This is my favorite...

Summers in Florida. Well, trips to Florida in general. Summers there are very hot.

The boys and I headed to Florida for a couple of weeks as soon as Carver finished up at school. I just love going to Florida. I like taking the boys home and to theme parks and to the beach. I like to share things from my childhood with them.

And going home is just nice. I like being there. It is familiar and safe and easy. The boys love it there and they adore my parents and my parents are so helpful. We stay busy but not stressed. We play outside and we feed the goats and cows. The boys get (more) spoiled and so do I.

So we go home as often as we can. For this visit we were there for two whole weeks!

Dinosaur World is one of our current favorite Florida activities. It is never crowded, incredibly clean and well-maintained, and perfect for young kids.

Blueberry picking!

A quick trip to the beach for dinner and a little unplanned play time in the water.

Chuck E. Cheese's!

We took the boys back to Sea World. It was a perfect day. Weather was tolerable, the crowds were light and the boys were great. Best theme park day, for sure.

We stayed the night at The Fountains in Orlando and headed to the Magic Kingdom the next day. This will always be my favorite theme park. The boys love all things Disney. It was a bit more crowded than we hoped but still so worth it.

The next day we headed to the Disney Village (Downtown Disney) for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe before heading back to Bartow.

My favorite meal of the trip was during our second quick trip to the beach. We ate an early dinner at Crabby Bill's and then headed back down to the beach to let the boys play for a bit.

We also had some down time to play at my parent's house and rest a bit.

Towards the end of our visit we headed to Busch Gardens. It would have been a perfect day if the weather hadn't turned CRAZY, cutting our day short.

And no trip to Florida would be complete without a visit or two here...

And we had to feed the cows and goats a few more times...

And this. Probably completely inappropriate for the blog but...

Cargy's (first) Second Birthday Party

I have two boys.

Combined they have had 6 birthdays.

And we have had about 15 parties.

I like to celebrate on the actual birthday because it just seems sad to let it pass without special recognition.

And we like to celebrate with both sides of our family and sometimes that can't be combined.

And sometimes we also have a party with friends included.

I know this will end in a few short years. Eventually we will only have the big party with friends and then that will phase out and we'll have quiet family dinners that pass as parties as the boys get older and move away from birthday party days.

But for now, we really celebrate.

On May 25th Carson turned two so we had a fun day of birthday festivities before his "big" party the next month with cousin Riley (more on that in another post).

The traditional birthday balloons! We filled his room so that he woke up to them on the morning of his birthday. He was confused more than excited.

Mickey Mouse was the theme of this small party! Luckily we had A LOT of things to decorate with. The kid loves Mickey.

He loves cupcakes too.

And fun presents. These magnetic blocks from Aunt Courtney were (and are) a huge hit. She gives the best gifts. Always

So fun to celebrate two years of life with this sweet boy. He makes me happy. Seeing him happy makes me even happier.