Holiday Eve

We leave bright and early tomorrow morning for our annual family vacation to Florida.  To say that I am excited is quite an understatement.  After a very long winter of surgery, rehab and then of course tax season (my husband is a tax accountant and the deadline in Canada is April 30th), our family is ready for some quality time together. 

Whenever I mention that we're going to Florida, everyone naturally assumes we are going to Disney World....but no, we're not going to Disney.  We plan to relax!  And that just doesn't happen at Disney World...it does however happen when you just spend a bunch a time at the pool and the beach. 

Here are Ben and Daniel 2 years ago:

And then here's the whole family last year:

This year will be a different trip than the last two.  Previously, we stayed for 8 nights at a very nice hotel/resort on Fort Myers Beach.  We loved it there!  It was the perfect place for young kids.

But this year, we are spending the first 4 nights in a hotel on Clearwater Beach (just the 4 of us) before meeting up with the rest of my family (my parents, my brother, his wife, and their 2 kids, and my sister and her boyfriend) at a huge house right on the beach just south of Clearwater.   We rented a house (well...really, it looks like a mansion to me) for a week...it seems extravagant but will actually be cheaper than what we usually spend because we are splitting the cost of the house four ways. 

I'm also excited to see how Ben gets around this year.  We've decided to leave his wheelchair behind and just take his walker and a stroller.  I really expect that we will only need the stroller in the airports...and I'm even hoping that he'll walk alot at the airports too.  The house has 4 stories but has an elevator so I expect that he'll do great at the house and be able to get himself all the way to the pool and beach on his own.    It is so exciting to see him walking so much these days...such a huge change from 6 months ago.

I will try to post an update or two while we are away...but I won't promise anything!  I do promise to at least update you once I'm back home.