The Kuchenbecker's: Winter Vacations!

Wow Winter went fast. It didn't really start until after Christmas and was over by the time March started. We recently went on one warm vacation and one cold one. We snuck in a trip to Cousin George's cabin at the end of February and enjoyed almost 2 feet of snow. It snowed the whole time we were there and it was so beautiful in the woods and on the lake. We stayed at a hotel with a pool one night and we had it all to ourselves. I enjoyed soaking in the hot tub since that is not a frequent activity I get to enjoy. The boys had an awesome time and J.P. swam from one side of the pool to the other. Swimming with Daddy is always a great time! Each adult rode on a snowmobile with a little one and Grandma Toni stayed back with Baby Leo. We rode the snowmobile trails to bars for lunch both days and enjoyed very mild weather. My fingers didn't even get cold and that's a miracle.

In February we took the boys to Florida for a long weekend. Nick was already in Clearwater Beach (Tampa area) for business so I flew down with the boys on Thursday afternoon. They were so well behaved and loved the plane ride. I feel so blessed to have the chance to travel with them and have it go so well. They stayed awake the entire ride until Carson fell asleep on the landing. Ugh! But he was so excited to see Daddy and the ocean he perked right up when it was our turn to get off the plane. Of course we were in the very back (in the kid section!). J.P. indulged in wearing shorts and short-sleeves, his favorite thing to do. We had one beach day to really enjoy and the boys even went into the water. For all the talk on sharks around our house, I couldn't believe they did it. Shows how being young and naive is way more fun. We built sand castles, drove trucks through the sand, and buried Nick. At night, we walked on the pier and spotted dolphins and pelicans.

On Saturday we headed an 90 minutes to Disney World. This was what we'd been counting down for at home on our Florida calendar. They were all smiles from the moment we first saw the Disney signs at 8:30am until we left at 7:30pm. We were blessed with 70s and sunny weather, but not large crowds. We breezed through all the lines and even snuck in 3 parades. The parades were awesome and the boys lit up when they spotted their favorite characters. Carson loved Donald Duck and J.P. was pretty impressed with Pirates of the Carribean. Their favorite ride was Peter Pan and Toy Story cause we were flying through the air in our own little cars. Our other favorites were the 3D Mickey's Philharmonic show and the Monsters Inc. Comedy Theatre. They were the perfect age to take on this trip and the day went so smooth.

A cold front moved in on our way back to Clearwater Beach so Sunday we went to a movie and then to an aquarium. We saw Winter the dolphin from the movie "Dolphin Tale" and the set that the movie was shot on. Besides Disney, the boy's other favorite part was jumping on the beds in our hotel room. They thought it was so cool that we had our "new house" for 4 days and it had 2 beds in it.

Last week Nick was in Madison at his company's headquarters so the boys and I headed down to Waseca for a few nights. My Dad brought the boys out to Sportsman's Park to shoot bow and arrow. Needless to say, it lasted about 5 minutes and they were off running in the woods. The temps have been in the high 60's, 70's, and even a few days at 80 during March so we've been indulging in outside play. We went to the park 4 times last week, which is unheard of in MN during early March.