Spring Break 2014

Spring break was amazing for us this year.  It was the first vacation we have ever been on outside of Utah and Idaho. We had planned to meet up with Andy in Alabama and then go together to Destin Florida.  Two days before the trip Chrystie's mom passed away.  They felt really bad to have to change plans but we just felt bad for Chrystie and the loss of her mom.  With everything in the drain Mike and I were scrambling.  The kids woke up jabbering on and on about Florida and the beach.  Mike had Carrie on the phone at like 6 a.m.  She goes to Florida often so she knew how to look for a good place to stay.  She was awesome and had us a couple of choices by the end of the day.  We showed up on a Monday afternoon in Orlando and stayed for four days.  It was about 73 degrees which was amazing compared to the wretched winter that we had been enduring.  Monday we ate and then swam in the pool at the place we were staying.  The kids sure love to swim.  I am so glad that I got them into swim lessons so that they enjoy it so much.  Just Laila and Rudy to learn still.  On Tuesday we went to Clearwater beach.  It was amazing to be at the ocean.  It was a bit cold and windy but we weren't about to let that ruin our time there.  The kids loved the waves and the soft, soft sand.  Noah talked all about how he hated the salty taste and everyone got a little bit of sun on their skin.  Poor Rudy got burned up.  Both Mike and I thought we had sun-screened his face and apparently neither one of us did. Poor boy.  On Wednesday we went to Sea World.  Those places are extremely pricey for a family of 7.  We also decided that because they won't let you bring food in we would buy the all you can eat passes.  They weren't exactly what we expected but it worked out pretty good.  The kids loved everything about Sea World.  There were so many sea animals to see, shows to watch, and rides to go on.  We spent the whole day there.  From sun up to sun down going from place to place.  I think the kids all loved feeding the rays and Jamen of course loved the sharks.  We all went home exhausted but in a good way.  Thursday we had to do some laundry in the morning and so we swam at the pool and then we took the kids to the Rainforest Cafe.  It was a cool place to be able to take them but I felt was over priced for what it was.  The next day we headed back home so that we could have Saturday to just relax at home and get ready for school mode again.  I always love a good rode trip with Mike.  I loved spending so much time together as a family with no distractions and I loved that for once in our lives we got to buy things and do things with our kids that we have never done before.  It was so awesome and I can't wait to make more memories with our kids.