FLORIDA

We spent a wonderful week in Orlando, Florida with my parents. We stayed at the Grande Vista Marriott and it was amazing! The rooms were gorgeous, there were 5 pools, and it was just really great. Our flight to Florida however was not so great... Brecken was up the entire flight. We took a red-eye from SLC to ATL and let me just say we recieved a lot of glares as we left the plane. He didn't cry the entire time but he just didn't understand why he couldn't move and play. I felt really bad. Then our flight from ATL to ORL Brecken was out. He slept sprawled out over both me and Kaile. Needless to say our first day in Orlando was spent taking a nap and then we explored the grounds of our hotel and played in the pool. We also went to the Gatorland Show at our hotel and I got to hold an Alligator!

Tuesday was also a pool day. Brecken loves the pool but not because of the water... he loves it because of all the balls. My son has a ball obsession! Anything spherical is a ball to him and he wants it. We had to follow him all around the pool saying "ball, ball, ball" and then give back the ball to whoever he took it from. Good thing he is cute and people think he is cute because he is a ball theif... We acquired 3 new balls on this trip and brought 2 balls with us but he didn't want any of our balls, of course:) We learned that Brecken also has no awareness of stranger danger. Brecken will walk right up to a complete stranger and give high 5's and bones. He will wave at anyone he passes and share food or whatever he has with anyone. He  is very social and friendly.

On Wednesday we went to Seaworld! It was so great! We saw the dolphin show, the whale show, and the sealion show. We touched sting rays and went through the shark aquarium. We had a blast, I am such a little kid because I love theme parks! Kaile and I went on the 2 coasters while grandma and grandpa walked around with Brecken.

On Thursday Kaile and I headed to Tampa Bay to go to Busch Gardens. Grandma, Grandpa and Brecken had a pool day. Kaile and I went on all the roller coasters and ate humungous turkey legs. We went on the Skyride and Train Safari to see all the animals and just had a really nice time together. My favorite ride was the "Shekra", it has a 90 degree 200 ft drop and it was amazing. Kaile's favorite ride was the "Kumba" and of course we had to go on it twice and sit in the front:).

On Friday we had another pool day. We spent time reading and soaking up the sun. We each took 15 minute turns following Brecken around so we had a chance to relax. Side note... On this trip we at ate Denny's four times... it was my dad's favorite place...Cheap, good food. We also went to the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum in downtown Orlando to see the amazing Tiffany glass exhibit. Too bad we couldn't take any pictures:(

On Saturday we took a drive to the beach. We went to St. Pete's Beach which is on the Gulf side of Florida. The drive took longer than expected, about 2 hours, and when we finally got there it was cloudy. We played for about 45 minutes, I found lots of little shells and Kaile and Brecken got in the water. The weather started to get a lot worse and we heard thunder. A lot of people started to leave but we stayed... then it started to rain, hard. We ran back to the car and we were soaked... so much for our day at the beach. We ate at subway and then drove home.

On Sunday we went to Cocoa Beach on the Atlantic side. It was so nice and so sunny. Also it was closer, only about an hour away. Brecken made sand castles and we played in the water. After the drive home we enjoyed our last day at the pool and sat in the hot tub.

Monday was our last day in Florida. We packed up and checked out of our hotel room and went to Seaworld again. We walked around and saw the Dolphin show again. Then we headed to the airport to take back the rental car and check in for our flight back to Utah.

Thankfully Brecken did much better during the flight home. He slept for about 2 hours and the rest of the time was happy playing in his seat. Overall we had an amazing trip! We are so lucky to have such great parents to go on vacation with. Thanks for the fun time!