Florida...

Spring break!

i haven't had a spring break since high school.

i went to byu-idaho for 2 years and they don't do spring break. instead they get out the second week in april instead of extending til may.

so, now that i am attending isu, i got a spring break! and norm and i decided to spend it in the sunshine state!

my sister and her husband and 3 children moved to florida right after my wedding in december of 2010...and i haven't seen them since. so we were so excited that we got the opportunity to go down and spend some time with them.

this is what we did:

{be prepared for this might get rather long}

Day 1: monday 

we flew in at around 2:00 pm monday and norm and i were exhausted! so luckily that first day we just kind of chillaxed for a bit. My sister and her daughter, Meg, picked us up at the airport and we headed to my niece {Savannah's} dance lesson.

while she danced we all chatted outside in the gorgeous weather. 

we went to Apollo beach after that and walked around, looked at shells and horseshoe crabs mating...it was epic. 

then came home and relaxed in their beautiful home.

Day 2: tuesday 
  

We woke up early that morning to head to Orlando to attend a session in the Orlando Temple.

it was unreal how beautiful the inside and outside of the temple was. i was in awe.

{fountains outside the temple}

It was a wonderful experience and i'm glad we got to attend with my sister and brother-in-law.

after that we went and got dinner at a local secret called "Salem's" and the food was so delicious. {i had a cuban sandwich that was to die for}   

we then went to Linsey {sister} and Jarom's {brother in law} friends house to pick up the kids and i got to meet their friends they talk so highly of :)

they were as great as they said they were

that night we had dinner, put the kids to bed, and norm and i played our first round of "Ticket to Ride" with jarom and linsey. it is such a fun game but i am quite terrible at it. i thought i was doing well until we added up all the points.....i didn't do that well. :) 

Day 3: wednesday
 

 Wednesday was another early awakening. We went to a place called Tarpen Springs.

it's a little greek settled town that is beautiful. We walked the beach, saw 2 dolphins in the swimming area :) and then walked the little boardwalk where all the shops were. it was very cute. and the houses there were beautiful!

their main fishing down there in Tarpen Springs is fishing for Sponges....here are boats that had just gotten back with bags and bags of sea sponges....it just reminded me of spongebob is all.

We then went to eat at McDonald's {my niece, meg, really wanted to go}

 and took Rylie, another niece, to dance and we again basked in the beautiful weather outside.

then went and watched the sun set on the beach:

breathtaking

 

Day 4: thursday 

Thursday was the only day we got to sleep in and i loved it :)

we woke up, ate breakfast, relaxed, then went to a place called Lettuce Lake. this is a swampy place where the gators live. AH!

me, rylie, and savannah doing funny faces on the way to lettuce lake and the beach

 

this is one of the 2 gators we saw on a log with a turtle :)

unfortunately we didn't get to see a lot of gators, normally there are a plethora there, we only saw 2 little guys, but we did see a lot of birds, like cranes and such. they were neat.

after lettuce lake we headed to

the beach  

this was after swimming

norm, me, and my sweet niece meg

 we also had a what we called an "Alfred Hitchcock" moment.

if any of you have ever seen the movie "The birds"...you'll know what we're talkin about.

it was intense.

we had treats there, crackers and pretzels and such and once we opened the boxes the seagull's went NUTS! 

they were all over the place, so we started throwing food to them.

until they started attacking the children....

i didn't get a picture of Rylie's hand but this is Savannah holding some goldfish, a bird went and snatched a pretzel out of her hand and they got her thumb and it started bleeding.

Rylie also got a pretzel snatched out of her hand and had a v-shaped {beak shaped}  snip in her skin where it grabbed it.

she was freaked out.

so we stopped throwing food.

some of the many birds that were flying over our heads

here's a video of us throwing stuff at the birds.

i apologize for turning the camera while filming....guess you'll just have to turn your head when necessary. :) 

after the beach we went to eat at a local fish house that we had heard had great food

now if anyone knows me...i hate seafood. all of it. so i ordered chicken strips and fries :) i did get some grits though so i could feel more southern.

and i did try some catfish and clam....both of which i did not love. but it was a good time.

we came home and relaxed after the long day.

i snapped this on the way into jarom and linsey's neighborhood on our ride back from the fish house. norm, me, and the kids rode in the back of the truck.

linsey and jarom have a sweet sweet black lab named phoenix and he is quite the cuddle bug, and i loved it.

as norm and i were lounging on the couch, this is what eventually happened:

 he ended up on both our laps asleep.

it was so cute and i wanted to take him home.

Day 5: friday
 

we woke up early early early, said goodbye and jarom took us to the airport.

while flying in to salt lake i managed to snap this shot, after bein in a rather flat state for the week, the rockies were extra beautiful

that was the end of our trip to florida, it was such a fabulous time we loved every second and can't wait to see them all again. we miss them terribly but are so glad they are happy and loving the sunshine state. how could you not? <3