Road trip to Florida

On December 2oth, we began our trip down south to Florida. New Jersey was our first stop for Aunt Janet's annual Christmas party. It was a fun, but quick trip. Originally we were supposed to leave Friday night, but we got a huge snow storm and waited it out until it was safe. We took the 5 hour drive and had a great time! After watching the weather report, we decided that we needed to leave NJ that same night because the following morning was calling for ice. At bedtime, we packed up and drove to Mom & Dad Citino's PA house.


We stayed in Pennsylvania for one night and left Monday December 22nd at 3:00 am. The boys slept all the way through Maryland and Virginia and finally woke up in time to get some gas and breakfast at a Cracker Barrel in North Carolina. We took off from there stopping 1 more time for lunch and gas again in South Carolina and a short trip to a state park for a little outdoor time. Finally at 3:30pm we arrived at our destination of the day- Brunswick, Georgia. We stayed one night at the Embassy Suites. It was nice to just relax and let the boys play after being in the car for so long.

Tuesday December 23rd, we left the hotel after lunch and arrived in Viera, Florida at my Grandma & Grandpa Citino's house. It was nice to be at our final destination! We enjoyed the warm weather and seeing my grandparents. But, we still were not done traveling...

Wednesday December 24th, we drove down to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to my Aunt Barbara's Christmas Party. It was a great time. We got to see a lot of family that we don't see that often, so it was really nice. Santa even came to visit and Christian jumped right on his lap! He loved him! We stayed the night at the local Marriott and then drove back to Viera on Christmas morning.

Christmas day was nice. We had an awesome prime rib and Grandmas homemade lasagna for dinner. Yummy! We swam in the pool, played at the park and took a really nice evening walk.

The next day, we went to Brevard County Zoo. It's one of our favorite places to visit when we see my Grandparents. It's a beautiful zoo. It is practically a brand new zoo, and is privately run. While there we saw a baby jaguar (which Christian kept yelling "Diego" at, ha-ha!), a ton of different birds, alligators & crocs, hippos, snakes, kangaroos, elephants and the best part of all, the Giraffe! At this zoo, you can purchase crackers and can feed and pet the giraffe. We also rode the choo-choo train and saw more cool animals.

Saturday was just a nice relaxing day. We went to my uncle Stevens house and Christian ran around with his cousins Sophia & Gianna. They played really well together. After leaving their house, the boy's immediately passed out in the car, so Jason and I had a "mini date". We took advantage of their nap and ordered up some sushi and ate it right there in the car. Peace, quiet & sushi... YAY! Later that day, we enjoyed more swimming, more outdoor time, and more walks... ah the Florida lifestyle is not so bad!

Sunday was our last day there and we went to a great brunch at The Officers Club on Patricks AFB. It was nice to have so much of our family together. My grandparents, Uncle Adrian, Aunt Helen and their children, Uncle Steve, Aunt Karen and their children and Jason, me and the boys. So that's right- 8 adults and 6 children- all 3 years old and younger! It was great though. Following brunch, we took Christian for a walk on the beach. He loved it of course! Jack was even impressed!


Monday morning we left Florida and headed to Charlotte, North Carolina. We stayed in Charlotte for 2 nights, we loved it there! Maybe one day we can end up there- we'll see!

We stopped at Mom & Dad Citino's for 2 nights and finally made our trip home! It feels good to be home! I'll post some pictures of the boys shortly. Lots to do right now, as you know it took forever for me to post this update!

Hope everyone is well!