Goodbye 2016...

After a hectic few days getting settled in our apartment how nice it was to get out and ring in the new year! In many ways 2016 has been a fabulous year but not without a few bumps in the road. Jack and I kicked off the year traveling to Maui in Jan. In March he was invited to come down to Orlando to interview with SeaWorld Entertainment. In April we took our amazing trip to the Philippines. In June Jack finished working at Luxottica and started at SeaWorld. The week before he started we all came down to Florida for a house hunting trip. Although we were unsuccessful in finding a house on that first trip, SeaWorld spoiled us that same week with VIP treatment at the parks which really got the kids excited. In July, Jack met us out in Utah for a summer vacation. After some time there the two of us jumped back on a plane to Florida for a second house hunting trip. During that trip we signed on a piece of land and with a builder with the hope of being in our new house by June 2017. We closed on the land in September. For the next six months Jack commuted between Orlando and Cincinnati while the kids completed the first semester of the school year in Ohio. It was a decision we struggled with, wasn't ideal, but looking back was definitely the right thing. In October I joined Jack in Orlando to make house selections, and in December we officially moved down to Orlando. And now, here we are, starting a new adventure in albeit tight quarters but as a family! As excited though as we are to be in Florida, it will feel much more real once we are settled in our home. In the meantime though we'll take every opportunity to get out and enjoy beautiful Florida! So that was 2016 in a really small nutshell!

So it would only make sense we'd ring in the new year at SeaWorld! Nothing beats parking behind Shamu stadium and being in the park within a minute. Happy New year!

The calm before the storm...

There is plenty to miss in Ohio but one thing we are not missing at all is the weather! As we waited for the moving truck to arrive here in Florida, we enjoyed a wonderful day at Discovery Cove. It was a perfect way to unwind before the storm of the moving truck arrived...




Another evening we made our way over to SeaWorld to enjoy their holiday festivities. It's really amazing how beautiful and done up the parks get for the Christmas season. But again it felt so weird to be out and about in shorts in December!!!



After a great week off from cooking, cleaning, and worry, the moving truck arrived and reality was about to kick in. At first glance our apartment complex is really lovely. Huge modern club house with infinity pool overlooking a small lake, that has a real resort type feel. The place is only a few years old so still has a very new look to it. Well, we hadn't seen our apartment beforehand. The only thing we knew was that it was three bedrooms (the largest offered) and we had upgraded to a lake view unit. Even after being so conservative in what I had the movers bring to the apartment, it was still very clear it wasn't all going to fit. We still have boxes piled up on our balcony and inside. We ended up having to rent a second storage unit because of a shortage of space. Thankfully the storage unit is less than a mile from the apt., and is also new and air conditioned. Heaven knows though what shape our stuff will be in when it finally makes it to the house as one of the units is packed so tight with furniture on top of furniture that I couldn't help but imagine a bunch of broken dishes and ruined pieces of furniture. Already we had one casualty with a kitchen chair that was demolished. The movers assured me they knew what they were doing but I can't imagine we'll get out of that unit without a few disasters.

After shedding a few tears over the lack of space I keep trying to remind myself how much more exciting moving into the house will be. But at the pace the construction is going I just hope my little heart is able to survive long enough to actually see it completed...

Christmas in Orlando!

After a great time at the beach we made our way into Orlando for what would turn out to be another four nights waiting for the moving truck to arrive. Of course the first thing Sage ever wants to do at a new hotel is hit the pool. You can see just how excited Ty was with that idea...haha! After a quick dip we got cleaned up and headed to one of the hotel restaurants for our Christmas Eve dinner. It was so weird! That's the only way I can describe it. The hotel was decorated beautifully, the Christmas music playing, everyone was dressed to the nines (with the exception of us) and yet it still didn't feel like Christmas Eve. There is something not right about hearing "the weather outside is frightful" or "sleigh bells ring..." when it's in the 80's outside! But we were making the best of it!



The one thing we were all really excited about and looking forward to though was our time at Give Kids the World on Christmas day! Before we had arrived into town I had discussed with Jack spending this Christmas doing some sort of charity work. It seemed like the perfect year to do it being we ourselves were homeless. How nice it would be to work alongside the real homeless people. After some research we learned that between age restrictions and background checks, working at a homeless shelter probably wasn't going to happen. Jack, however, was able to learn about a charity that SeaWorld is heavily involved with called Give Kids the World. It would prove to be the perfect fit for our family. SeaWorld graciously organized us spending Christmas day there which was great because although Sage didn't meet the age requirement there too, they were able to get special authorization for her. GKTW is a resort that caters to children with life threatening illnesses who come there to stay with their families for a week, while also getting to attend the theme parks of their choice. Everything is provided to these families at no cost and sadly for some it will be the last trip their child will get to be able to go on due to their illnesses. It's really amazing. Most families are Make A Wish families who have been selected to have their Disney/SeaWorld/Universal dream vacation fulfilled. It was the BEST way to spend our morning! And we all decided that it's a tradition we'd like to continue.




After a great morning the remainder of Christmas day we spent hanging out at our hotel.



One would have thought we would have made reservations for a fabulous Christmas dinner but no, we had not. So Jack had recommended we go to a restaurant at the Ritz which happens to be attached to the JW Hotel that he had eaten at several times before. Well what he didn't know was that for Christmas they change up the whole menu and it was turned into a special buffet. That special buffet was $110 per person before tax and gratuity. I just couldn't stomach spending almost $700 to eat dinner as a family so we headed to the car and searched...and searched...and searched for a place that was both open and had availability. Well that was completely unsuccessful so I whipped out the handy Trip Advisor app and said find a place near us that is rated high. It turned out to be a pizza place...lol! It was good pizza but not exactly what we imagined Christmas dinner being like . Needless to say we will never move again during the Christmas holiday. Haha!!!

Florida here we come...for good!

After the truck pulled away and a nice night with Michael and Michele it was finally time to hit the road! Never have we driven to our new job location but since Jack had accumulated an arsenal of guns and ammo during our time in Ohio, we really had no other option but to drive because the ammo wasn't going in the moving truck. It's only a fourteen hour drive but it's been over ten years since we've all been in a car that long together. Thankfully, it turned out really nice. We had never really traveled much outside of the Cinci area so it's always fun to see different parts of the country. After getting about halfway, we spent our first night outside of Atlanta and then continued to the Gulf side of Florida for a night on the beach. As for upgrading our weather, I think these photos say it all...



Just a day at the beach... The Marriott we stayed at was right on the beach and boy what a big beach it was! We were all so thrilled and truly in a bit of disbelief that December weather as we know it is a thing of the past. They don't call it the sunshine state for nothing!!!



That night we enjoyed a great night on the boardwalk at John's Pass where we introduced the kids to Bubba Gump's! How could we not with how much we love the movie Forest Gump?!?



We woke up early Christmas Eve morning and hit the beach to collect sea shells before continuing up the road to Clearwater. We were amazed at how different the sand is on the Gulf side to that on the Atlantic side. I just kept thinking how great it was that we'll live under two hours away and only a bit over an hour to Cocoa Beach on the Atlantic side!!!





After a great day it was time to head into Orlando where we'd spend the next four nights waiting for our stuff to arrive!