F L O R I D A ! ! !

Our Brave Journey with seven kids started out with a 6am flight out of Lambert. Not surprisingly, it wasn't hard rousing the kids for a trip to Florida. Grandma Sheri even agreed to wake at 3am to provide us a ride to the airport. We arrived on time for our 4am check in. All in all, we had just enough time for a quick breakfast and a quick trip to the restroom before it was time to board our first flight. In Atlanta, there was some drama, after Rylan, Sofie and I were forced to wait list for our flight because they were over-booked. Luckily, we were allowed to continue to Tampa with the rest of our party. Shockingly, all of our luggage also made it on our original flight to Tampa. At Tampa International, we grabbed our 15 passenger van and were on our way..
Our first full day in Florida was spent at Sea World in Orlando. The kids were still really tired from our travel day. It made for a hard start to our day at the park. We had a busy day visiting all of the animals. We ate a great lunch with the sharks at Underwater Grill. It was a great first day in Florida.

On Sunday, we headed towards Clearwater to meet the now famous dolphin, Winter. Winter is the dolphin who's story is told in the Dolphin Tale movie. I confess, we have yet to see the movie, but after meeting the star we will be sure to see it! The Clearwater Aquarium is really small. But it was worth the trip! The movie was filmed on site, and there were signs everywhere telling you about the filming of the movie. Neat Place. After meeting Winter, we headed to a local Bird Sanctuary. It was what I would picture a pound for birds would look like. It was not designed to be beautiful to its human visitors, just functional to its full time residents. I LOVED it!! So many beautiful birds. I never knew how beautiful pelicans were. Always so skittish in the wild. But at the sanctuary you could get quite close. Amazing animals. After the Bird Sanctuary we headed to the beach. It was beautiful. Who needs winter?

My best picture of winter... Sad I know!

Look at all the pelicans!

Noah's happy beach face...

Rylan attempting to surf in the waveless Gulf of Mexico...

For Rylan's birthday...

We had mapped out a wonderful day at Universal Studios. Unfortunately, so did the rest of Florida. It was so crowded. Overall, I would say it was perfect. If you are at all into Harry Potter you must see The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. They did a fabulous job with it, and I think I could have spent the entire day without ever leaving that section of the park. It was beautiful, and very true to the movies and books. Olivanders had over a two hour wait to get in and buy a wand. We didn't go in! We did peruse the rests of the shops, and all were set up as in the books/movies. Honeydukes = Candy, etc. We even tried Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice, Even they were fabulous. I can't wait to go back.

Yum! Butterbeer!

On Tuesday, we made an easy day of it. It was Sarah and the girls last day in Florida, so we did the last of our group trips - MOSI. MOSI is Tampa's science center. Very kid friendly!

On Wednesday, Noah, Ry, Fia and I met Maja, Viktor and Gloria at the Tampa Zoo to play in the rain. We were poured on for three hours before we finally called it quits and headed to McDonald's for some lunch. The kids haven't played together before, but they all got along wonderfully and it was a great time.

Thanksgiving was a laid back day. Fran made a wonderful traditional Thanksgiving meal for lunch, and the kids ate and swam all day. I could get use to having a summer birthday. And swimming on a day that is usually reserved for parkas and mittens, HEAVEN!!!

Who knew my kids loved puzzles?

Florida wears us out!

On Friday, Dennis, Wade and the boys took in a USF game. Fran, Sofie and I had a girls day with mani-pedis and a sushi lunch date, oh yeah and some shopping. Perfect!

On Saturday, our final day of summer before heading back to the Midwest winter. (Boo!) We went to the Primate Sanctuary. It was my favorite stop of the entire trip. It was sad to see all the great apes and monkeys living in cages. Unwanted pets, no longer useful research animals... Again, pound style cages, not wildlife art like at the zoo. The animals had tons of toys and looked happy to see all of the visitors. And one of the benefits to these cages, you can get a lot closer to the animals. We even got to hold a baby alligator. Must see if you are in Tampa!