Ramblings: I'll be spending alot on souvenirs

I haven't been trying to keep you all in suspense...really. I've just been swamped with all the daily to do's on my list.  Volunteering at Maddie's class library time, dentist appointments, cub scouts, making pinewood derby cars, ballet, tackling the endless pile of laundry, breaking in the new elliptical, cleaning all the black pinewood derby paint off of my floors and cupboards after Avery found it and decided to redecorate the kitchen, watching all my tivo'd American Idols--you know, all the important stuff. 

First, how we ended up at our decision after searching every major and not so major city in the US and Mexico (because we deemed any other flights far too long):

1. Cheap tickets. We had to find affordable airplane tickets if we were going to fly---there are six of us, which means to fly to some of the places we wanted to go, we would've had to remortgage the house. 

2. Family friendly. When we take our circus on the road, it helps us feel better if we are surrounded by other freak shows. Plus it means there are usually alot of activities nearby that we can do with the crazies without getting too many nasty glares.

3. Warmer weather. We wanted to go somewhere where the kids can be out of the house, preferably swimming to expend the greatest amount of energy possible. Plus, there's much less packing involved for hot destinations than for cold. I hate packing for snowy destinations. 

4. Affordable lodging. We typically rent houses wherever we go so we can have space for the kids to play and sleep and nap without being on top of each other. And it usually works out to be cheaper after a week than a hotel.  Plus, then we have a kitchen and we can go grocery shopping and eat most of our meals without having to haul the crazies to restaurants three times a day to pay for food that will most likely end up getting thrown at me or the pathetic server that was unlucky enough to get assigned to our table. 

Those were our major considerations which is how we ended up deciding on ...........FLORIDA! (San Diego was 2nd place).  The tickets were relatively cheap, there's a ton of fun stuff within an hour's drive, tons of rental houses to choose from, and there will be other freaky families everywhere. Our kids' Spring Break seems to be about a month before everyone else's across the country, which hopefully means it will be less crowded at all the touristy spots. 

I'm purposely not saying that we are "going to Disney World," because even though we are going to be staying in Orlando, I don't want all the pressure of having to "do Disney." With two almost three year olds that still nap, I would be stressed about having to fit in everything we want to do around their sleep schedules and mood swings to justify the expenses of Disney. There would be endless fighting as to what the big vs. the little kids wanted or were old enough to do everyday. And I want to relax not stress. 

We found a house to rent with a heated pool out back so we can go and do when we want to go and do, and when the boys are napping we can still take the big kids out to swim.  Jeremy's already started working out more so he'll be Speedo ready in a month for all the photos I'll be posting on here. And the house has a gameroom with a pool table, air hockey, and a basketball hoop game--it's sad that it was seriously the thing that we were most excited about. We knew the boys would love it. 

I figure we'll have time to hit the beach, the Kennedy Space Center, Busch gardens and/or Sea World, and we'll hit up our friends that live there (hint, hint Stacy) to point us to the best of the best of the Disney things to do while we're there.  

The bad thing for me is that pretty much everyone guessed kinda correctly except Greg, who was just being a turd anyway. So I think I'll be spending most of my time and money while we're there buying and mailing funny things to everyone. 

Florida here we come--hide all your breakables.  You've been given fair warning.