Saturday morning, we were up and packing for our drive home.  As we packed up our condo, I was once again filled with gratitude for the blessing this place was all week.  Because of a good friend of mine allowing us to get it through her timeshare, we got an amazing deal, and we had two bedrooms – one with a king sized bed for Kevin and I, and one with two queens for the kids.  And a full kitchen which allowed us to only eat out one meal a day.  And a washer and dryer, which was such a huge blessing, and allowed us to pack really light.  And two full bathrooms.  Seriously, it was perfect, and that didn’t even count all the fun amenities at the resort.

It was also a beautiful place, and so quintessentially Florida.  After we unpacked and checked out, we decided to get in one more round of mini golf on the course there before we left.  It was so fun, even if it was crazy hot, and it was the perfect activity to end our time in Florida.

We made sure to get in the car and be on the road by noon, so that we could listen to the first session of General Conference on our drive.  Arthur may have fallen asleep, but truthfully, he was suffering from a lack of sleep on our vacation – late nights and early mornings, and going constantly in between.

On our way out of Florida, we stopped at a gas station and they had baby alligators there, which the kids thought was so awesome.  I thought it was pretty funny that they had them there, as it was totally a gift shop packed full of any and every Florida souvenir imaginable.  Not that you could buy the alligators (they were there as part of a wildlife conservation thing), but you could buy just about everything else.  Good times.

Before we knew it, we were in Savannah, Georgia, back in our old stomping grounds.  We arrived a little too early to go to our friend’s house, and so we continued to listen to General Conference in the car while we took the kids for a tour of our old home.  We stopped by the apartment we lived in for four years (and where we brought Derek home as a newborn).  We also took Lily by the elementary school she went to for Kindergarten, Georgetown Elementary.  It brought back so many memories!

Then we drove them through downtown, and it was still so beautiful, even in the pouring rain.  I have always loved the oak trees with the Spanish Moss hanging over the streets.  Then we stopped by one of our favorite places to pick up some dinner, B&D Burgers.  Yum!!

After we got dinner, we headed over to see our good friends, Tom and September Cardiff.  We love them so much, and it was so much fun to get to catch up and stay with them for the night.  I love having friends where it is like we have never been apart, even though it had been ten years since we had seen each other.

On Sunday morning, Tom made us a yummy breakfast, and then we hit the road and headed out on our twelve hour drive home.  Luckily we had two amazing sessions of General Conference to help the drive go by faster.  It really was such an amazing vacation, and a much needed family adventure, after a really difficult year.  I am so grateful for all the fun and the wonderful memories we were able to make.