Every year when we go on the Parker Family trip, Zach and Mr. Rusty go golfing. Somehow along the way it’s turned into 36 holes of golf. Which means an entire day of golfing!!! Luckily Zach was feeling better from his stomach bug and was eager to have a quality time day with his dad. Yes, they golf together pretty much every Friday afternoon…but I guess vacation golf is better than at home golf? I don’t know much about the golf world haha
Mrs. Charlotte loves to do something fun and memorable with the kids on our trips! This time we decided to drive about 45 min from where we were staying to hit up Central Florida Zoo. I knew it’d mean pushing my kids naps but they are def at ages where it’s fine to do that every once in awhile! Next year it’ll be impossible b/c Leo will HAVE to have naps on time, every time. So it was wise of us to take advantage of the easy life while we have it 🙂
I ended up leading in the van and Brad followed in his car and I was pretty impressed with my driving skills 😉 I got us there fast! Britt was SO excited to see the crocodiles. So random 😉 And we lucked out and got to see them as one of the first animals!
At one time the golf outing was an all guy event but now that it’s 36 holes of golf the not-as-avid golfers in the family don’t really want to attend. I mean that’s a LONG day for someone who isn’t mega into golf! I was SO thankful to have Brad and Jordan with us that day!!! Between Mrs. Charlotte and her rheumatoid, Courtney and her lupus, Casey and her pregnancy, and me with my foot (and pregnancy too, but the foot was more of the issue) we would have been in TROUBLE without Jolee and the guys!!! SO thankful to have them all there to help us!!!!
Britt talkin’ about the crocodiles haha
Each kid had to have a monkey pic!
Jordan peaking over the top haha
We required a good bit of breaks. My foot was KILLING me. Casey was far enough along in pregnancy where she needed to rest. And the heat and sun are a badddd combo for Courtney. Mrs. Charlotte needed rest too but she’s not one who would ever admit it haha. We came across a rhino area with some great benches and shade and enjoyed it!
They had a feed the giraffe area but the giraffes weren’t interested in eating so, thankfully, they did refunds if the giraffe didn’t eat! Which I thought was nice! They also had camel rides and you KNOW if we weren’t pregnant that we would have been ALL about that! I love me some experiences and Kye actually rode a camel with me back when we went to the circus 🙂
The kids and I got candy bracelets the night prior at Banana Jacks and ate them as a snack!
First timers…it was tricky for them to figure it out, Britt especially haha
More resting 🙂
Too beautiful!!!!!!! I swear Jolee just keeps getting prettier and prettier!
I only brought along a single stroller for the trip. I talked to Kye about it prior to us leaving home and knew Colt and Payton wouldn’t be using a stroller so I figured he’d be okay with walking the whole time with them. It really did work out well and I’m glad I only had the single rather than double!
This face is awesome 😉
Anytime we visit any sort of zoo I like to hold off on the petting zoo portion until the very end. They had some neat animals in this little area BUT I was a little too trusting of them. I mean you figure they have a ton of kids a day feeding them, they must be totally sweet and safe right? Um…one bit Britt’s hand!!!!!! I feel so bad I wasn’t watching more closely! She got upset but luckily it didn’t break skin or anything!
These were hilarious! It was so fun to put the food on the edge and watch them eat it!
Colt cracks me up! When we had them over for Valentine’s Day he had ZERO interest in the crafts I had planned. Petting zoo? No thanks! He is straight up a DUDE. Like he wants to be active and playing and doing dude stuff. It’s so hilarious that he’s so much that way at such a young age! He truly is the definition of “all boy!” I love it!
They all wanted a turn pretending to drive 😉
Colt may be “all boy” but he is SO SWEET to his cousins! Britt adores him and he’s always so gentle with her and he already loves both of the new babies so much and they aren’t even here yet!
Kye enjoyed feeding the smaller animals, he said he felt bad for them because the big ones kept taking all the food!
We left the zoo to eat our packed lunches…you can tell they were pretty worn out!
The zoo had a splash park similar to the one at Zoo Atlanta so after lunch we let the kids go there. Surprisingly they were all tired out and ready to leave right at 1 so it worked out great for Britt to still get a nap that afternoon! I assumed we’d have to miss it but she def enjoyed the sleep and they all had SO MUCH fun that day together!
I don’t even know if Britt’s hair ever got wet haha she stuck to the outer edge of the splash area!
I love seeing them all play so sweetly together!
She loves her big cousin! I think it’s so cute how when we all get together that Kye and Payton kinda buddy up more now and Britt clings to Colt!
Buddies!!!
Jorge!
It was a very fun morning and well worth the drive! It def wasn’t the most amazing zoo I’ve ever been to or anything but if you’re in the Orlando area it’s a very affordable place to visit with lots of shade, fun things to do, and plenty of spots for relaxing 🙂 It was funny b/c I am used to mine and Zach’s way of doing things…we kinda just go from thing to thing and keep it moving but having school teachers with us? Casey and Courtney kept reading the signs about the animals and making it all educational haha. I’m like “cool! there’s a monkey! hey monkey!” then keep walking 😉
Back at the house we put Britt down for her nap then relaxed by the pool while Brad entertained ALL the older kids for us 🙂 Thanks Brad!!!!
After we came back in it was def time for some chill time. A good bit of our crew had never seen Frozen so we turned it on and enjoyed that together! Zach and Mr. Rusty got back in time for dinner and then we had worship services together as a family. We actually used this post about the gospel according to Frozen as the lesson portion of worship. Most of it is very Biblically on point and it really does make you see the movie in a new light! I LOVE every opportunity I can to incorporate Jesus into all we do so I thought this was awesome 🙂 Kye also said a prayer which was very sweet and lead some songs. While he couldn’t lead any worship type things in a true church setting (since he’s not a baptized member of the Lord’s body yet) I like for him to have that experience when we do home worship services. I think he’s going to be an amazing leader someday!
We originally planned on staying until later in the day the next day…but Zach had to drive to Columbus after we got home and I did not like the idea of him doing all of that driving! We decided for our crew to head out first thing in the morning so we could get back and he wouldn’t be so rushed driving. We actually made it home RIGHT before some bad weather started so it worked out perfectly!
We had a WONDERFUL time with our family and are already getting excited for next year’s big trip…with two more babies to enjoy 🙂 HUGE thanks to Mr. Rusty and Mrs. Charlotte for the awesome memories together!
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