Jingle Bells! Batman Smells! Florida's a peninsula!

Earlier this week Jeff let us tag along for two of his interviews in Florida. I had never been to Florida and decided it was probably unfair of me to declare that I didn't want to live there, ever. We've never taken a road trip as a family before, so it was a real adventure.

We set out for Jacksonville, FL Sunday night with the help of the new man in my life: Mr. GPS. He's an early Christmas present from my grandparents. (My grandparents don't have a microwave and only recently got air conditioning. Just wait till I try to explain a GPS system to them.) I don't know how we would have managed without him.

On the trip down we listened to Christmas music and played Six Degrees of Greg Grunberg. (If you think you can't link Owen Wilson and Gene Kelly through Greg Grunberg, you're wrong.)

Monday morning Jeff went to his interview at the Mayo Clinic and the kids and I went to the Hands-On Children's Museum in Jacksonville. Other than the odor, it was the coolest place, ever. Once Harrison and Chloe were worn out, we went to see "Bee Movie." It's a good thing there was no one else in the theater or all the crying, cookie spilling, and row swapping would have been annoying.

The kids crashed in the car as we drove to Gainesville that night. We let the kids swim in the cold pool and then spent the night playing musical beds. I left our bed so Jeff could sleep and I could get the kids calmed down. Then I went back and Chloe kicked Jeff out of our bed. Then Harrison kicked Jeff out of his bed. Jeff ended up on the roll-away bed while I clung to the side of the double bed Chloe and I were "sharing." Harrison had a double bed to himself.

While Jeff was interviewing at the University of Florida, we spent all day at the mall. ALL DAY. It worked out well. The main event was to see Santa, but when we went to see him Harrison was "too nervous." We had to walk around for a while so he could prepare himself mentally. I guess all the "You better watch out because Santa knows when you are sleeping and knows if you've been bad so be good!" he's been hearing has damaged his psyche.

The trip home seemed twice as long. (Doesn't it always?) We stopped at a fruit stand where I got to try my first kumquat. Coincidentally, this was also the place where I tried my last kumquat. Blech. The verdict: Florida is way too warm, but I can learn to be happy anywhere. Below is a slideshow of the fun times.



Note: If you were wondering about the title of this post, that's how my younger brother sang "Jingle Bells" when he was little and our family was on a road trip. Just trying to make learning fun, I guess.