It was such a long morning for Elliott (and I’m sure Myles, too, except he was at school). Luckily we had a morning play date to help the time move along – picnic at the park and then a bit of playing outside. At 1:30 Elle, Dane and I went to get Myles at school… he came to us beaming a huge smile and ready to head to grandma’s. Both older kids were so excited to finally be on their way to grandma’s. Once at Lake Santee we loaded up the rest of our stuff and headed out just after 4:00pm… not sure of what to expect on the long 1100 mile trek to Fort Myers Beach. We are heading out with one less person than we usually have (Seth had to work) and with one more tiny person than usual (Dane). We have the expectation of driving straight thru, but without our night time driver we understand that may not happen. The drive started out GREAT and ended even better than any of us could have expected. All riders were content the entire drive. Grandpa drove us safely until 3:30 am, and then I picked up and drove us until 6:30 am, which this allowed us to drive straight through the night! Yeah, to the beach sooner we’ll be. And if it wasn’t for Grandma determined to stay awake all night, this wouldn’t have happen! Grandma ended up staying up for over 24 hours, WOW! She did a great job keeping us all company. Myles and Elliott enjoyed their bags packed full crayons, coloring pages, doodle papers, and other things to occupy their minds and time! Grandpa’s new suburban had flip down TV/DVD player which provided hours of movies! Yeah! It is amazing that for over 20 hours the kids remained settled and showed excellent behavior! No fighting (except for one two-minute disagreement), crying, or any bad behaviors! Even Dane remained calm and peaceful with absolutely NO tears!

We did arrive to Ft. Myers just afternoon on Friday! After checking out a few different hotels, we ended up at the Pierview Inn and Suites. For $75 a night (at least a hundred less than all the other places on the beach we checked out) the place was great. Myles and Elliott enjoyed the pool very much! It is so great to have warm water, so much so, even I didn’t mind jumping right in. As a matter of fact, you almost need to be in the pool to remain somewhat cool! Myles and Elliott’s first trip to the beach this vacation was a success, both kids enjoyed wading in the water (Myles really can’t wait until Dad get’s here on Sunday).

After swimming a bit we headed down the beach to get ice cream. She couldn’t wait to use the dollar Grandma gave her.

And then we went out to dinner at the Best Burgers on the Beach, it was okay. Elliott was so pooped she fell asleep with her head on the table and didn’t even get dinner.

And then back to the hotel. Myles went swimming again and again… until the sun went down. And then we all went in and asleep by 8:30pm.