Salt Springs, Florida

Next Stop...Salt Springs Recreation Area in the Ocala National Forest

Quick stop at Publix before heading into the woods

Our campground was a short bike ride to the springs...the water is a constant 72 degrees but the air was a bit chilly!  

We braved the Florida winter temps (haha) to snorkel at Salt Springs.  

Braden did some fishing...

Aaron has a new toy...his Atom drop deck longboard.  The campground had great paved surfaces to cruise!  This boy can really move!

You can't really tell from this picture, but this was quite a steep slope...luckily Bryan stayed right by Aaron's side!

I was behind them on my bike, freaking out (and taking pictures!!!) 

This tree was ancient...and majestic...and massive!

The area we stayed in (part of Ocala National Forest) had so many of these dirt roads that led to different trails and recreation areas...it was fun to go exploring in the Jeep!  Some roads seemed to go on forever!!!!

Our stay here at Salt Springs was short (just the weekend). Cell service here was non existent :-(. Down the road we went to civilization!  Next stop...Crystal River.

Dunnellon, Florida (Rainbow Springs)

During the month of January, we will be "spring hopping" all over Central Florida.

We started with Rainbow Springs...the state park we stayed in was beautiful and relaxing!  The weather was a bit chilly (well, chilly for Florida!) but we enjoyed some outdoor time and explored the area!  We'd love to come back in the warmer summer months to tube down the Rainbow River!

Cozy little spot

Look what we saw on one of our many walks through the campground!  Our first armadillo sighting!!!!

Breathtaking!  

Aaron was the first one in the springs!!!  

And then before I knew it, all of my guys were swimming in Rainbow Springs!  They are brave and evidently immune to the cold :-)

Real men wear pink goggles...xoxo

We learned more about the springs and had a fun day...so glad they went swimming that day because it was too chilly the rest of the time we were there!

It rained a few days we were in Dunnellon, so we had plenty of time to catch up on schoolwork...we learned more about kinetic and potential energy and how roller coasters work (follow up lesson from last weeks amusement park adventure)

We created our own marble coaster in the rig!

It was full of twists and turns!  Success!!!

We also learned to bake bread in the crockpot.  Delicious!!!

Beer bread :-)

The sun finally came back out and we were able to get back outside get moving!  

We explored the trails in the park and saw some wonderful waterfalls!

We love the outdoors!

Love flowers in January

Swimming, hiking, waterfalls...Rainbow Springs State Park was a winner!

Orlando, Florida- Week 2

Our second week in the Orlando area was spent at Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure.  The rides and shows were spectacular and we're thankful that we were able to have these experiences, but we're not convinced that we are a "theme park family"...the lines, the crowds, the ridiculous prices, oh my....

That being said, we made lots of great memories....

Here's a list of our top ten favorite things to do at Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure...

Number 10: Eat at restaurants with the fancy butter pats...Mythos & The Krusty Burger were both a delicious distraction from the lines and crowds.

Number 9: Spend quality time in line together...They are gracious enough to tell you the estimated time of your wait... Our wait times ranged anywhere from 5 minutes to 60 minutes...

Number 8: Play boardwalk style games (they accept credit cards now, woohoo!). Luckily, we did not win... Although we would have loved a 3 door fluffy "Duff" beer bottle ;-)

Number 7: Pose for pictures (always an adventure with a teen and preteen)

Number 6: Watch live performances...Animal Actors, The Cinematic Spectacular and Disaster! were a few of our favorite shows. 

(Aaron's acting debut in Disaster!)

Number 5: Lots of spectacular stuff to see!

Number 4: The Simpsons & Springfield ...enough said!

Number 3: Cool 3D and 4D thrill rides!

Number 2: Being silly together

The number 1 thing we like to do at Universal Studios is eat Lard Lad Donuts and explore all that Springfield (aka Simpsonland) has to offer ;-) Hahahaha 

We also discovered a SkyZone in Clermont, just up from our campground!  The boys loved jumping for hours!  One day we were at Universal all day, and the boys still wanted to go to SkyJam at SkyZone that night for 3 hours!!!

Off to Rainbow Springs next...looking forward to getting back to nature and

slowing down a bit...

Thanks for the memories Universal!