: Sea World/Blue Man Group

We slept in today! woo! We woke up at 10:30 and the maid was mad because I forgot to put the privacy thing on our door and she wanted to clean. So, how did she get us back? She didn't clean. ha! Thanks for nothing.

Today we went to Sea World. Teachers get in free. We went to a couple shows and they were amazing. We ended the day with a fun time on the Manta. It was awesome. You lay flat. Taylor bought the picture because it was priceless. Everyone looked happy and excited, except Morgan looked terrified. ha!

After the fun day at Sea World for 3 hours, we headed back to the hotel to get ready to meet Brooke for dinner at 5:30!!

I locked my keys in the car. We went out to my car to get a different pair of shoes and I set my keys in the trunk while I was about to change them and I shut the trunk. So ANNOYING. I felt horrible. Not only did I make the girls with me have to wait, I also left Brooke alone at City Walk waiting for us. I hate those situations where there is nothing you can do. Luckily, the Marinells have AAA so we waited on "Kenny" to arrive. I locked the keys in the trunk at 5 and AAA didn't show up until 7. They said they would be there by 6...never the case.

We finally made it to CityWalk and met Brooke for about 25 minutes at Moe's and then we had to get going to make the Blue Man Group show by 8. It was SO good to see Brooke. She is so beautiful...inside and out. I love that girl and I am so bummed I only saw her for a short minute. There are some things you just cannot control though.

Blue Man Group was so awesome. Em and I sat together and the Marinells sat a row behind us so we didn't get to talk during, yet we had a blast. It was such a unique experience. None of us really knew what to expect. Em called it a generational study. They talked about our generation and how we communicate more online than in person. One of my favorite quotes was that you go to a coffee shop and sit 2 feet away from someone and never speaking to them, while you are on your laptop talking to someone who is miles away. Ironic. We loved it. The Blue Men were scary though! They didn't break a smile. They would come into the crowd and just stare into your eyes like the audience were aliens. We loved that it was interactive. Overall, great experience (especially for the teacher price! $50 off!)

After Blue Man Group we headed over to Morgan's dream come true: Rising Stars. It is a karaoke type club. Instead of singing with background music, you go on a stage and sing with a live band and with back up singers. It is a perfect place for a bachelorette party! So, after much talk of who was going up with who and what we would sing we decided...Em and I were singing California Girls and Morgan and Taylor were singing Raise Your Glass. Em and I got picked second!! We rocked it. We had such a good time. It is totally Em's element to be on stage. Unfortunately, some girls behind us picked "Raise Your Glass" so the Marinells were discouraged and decided to leave since they didn't want their second pick.

We decided to leave since it was midnight. We went home and fell asleep to nothing other than the bachelorette! :) It was a great second day.

Let the roadtrip begin...

We didn't let any time pass when school was officially let out. Our last day was Monday, June 13 and we left to get out of town Monday, June 13! Teachers had to go in on Monday so we were all able to leave early and jet out before we hit 5 o'clock traffic. I drove my car and the Marinells drove behind us as we headed for our first stop: Orlando. I got us there in record time...it normally takes a good three hours from Fort Myers, yet we got there in two and half. :) I was on a mission. The one thing we are really excited about this trip is that we have no plan. We want to relax, get away, and have fun. The only set thing we have planned in Orlando is to see the Blue Man Group Tuesday night.

We got to Orlando and LOVE our hotel. We are staying steps away from Downtown Disney. Our pool is awesome, there is a hot tub, and the rooms are great.

First day, we ran into our first dilemma...the Bachelorette is on at 8, yet we arrived at 5:30 and didn't want to grab food quick and hustle back. Unfortunately, we had to make a hard decision to forgo the Bachelorette to have a fun night in Orlando. (we are glad we made that decision, yet we thought we could come back to the room and watch it online...we were wrong.)

After we settled into the hotel, we went to dinner at T-Rex (the Marinell's hot spot) and it was fabulous. We loved the thunderstorm that happens every 20 minutes. (**Renee, Em asked the question: "Did dinosaurs come before or after Eve?") After dinner, we walked around and shopped. We wanted to go into the House of Blues for a live band, yet they were having a private party so we couldn't. As we walked, we decided to play game. We came up with a checklist of what we would see at Disney...ie: a man with a fanny pack and when you would see it, you would say "check". Needless to say we had a lot of "check"s.

We went down to the infamous stage at Downtown Disney where the Millage girls showed off their dance moves to watch kids dance again. The guy was a little strange, so we left early. He tried real hard though. ;) We then went to get ice cream and back to the hotel. We went down to the pool and hot tub (it was packed). We were so proud of Taylor for going in! :) After the hot tub, we came upstairs and all passed out. It was a great first day!!