Disney Christmas- Day 1 at the Beach

This year, we went to Florida for our Christmas vacation.  We were feeling like we wanted to make a memory rather than buy presents just for the sake of buying something and buy toys for our kids that don't need them.  We felt fortunate that we were able to go to Florida and spend a great Christmas with family.

We drove through the night--- not bad at all and much better than having the kids awake the whole time... Dan listened to pod casts, I listened to an audio book.. it was actually quite nice.  We spent our first day meeting up with my family and going to the beach.  My family was going on a cruise from Tampa so our trip overlapped with theirs a couple of the days. 

 The kids LOVED the beach and wasted no time jumping right in and building animals and castles in the sand.

 Elise

 Me, Mason and my grandpa.

 We had to call the kids to shore a few times because they went out too far.  They had no qualms about the cold water!

 Mason enjoyed the beach from under the canopy.

 Uncle Pat.

 Me and my mom.

 Maggie building castles in the sand.

 Elise (and my hand shadow)

 The kids burying their legs.

Of course, our trip wouldn't have been complete without a trip the ER.  Owen woke up screaming one night-- I think that first night.  He had an ear infection... obviously from the beach.  I spent about an hour driving around to find an ER.  Florida doesn't seem to have those 24 hour clinics on every corner like they do here in Houston.  Ear infections are always annoying because you know what is wrong and there isn't anything over the counter to give him.  So $100 copay and $40 worth of prescriptions later.... we were drugged enough for our second day.