Life in the Sunshine State: Moving home!!

Wowzers! It had been A LONG time since I have posted on my blog! Time definitely gets away from me, as I am sure it does for everybody. I am also sure that to anybody that actually reads this blog, the title of this post is not news for you. But, since I have not written about it yet, I thought I would make it "blog official" and let everybody know that we are MOVING HOME!! In exactly 30 days to be precise! That might be some of the reason that I have been a little busy! Eric was hired as a postdoc at the University of Iowa, and his contract there begins January 1, 2014. So we are packing up, trying to sell the house, and the moving truck will be here bright and early the day after Christmas.

My parents and my sister are flying down on December 23rd to spend Christmas with us, and help us pack and load the truck. Then we will all be making the LONG trip from Florida to Iowa. Our timing is not quite the best, and although I am thrilled to be closer to friends and family, leaving 70 to 80 degree weather in December and heading back the icy cold tundra that is Iowa that time of year is not as exciting. I am pretty sure my kiddos will be going into shock, and Silas might not know how to breathe through the cold air. :-)

Here is a link to view our house listing:

http://www.mlsfinder.com/fl_mfrmls/kw_415/index.cfm?action=listing_detail&property_id=O5193734&searchkey=9245224c-f469-5850-3740-ab6b9e418e79

We have had a few showings, but no offer yet. Fingers crossed we will get one before we leave! Once we get to Iowa, the majority of our belongings will be going into a storage unit, and we are moving in with Eric's parents! They have been so gracious to extend us the offer to live with them for awhile, which is a HUGE stress reliever for us! They keep saying how excited they are and how much they are looking forward to having us there............we will see if they are still saying the same thing a few months from now! :-)

In the meantime, we are going to try to make the most of our last month here in Florida. Our Disney passes have expired (sniff, sniff) but we are still able to go to Sea World. Sea World has an amazing deal for Florida residents that if you pay a full price admission one time, you can come for free the rest of the calendar year. So we went to Sea World this summer, and have been able to go free ever since, until December 31st. We went there for just a few hours last night (Ava does not have school all week long for her Thanksgiving Break) to see some of their Christmas celebration. It was a lot of fun, and hopefully we can go back again and see more. Here are some pictures from last night: