Florida Bound

For a few years now, Grant has been requesting that we take a family trip to the ocean so he can see the "real" beach.  He's mentioned it so often that it inspired our very first (real) Fricke vacation. Jason researched different destination sites and thought that Panama City Beach, Fl would be a great place for the Fricke's to venture to. So for the past few months we have been thinking, planning and organizing this trip. I was on-board but, I am not going to lie....the 13 hour ride in the car was the one thing that terrified me. Our boys are pretty good travelers but we haven't been on any trips longer than 3 hours so adding ten more hours was a bit scary for me but we decided that we would make it work and see how they did.  While Jason did his research on different condos and mapping out the route there, I researched how to travel peacefully with little kids. We kept a count-down paper chain at home so we could keep track of how many days until we saw the beach. Grant loved waking every morning to pull the chain off and inform us of how much longer we had to wait.  The day finally arrived when there were no more chains to pull off! The car was packed the night before and we took the boys from their beds and directly into the car (in their pajamas) at 5:15 and were on the road and headed SOUTH! Most kids might just get cozy and go right back to sleep but not our boys. I m not sure either of them slept that first 8 hours! About 30 minutes in, I gave Grant some travel games to play. Travel scavenger hunt and the license plate search proved to be just as much fun for me as it was for Grant. Lane, however, became sad a few times because he wouldn't spot things quickly enough and we'd pass on by without him having the opportunity to spot what we saw.  He'd say, "ah, I not got to saw it!" This soon became humorous to us because it was a given that when Grant would shout out his findings, "I see a dog!" we could count to three and know that "Ah, I not got to saw it!" would soon be to follow.  I made a paper chain for our car ride too. After every hour in the car we got to pull off a link of the chain. This was fun for us as we got very excited at the top of every hour. Also, to help break things up a bit for the boys I decided I would wrap up some packages and would give them out every two hours on the road. These packages included everything from books and candy to little toys and movies. Of course I told them that they would only get a package if there was no complaining or arguing for the duration of the two hours. It worked like a charm! After a few stops for breakfast and potty breaks we finally made it to the Illinois/Kentucky line! We thought this would be the most perfect place for the boys to get out and stretch for longer than a few minutes. We stayed in Metropolis, IL (home of Superman) for about an hour. The boys enjoyed the statue. This was the first time we heard Lane say what would be his favorite saying of the trip, "AWESOME!" From this point on everything was AWESOME!

Lane insisted on trying out the "girl one too"

I like this one because of little Lane in the back ground-checkin out the chick

This was what was in one of Lane's packages. Marshall! Although it was probably his smallest little prize, I think he loved it the most! Something little and new to play with every few hours was a lifesaver idea (thank you Pinterest)

This is a picture of the paper chain we made to count down the hours until we hit SAND and WATER!

We stopped in Hoover Alabama after about 9 hours into our trip we decided to let the boys swim. Since the weather was kinda hit and miss with rain showers we decided to get a hotel with an INDOOR pool.  WRONG idea. You wouldn't know it but this water was ICE cold! Lane didn't mind though

You might be able to see by this picture that Grant thought the water to be too cold.

Jason is a trooper. I was flipping so cold just stepping into the pool room and there was just no way I was going to get in that icy water. But Dad canonballed in and splashed around with the boys for a while.

These pictures are all out of sequence. This was the first picture of the day. Taken at 5:15 am. I said, "okay, but first...let me take a selfie."

Grant's ready to roll

so is Lane. Mind you-they just woke up and we kind just stuck them in the car as is. Note: his crazy hair

Thank goodness for XM radio! Jason and I jammed all the way there! Favorite roadtrip songs were "Drunk on a Plane" and "Beachin"

Road trip scavenger hunting

passing time -reading books

candy got us through too

This is the prize bag....I just used old Christmas paper but they didn't care. They had fun unwrapping

more of Metropolis

We stopped at a pizza place called "Pie in the Sky" and not only was the food great but the boys loved that they were each given pizza dough to play with.

Kept them so busy. Even in the car.

Don't think we could have done it without so many electronics. Lane loved playing on the ipad and Grant loved playing his DS or watching movies....or should I say movie. He watched the same one all the way there....1982 St. Louis Cardinals World Series Highlights. Lol. Yawn that would put me to sleep for sure but he loves loves loves that movie and has watched it so many times I have lost count.