Vacation

Our first family vacation took place this past week.  It was a well planned and executed week and I must say, it went pretty darn well!  Where to start...I guess at the beginning
Sunday morning we woke up really early and drove to the airport to "pick up our tickets" Braylen has been asking about this ever since he heard we would be flying on a plane, "Where are our tickets, momma?"  We were a little rushed, but made it in plenty of time to see some planes and then board ours with no problem.  Braylen did seem a little disappointed when getting on the plane, he sat down and asked where the buttons were, I think he was expecting to help fly it.  He did great all the way to Florida and, of course, didn't sleep a wink!

We got to the "Greenhill house of fun" Sunday around 2:30 and just missed Dan, AJ was driving him to the airport and he was heading off to Phoenix, they're new "home.  Alex, Judi, Emmy and Joey were excited to greet us when we arrived and we were so excited to be in sunny, hot Florida!  Braylen took about 3 seconds to get warmed up to everyone and from there he loved everyone, dogs included, and everyone was his friend!!  We went inside and toured the house, a great house to hosting guests for a week, too bad we are seeing it just as they are moving out!  It was really a great set up and we were so thankful that they wanted to put up with us for the whole week.  Judi proceeded to give Braylen gifts, 1 for every birthday they've missed, including his upcoming October birthday, brownie points for Judi!  He immediately started playing with those and a bag of airplanes and magnets that AJ pulled out for him.  We had an awesome dinner, thanks to Judi, and then headed to bed for a good night sleep.
Monday we, Jeremy, Braylen, Judi and myself, left for the Bok botanical garden.  We walked around for a few hours and got sufficiently hungry, so we sat down for a nice picnic and fed a few of the animals roaming around.  It was a beautiful setting and a great walk!

looking at the squirrels, chipmunk (something related in the rodent family) and birds

I'm sure Braylen was saying, "It's so cute.  Can I pet it?" here. He wanted to pet every animal and thought lots of things were cute

 

Can you spot the green lizard?

Back to the Greenhill's for dinner, again made by Judi, and a little beach play time behind their house on the lake!  Braylen thoroughly loved this and we caught a few little minnows too.

Tuesday we woke up with a plan, Tampa zoo and then beach!  We knew the zoo opened at 10 and we needed to pick Alex up at school first.  We made good time and got to the zoo around 11ish and were greeted by some beautiful parrots, squawking away.  Braylen was excited to see the Giraffes, so we got started on our tour of the zoo.  It was a great zoo and Braylen's favorite part was the "kids" area with water fountains and a train.  This was pure joy for him and it was fun to see him having so much fun!!

Checking out the manatees and turtles

The acrobatic monkeys

um, probably his favorite of the entire day!!

Then we headed to the beach.  It was a sunny day and a truly a "day at the beach" with Alex and Judi hanging around, they made our lives SO EASY!!! 

Jeremy found 2 horse shoe crabs stuck together 

Wednesday, I think this may have been the day he was referring to Judi only as, my friend.  He may have started this trend the day before, but I can't remember.  He woke up Wednesday morning and asked me where his friend was.  He was smitten with his friend Judi and they were almost inseparable!  We hit a snag in our plans this day.  We were supposed to be headed for Legoland, but I failed to notice they were closed on Wednesday.  After some crack investigating on Jeremy's part, our Internet guru, we found a water park in Orlando that could be perfect for Braylen and it definitely was!!  He was able to go down slides, jump in, splash around and have a perfect day, even if it did rain just a little bit.

Dinner out at Mannies was the last thing on our agenda for Wednesday and it was delicious!  We all ate until stuffed and then they surprised me with a birthday treat!!  We, somehow, found a little more room for this chocolate brownie sundae, yum!!

Thursday was Legoland with Alex!  We had lots of fun checking out all of the lego sculptures and it was the "perfect" sized park for Braylen.  I think by day 4, we officially had a 2 1/2 yr old walking zombie on our hands.  He kept saying, "This is fun." with absolutely no expression.  He was able to ride most of the rides with dad or Alex and I jumped on a few too.  We were all pretty exhausted and hot after the busy day and were glad to see "our friend" Judi hours later when she came to pick us up!!

Family photo next to the dragon lego sculptures

Braylen's first carousel ride

Most of these rides weren't only the perfect size for him, but also some of his favorite things. Driving...

Getting eaten by a lego shark after helping dad drive the boat

Driving the Big Rig

Watching his first 3D movie

We ate a yummy dinner made by Jeremy, cupcakes by Alex and a little dinner music from Braylen!  It was all delicious and a great way to start my birthday eve!!

One of his favorite "toys" in the house

I'm thinking cupcakes and ice cream could be his new meal of choice!

Best buds!

Friday Jeremy and I set off to a birthday/anniversary night alone in Clearwater.  We got to our hotel and then headed to the beach for a relaxing afternoon, it was eerily quiet considering we were at a crowded beach, but with no Braylen running around!  Our lunch was delicious and dinner was great and I even splurged and had a few virgin pina coladas.  The evening was beautiful walking around and enjoying the view and the local music!  It was a spectacular way to spend my birthday and to, almost, end the trip.
Our final day in FL was spent at the beach with Judi and Alex.  Alex and Judi graciously agreed to drive to us so our early flight wouldn't be so painful the next morning.  The beach is always the best way to spend the final day on vacation and Braylen had tons of fun playing in the water and sand and even made a new friend, Riley!

It was sad saying good bye to Judi and Alex and I know Braylen was probably thinking we were the worst parents for taking him away from his friends!  But, every great vacation must come to an end and we had enjoyed the entire trip and had the most wonderful hosts!!  This will hopefully be our first of many family vacations and wonderful memories.  I hope Braylen has fond memories of these trips as he gets older, similar to the memories I have from our family vacations when I was younger!  I even felt a little like mom/nana and had a "goodie bag" with surprise toys and treats in it.  Thank you to our amazing hosts, I really don't think our vacation would have been a fraction of the fun without them!  We can't wait to see them again and maybe next year we'll plan a trip to Phoenix with baby Fluhr next year...