Switzerland.

Switzerland, FLORIDA... that is. :)

Lord have mercy.  Today was one of those days.  All three kids must have fallen off the wrong side of the bed.  By 7:30 AM, I was on coffee cup #3 and I had already been head butted.  Poor Stells bonked her teeth through her lip, on my chin... we both have swollen faces.

The weather was iffy.  Rain could have dropped, therefore I was hesitant to go the beach/pool route.  I wanted to take the kids to a park, but they weren't up for it. What kid doesn't want to go to a park?   Ludicrous.

So instead, I declared we were going on an adventure.  The kids wanted to know where it was, what we were doing, ya know, all of the rightful details.  I didn't know a single one of 'em. But I kept them going with, "It's a surprise adventure!"

I grabbed a couple of juice boxes, fruit snacks, crackers and my camera and declared if your last name was "McKenney" you needed to be out the door.  (confused looks).

I had a vague idea of where I wanted to go; to the Saint Johns River.  It's about 30 minutes inland.  I had been over that way for a photo session and it was beautiful.  I assumed there would be some kind of park in the area or at the least, an open, vacant running area.

The drive was beautiful.  Florida has got some legitimate country!  We saw horses, goats, cows, old barns, dilapidated fence posts and to Henry's delight, tractors by the dozen. 

After 30 minutes or so, we passed into a tiny town called Switzerland.  I wanted to stop and get a picture by the sign.  Lord knows I'll never go to the real Switzerland.

It wasn't a few miles in to Switz, that I saw a sign for "River Park."  I pulled off and announced to the car of anxious passengers that this was our stop.

For not having a destination or idea where we were going, I was pretty darn thrilled with myself.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  Stunning.  Peaceful.  And exactly what we needed.

The kids ran through the trails and invaded "the great lawn."  We tromped up and down the different piers, trying to catch sight of manatees. (no such luck).  

We picnicked right smack dab in the middle of this fairy forest (as Maeve called it). It was dreamlike.

Until Maeve had a bug fly into her face and decided this was the "most horrible adventure" she'd ever been on. And she let the rest of the park know as she screamed it all the way back to our car.

This girl is the definition of night and day. She has the ability to go from sweet, cool, calm and collected to over the top, somebody pour some holy water on her.

As I loaded kids, strollers and bags into the car as quickly as possible, Maeve continued on with her horrible adventure rant. Apparently along with it being the "worst adventure of her life" I am also "so, so, so mean."

So the drive home was less than pleasant, and certainly not comparable to our idyllic drive to Switzerland.