Fabulous Florida Roadtrip!

A few months ago, Jed and I planned to head down to sunny Florida to visit Emily and Bud and new baby Claire after she was born. It ended up working out perfectly thanks to conferences comp day last Friday. I only had to take 1 personal day to make the trip. We set out Wednesday night after work after picking up our fabulous rental. I really wish I had gotten a picture of this gem but here's one I found on the internets to help you all visualize the details of this trip:
Anyway, like Jed said, our drive was quite long. I'm convinced Missouri is the worst state ever (no offense to any Missourianites) but Jed got to drive through Mississippi while I slept from about 3-5:30 which he claims is way worse than Missouri. We DID make it to Florida. We got a tad lost when we were just about 40 miles away. Blast! But we got turned around and made it in one piece around 1 PM on Thursday.
This was the first glance that I had at this little peanut:
Awwwww.
We hung out for a little while at Bud and Emily's and then when we could check into our hotel in Niceville, we headed that way and totally crashed for almost 3 hours. We were TIRRRED. We headed back over to the Thomas' and did some more of this:



We watched some TV and then headed back to the hotel for more sleeping. Friday morning, we went back to the Thomas' for a fun Florida day! The weather was so gorgeous! We went to a Gator land to see some alligators, per Jed's request since he's obsessed with the History Channel's best show, SWAMP PEOPLE, hit the beach in Destin and grabbed lunch at a cool Irish pub. It was such a great day! Here are some of my favorite shots of the day:
Jed is hugging an alligator!!

My pretty mom!




My brother-in-law was very concerned about not getting the bottom of his shorts wet.

Friday night, we watched a movie and my mom made boneless bbq ribs and cheesy potatoes. YUMMMM!!!
Saturday, we tried to get some good pics of Claire bear for her birth announcements. She was just SO darn sleepy but we got a few good ones! The camera just loves her. :)


Then it was time for one more picture of Uncle Jed, Aunt Sarah and baby Claire and we had to head back north...
The return trip, though we took a different route, was just as long. So long, in fact, that I didn't think we could make it driving through the night so we decided to stop and stay Saturday night in Nashville at a sketchy Comfort Inn and drive the rest of the way Sunday. The only saving grace of the drive on Sunday was a newfound love for season 1 of Friday Night Lights. We are hooked.
All in all, it was a really great trip and a memory that we'll always remember. I'm not sure that too many LONG road trips are in our future but we could definitely do it again if we needed to. Plus, it was TOTALLY worth it to meet sweet Claire. I'd do it again in a heartbeat!