We attended the Grand Opening of LEGOLAND Florida and it is a lego lover's paradise. I recommend a trip to LEGOLAND even if all you do is check out the lego sculptures around the park and wander through Cypress Gardens.

LEGOLAND is directed towards children ages 2-12. My children are 4 and 7 and they are the perfect age in my opinion. We rode every ride except for the roller coasters. I liked that my 7yo was tall enough to ride almost every ride by himself. I also liked that we didn't have to tell my 4yo that once again she was too short to ride a ride. Though I had to ride with her on most rides, she was able to ride every ride she wanted to.

The kids loved the Beetle Bounce, the Aquazone Wave Riders, and Ford Driving School the best. Be prepared to disappoint the little ones because children must be 6 to participate in driving school. There is a Jr. Driving School right next door and my daughter was just fine doing that!

Make sure to stop by the LEGO Factory because after viewing how LEGO bricks are made, kids will receive a special LEGOLAND FL brick - a free souvenir! Also, if you bring a minifigure from home or purchase one for $2.99 in the shops, your kids can trade them with the employees.

My biggest complaint is that a lot of the rides are ones that have to be loaded, then the ride runs, then the visitors are unloaded, new riders loaded, and so on. Because of this, it seemed like a lot of the lines were long but at least the line time signs were pretty accurate.

I loved wandering through Cypress Gardens but my children were not as impressed. They wanted to continue riding rides. My daughter was thrilled when she found the belle dressed in blue though!

There are a bunch of different meal choices. We tried both the pizza/pasta buffet a lunch at the Market Place. Both choices were delicious but we found the Market Place to be less money. For just under ten dollars, I got a large piece of roasted chicken, rice and potatoes that my daughter and I ate and my son had a chicken nugget kid's meal.

*LEGOLAND hosted my family during a media visit. All opinions are my own with no outside influences.

We stayed in Summerwind West recently and it was perfect for our family in our opinion! This is the type of condo that makes me want to sell my house to move out to the beach. The unit we stayed in consists of three bedrooms with a kitchen, dining and living area that were all tastefully decorated. The kids stayed in a room with bunk beds. Both the living area and the master bedroom exited out to a balcony that overlooked the beautiful ocean. The pool is the perfect size so that a number of people can be lounging around without it feeling crowded.

You have direct access to the beach via a boardwalk and the condo is just steps away from the Navarre Beach Pier as well as several restaurants. The only thing that we didn't like about staying at Summerwind West was that we had to wear wristbands when we were at the pool. The wristbands were tolerable because they could be removed when we were finished at the pool. Also, instead of using a key or key card, we used a pin. The pin was a little lengthy and took us a little while to remember it. I brought a piece of paper with the pin on it because I was afraid we wouldn't be able to get into the room!

*Disclosure: We were hosted at Summerwind during a tour of Santa Rosa County. All opinions are my own with no outside influences.

Navarre Beach Fishing Pier is the longest pier in the Gulf of Mexico. The cost to fish varies by age but is $7 or less. Pay $1 per person and you can take a walk down the 1545 feet of pier. Watch the fishermen bring in the catch, look for fish and sea turtles in the water and enjoy the walk. Keep hold of your children so they don't bump into any fishermen or get to close to the railing.

There isn't really anything else to do here except for see the gigantic rocking chair but the kids may get a kick out it! The chair is part of the Hampton Hotels "Save-A-Landmark: program. It stands 35 feet, is made from southern pine and is made by a local furniture maker..

Callaway Gardens is perfect for families who love to camp but want some of the luxuries of a hotel. We stayed in the Southern Pine Cottages and it was the perfect base for our weekend adventure. In our Southern Pine Cottage we had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a little kitchen that was fully equipped with everything that we needed to cook dinner, and a living room area. Our favorite part of the cottage was the number of porches…three of them! We had one porch off of each bedroom and a screened in porch off of the living room. After playing all day, we sat on the porch in the dark and watched the lightning bugs dance around. It is the first time my kids had ever seen lightning bugs so it was a fun moment for us!

There is so much to do in Callaway Gardens that we couldn’t possibly fit it all in one weekend. One of our favorite activities included spending time in the Butterfly House. The Butterfly House can get very busy so be prepared for crowds. I got a tip from a friend to wait until the day warms up to visit because the butterflies are more active! In the summertime, Robin Lake Beach is a great place for families to gather. There is a swim area, a snack bar, shuffle board courts, table tennis, miniature golf and a small playground. Robin Lake Beach is also home to Aqua Island, a floating playground, Blaster Boats and Light Striker Laser Tag. The Treetop Adventure is one of the newer additions and lets visitors zipline through the trees and climb across bridges that don’t look all that sturdy to me! We were impressed with the staff as we watched them work with a little girl who was mildly panicked about being so high off the ground. Nobody could calm her down so we watched them lower her to the ground with a pulley system. You can also rent kayaks and this is the one activity we are disappointed that we missed.

Hiking and biking is another popular activity. While we did a little bit of hiking, we skipped the bike riding. The activities are not all very close together and the area is very hilly. I knew that our small children would not last very long.

A few things to note: If you want to participate in activities like laser tag, blaster boats, or the Treetop Adventure, you will want to sign up early in the morning. You can sign up at a building called Square One at Robin Beach. The activities fill up very quickly. We went to sign up around noon and several of the activities were already booked solid for the day. Also, there are lots of age and height restrictions. I advise you to make sure that you check which activities your children will be able to participate in before you get them excited. My little guy was very upset when he found out he was too young for laser tag! If you decide to eat at the pizza place on the grounds, order your pizza ahead of time. We waited for over an hour for our pizza while the person next to us happily ate their dinner because they had called their order in 45m before they came to the restaurant!

Disclosure: My family received a complimentary stay and passes at Callaway Gardens in order to complete an unbiased review. We covered all additional expenses including gas and meals. Callaway Gardens did not request that any specific opinions be expressed and all opinions are my own.