For many years,my husband and I talked (more liked dreamed) about taking a family vacation to Asheville the day after Christmas. We have visited once in 2009, but have wanted to visit the mountains for along time.

This year, 2011, we finally made it. At last minute we made hotel reservations, packed up the Charger, winter coats and critter hats and headed north.

We have officially been in Asheville for about 8 hours, but already its so nice. The drive in is just amazing. My 3 year old daughter was so excited to see mountains. As we got closer to the mountains, she said “Wow, is that what mountains look like?” Since we are from Florida, everything is so flat you can’t see over a park bench.

It was such a beautiful change of scenery. We are staying at this beautiful hotel. Since we drove for almost 9 hours today we rested upon arriving at the hotel. After that we hit the grocery store for some staple items and then trucked it to Downtown Asheville! We have our favorite Pizza place, Mellow Mushroom and headed over there for dinner. Since we parked at the Civic Center Parking Garage, we were able to sightsee as we walked through downtown. Such a beautiful city.

The best part was on the ride back to the hotel where you could see lights going up the mountain. Again FLORIDA IS FLAT…LOL

Well tomorrow we plan on sightseeing around the town. Maybe some Blue Ridge Parkway, more some Biltmore Estate and most likely Fun Depot………

The best part of the whole trip though is the cold weather!

Trick or Treat

Smell my feet

Give me something good to eat!

LOL- Hope you have a Happy Halloween!

This past weekend, we were able to take a much needed family mini-staycation and ventured eastward towards the beach. We had a nice change of scenery and had a chance to explore New Smyrna beach. Our most funnest adventure of all was our Kayak trip in Mosquito Lagoon.

It was Sunday morning and we decided we all wanted to be on the water. We had done some research about local kayak rentals places and found JB’s Fishcamp. We got up early and noticed it was very windy. Since our girls are young (8 and 3) we decided to go and see how choppy the water was.

It wasn’t too bad, so we went for it. My oldest daughter and husband were in one kayak and I and my youngest daughter were in another. My youngest daughter was in a kayak last summer when she was turning two, so she knew ALL the rules.

As we were launching the kayaks, the kayak guy told us to go to a little cove on the right side of the river. Some manatees were spotted there the day before and he thought the girls would like to see them.

We paddled our way north and went into the cove. There was a gaggle of paddle boarders there pointing in one direction.

As we got closer, I could not believe our eyes. There must have been like 25 manatees in this cove! There were on the banks eating in the mangroves and then just swimming in the middle. We paddled to the middle and then pulled up our oars. It was truly amazing to just sit there and see all the manatees swim up next to you and around you.

We spend most of our time in the cove just sitting and watching! It was like a game of who could spot them faster “Look over there.” “NO, look over there”.

It was truly a great experience and SO much fun! I am trying to convince my husband to go back next weekend

As if my daughters schedule wasn’t enough (or mine for that matter). She has decided she would like to join her Elementary School Cross County Team. They have practices on Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30am and about 12 meets from now until March(ish).

I tried to warn her (many a times) that Cross County meant she would have to RUN.. in the MORNING… TWICE… a week. But she still wanted to do it.

This morning I had my alarm set for 6:30am. With only 1 kid to get ready I knew we could do it in no time at all.

Well I awoke to an 8 year old standing above me saying “Mom, its time to get up.” I was very confused, my alarm had not gone off yet, but I still got out of bed, put in my contacts and got dressed. I went out to the kitchen and saw that EVERY light in the house was on (even though 50% of our family was still sleeping). It hit me at that point that it was only 5:30am and NOT 6:30am. I told my daughter “Honey, you still have an hour to sleep. PLEASE go back to bed.” “But” she said “I know its close to 6 and I’m already dressed.” “You will be just fine, lie back down in your bed and go back to sleep. I’ll be back to wake you up at 6:30.”

She tried really hard to convince me to let her read her book. As much as I am all about AR points, I couldn’t see her reading at 5:30am; especially since we had to be at the book fair until 7 tonight. I put my foot down and said “No, you need to get some rest!” I turned off the light and left the room.

As 6:30 on the dot, that same 8 year old was standing above me saying “Mom, its time to get up.” It was like de ja vu.

She was so darn excited she just couldn’t wait. She was ready in record time that we decided to ride our bikes to school. We got there just at 7:30!

She loved her first day of track…check back with me with me in 2 months to see how long it lasted.

My daughter likes to read.

Strike that: She LOVES to read!

Last year (as a 2nd grader) she had the highest AR points at 340 points. One of her best friends had 1 point lower than her and the 3rd place reader was at 115 points. Needless to say, my daughter likes books.

With that said, this year her goal is to read all the Sunshine State books. I clearly needed to research what books they were so I could help her accomplish her goal.

My friend showed me the Sunshine State book site and I LOVE it! Visit their website here http://myssyra.org/ Here you can see this years and previous years Sunshine State winners.

I am sure you will find this site to be so much resourceful than you originally thought