Spring Break

Last week the kids had spring break and Joe took the week off and we headed to Florida!  It was so nice to go somewhere warm and sunny since the winter can get pretty long here.

We were scheduled to leave on Monday evening, but our flight kept getting delayed and then finally cancelled at 11pm.  Ughhh!  I was so very frustrated since we only had 3 full days in Florida in the first place, and now we were going to miss an entire day.  Thankfully we were able to change our return flight home to add another day to our trip, so we still had the same amount of time.  We were able to call some friends we have in the Quad Cities and hang out at their house while our flight was delayed, so at least we weren't stuck waiting at the airport for hours and hours.

 

When we arrived on Tuesday, we got our rental car and drove to our hotel.  We stayed at Universal's Cabana Bay resort.  It was a great hotel with 2 pools, large sand areas, a waterslide and restaurants.  We had a nice suite with a little kitchenette which was perfect for us.  We hung out at the pool the rest of the day on Tuesday.  One highlight of this vacation was that Troy learned how to "swim" a little and now isn't afraid to put his head under water.  Tate spent a lot of time teaching him how to move his arms and legs under water and put his head under.  The whole week, Troy was loving the pool and going under all the time!  Later Tuesday evening, we took the shuttle to Universal's Citywalk that evening  and looked around at the shops and eating places.

On Wednesday, we headed to SeaWorld.  The kids were excited about it and we had great weather and a great time.  We paid the extra money to have time with a couple of dolphins. We got to pet them and try hand signals with them.  The kids all loved that part.  It was really cool.  There were a couple of really good rides for the kids and Troy really likes all the roller coasters that he is big enough for.  Yes!!! Someone (besides Adria) who will ride roller coasters with me!

Adria was studying Beluga whales at school so she showed this picture to her class :)

On Thursday, we went to Universal's Islands of Adventure.  We headed back to the Harry Potter area first, since we heard that was the busiest.  Joe, Tate and Adria did a simulator ride and while we waited for them, Troy and I rode a roller coaster 3 or 4 times.  He loved it!  The rest of the park was cool too.  It had a Jurassic Park area, Dr. Seuss area, and a Marvel area.  We did all the rides we could and went to a show.  We ended it on a raging river ride, so we left soaked!  Again, it was another beautiful weather day!

The roller coaster we rode over and over while we waited for the others.

That dinosaur was coming after me!

On Friday, we drove to Clearwater Beach.  I have missed the beach so much.  I am convinced I was meant to live by the beach.  It is one of my favorite places ever.  Clearwater is a very pretty beach with fine white sand.  It was packed that day, and the weather was a little overcast at times, but overall it was good.  The kids loved to boogie board and play in the sand.  They spent hours in the ocean.  And we all ended up really sunburnt, which I felt horrible about.  We applied and reapplied sunscreen, and I am convinced one bottle of our sunscreen didn't work.  Either that or our pasty white Iowa bodies couldn't handle the Florida sun :(  Getting out of Clearwater was a bit of a traffic nightmare, so we were ready to crash when we got to our hotel.

Tate's first time eating crab legs!

We flew home on Saturday and are now tending to all our peeling skin that was sunburned.  Troy has never been sunburned before so he doesn't know about peeling skin and wouldn't let me peel any of it off him! He didn't know what was going on!  Haha!

Besides the first part of our trip starting off really bad, we had a great time.  I love to travel and the kids do really well with it.  But it is always good to be home too.  I always appreciate our little town and no traffic after travelling to bigger cities.