A Week in Florida

Yep, you read that right! For the last 5 years, our family (kids n all), have been saving up for a big family vacation.  Our very first :).  Collecting any change and sacrificing birthday money... and even Christmas money, the kids saved up over $1,200 to go towards our vacation fund.  My parents gifted us a stay through their time share company and booked us a week in October.  So, we told the kids we'd pay for the flights and car rental, and the rest we'd budget.  The only person we left behind was little Craig, whom my parents and other family members helped take care of.  I seriously couldn't say thank you enough! We missed him like crazy, but knew he would be much happier at home. SO.......... I have a crazy amount of pictures to share, so here we go!

We drove to Portland to catch our flight.  We waited for a shuttle from our hotel that we'd be staying at for when we got back.  Kids were excited to say the least :)

They anxiously awaited to board our midnight flight.  I thought it was so cute how they huddled around each other at the airport window.  We went from Portland to Chicago, getting there at 3 am our time, and then to Florida, 6:30 am our time.  The kids did surprisingly well with the interrupted 6 hour sleep.

Once we got to our place in Florida we checked out the scenery.  I was shocked by how many pockets of water in various sizes were EVERYWHERE.  Florida is a giant, flat, tropical wetland.  And Beautiful :)

The kids and Jeremy were searching for fast critters that caught their eye.

Lizards were everywhere and they loved catching them :)

That night it wasn't hard to put the kids to bed... they crashed.

The next day we used our gift card the resort gifted us to a pizza place.  PIZZA PIE!  I have never seen so much cheese on a pizza.  It was a deep dish Hawaiian and it was amazing! I would totally buy one again.

Our family wanted to experience and explore Florida so we scheduled an air boat ride in the swamps of Florida to look for Alligators!  The wetlands are surprisingly beautiful.  I always imagined them somewhat dreary, but I was drastically wrong!

The air boat ride was a blast.  You could ride over anything on this thing! Our guide was a hoot, doing doughnuts with the boat and cutting us through long reads and grass.  We loved it :)

The gators were few because of the overcast and rain but we searched diligently.  I loved all the lily pads :)  Carson made me squirm a bit as he kept leaning over to look in the water.  I kept envisioning some giant gator jumping out the of the water and snatching him... yikes! Thankfully my fears were just the mind of a worry wart mother.

I loved the scenery.  Inside these thick trees lies a 5 foot alligator that I couldn't get a good shot of.  Jeremy had a great eye for spotting any.

Along the way we saw several baby alligators... which meant mama was near! 

You wouldn't be able to tell from the picture, but this is all on water.  Gorgeous!

When we got back from the ride we all got to hold a young alligator!

Cami was going to but when she heard the owner's story about how it bit his lip, after trying to kiss him and leaving 40 bite holes... she opted not to hold it.

"IT was nice eating... I mean Meeting you!" said the alligator ;)

That night we went to a pirate show that included dinner.  What a hoot! The kids and Jeremy got to interact with the crew and go up on stage too, which was a lot of fun :)

Each section had a color with it's very own pirate.  Our's was Yellow Antonio! They wanted a picture with him afterwards.

On Tuesday we went to Universal Studios. 

Reaching out to Optimus Prime... one of our favorite rides :)

Ah! Jeremy! Run!

Despicable Me was a real cute ride too.  My little minions... and big Minion :)

Some of the rides were too big for Carson.  Which was quite okay with him.  We enjoyed our raspberry lemonade slushie together :)

We went to the animal show there at Univeral and got to meet some of the REAL pet actors from the movies, like Marley from "Marley and Me".

Kid Zone

For all ages :)  He's always trying to get me ;)

Now THIS was one of the real reasons we came this way.  For all those Harry Potter fans...

WELCOME TO DIAGON ALLEY!

We got to taste butter beer! Super yummy!  A buttery caramel flavor with a sweet whipped froth topping.

Hogwarts in the distance :)  This place was one of our favorite spots.  The whole ambiance of the entire Harry Potter place on Adventure Island was fantastic!

And of course...

HONEYDUKES!

We couldn't decide which to choose from.

We all decided on a chocolate frog.

Little wizards!  Each got a wand, using some of their personal money.  Carson chose Harry Potter's, Alex chose Sirius Black's, and Cami chose Hermione Granger's.

The Marvel superheros were also on Adventure Island.  Captain America's biggest fan :)

Alex ready to put the 'hammer down'!

They also had a Jurrasic theme at the Island.  Carson and I must not mind that a ginormous T-Rex is about to eat us! 

Playing in the jungle nets

On Thursday we hit Seaworld for our animal lovers ;)  We got to pet the manta rays.  Surprisingly soft!

We also got to feed them.

In Seaworld we went to a dolphin show.  Dolphins are some of most endearing creatures! So playful and fun to watch.

Petting a opossum

Trying to be a flamingo

Feeding the sea lions

Alex thought he'd see what it tasted like ;)

Shamu soaked us!  It was awesome :)

On our last day in Florida we went to Cocoa Beach!  I really wanted to go play in the Atlantic Ocean.  It was so warm!

We rented a boogie board at a local Surf shop and tried it out.  I really like to boogie board :)  

Jeremy caught a good wave!

Alex got really good at it too and could ride a wave all in the way in to the shore.

It was a wonderful day and way to end a week of bliss :)

Good Bye Florida!  Til we meet again!