Florida Vacation

Moving walkways were a BIG hit!

Mason spent a lot of time in 2014 away from home, so when he had to go to a conference in Florida for a week in November, I said the kids and I were going to come along.  At first it started as a joke, but it turned into reality!  Since Mason had to travel on Sunday and Saturday it made it worth it since we'd be there for the entire week. 

Just like Snow White. 

I was pretty nervous about how Woodrow would do on the THREE airplanes we had to take each way, since he had been very cranky with teething prior to leaving.  Fortunately, both boys were GREAT on the flights.  When we got to base (Hurlbert Field) the room we initially got was not going to work.  Mason turned on the lights and bugs were crawling all over!  Fortunately we got moved to a cleaner room, but some of the things we saw really made me remember why I love living up North!

Playing with pine cones outside the hotel room-every morning. 

For most of the week, we ended up staying at the hotel room in the morning while Mason went in to work, and he'd head back around 11/11:30 on his lunch break, so we explored some fun local places, and then the kids and I would drop him back at work and we'd go adventuring in the afternoons.

The kiddos and I went to the Gulf Breeze Zoo and had a blast!  We started off with a train ride around the zoo to see the bigger animals.  Theo loved that he got a ticket and got to ride on a train.  But, I'd say the biggest hit of the day was the Budgie Aviary.  Some people that were leaving the zoo gave us a bunch of feeding sticks (popscicle sticks with birdseed stuck on) and a cup of food for the animals at the petting zoo.  I thought that the kids would freak out with all the birds flying around, but they had a BLAST!  We ended up going back to that part of the zoo three times.  Theo also liked feeding the animals.  He kept telling the sheep and goats, "sorry, this food is for the llamas and giraffes."

Am I not supposed to go behind this rope?

Another afternoon we hung out at the beach.  I was a little nervous taking the boys to the because I was afraid they'd both be running into the water.  Luckily, they were more interested in running away from the water.  It was a little cool for swimming, but we ended up taking a little walk along the beach dipping our toes in.  It was a very sunny day but man, oh man, sand is such a pain to clean up and it got all over the car.

Theo was excited "Frog and Toad" lived outside his room.

We were able to snag some time with Mason one of the days and we headed out on a Dolphin Cruise.  We were a little skeptical that their 99% rate would actually be true, but we decided it would be a fun experience.  The kids did really well on the boat ride, which was two hours long.  When we went around the harbor the kids on the boat were allowed to throw Fritos to the Seagulls. It was a little terrifying to watch the crazed look in the birds eyes, but Theo had fun.  We saw one dolphin fairly quickly and Mason and I figured that was going to be the only one we saw, so they could check the 99% box, but after taking the boat around the Gulf for a little bit, we ended up seeing dozens of dolphins.  It was incredible!  We also saw a Manatee in the distance, Jellyfish, a Sting Ray.  The kids were also able to go up and pilot the boat and they got a little certificate and got to pick a toy from a treasure box.  Over all a totally awesome experience!

Another awesome turn of events was that we were able to meet my dear friend Andrea and her family.  We both drove 3 hours and met halfway for dinner.  I got to meet her youngest daughter, and she got to meet our boys!  It was a crazy meeting, and I wish we had more time to visit and talk, preferable at one of our houses.  I hope our paths cross again and we can be stationed together again.

We also went up to Eglin AFB one day, which was about a half hour away, and checked out their Armament Museum.  It was nice to see all the jets flying around, and walk around seeing lots of static displays and ya know...all that plane stuff...

Another great friend from Shreveport lives where we were and we got to meet up with her and her daughter, who's Theo's age, and got to play at a very fun park.  It was nice for the kids to just be able to play outside and enjoy another kid.

They were having some fun!  One grunt and he went off to sleep in the corner. 

One of our last days we headed to the GulfArium to enjoy some sea animals.  It was a little sad to see the dolphins in a tank after seeing them our in the wild.  The kids enjoyed being up close to the animals and again, enjoying time outside. 

I'm really glad that we took the opportunity to enjoy somewhere warm, and be together.  We all really had a great time and I'm only a little jealous that Mason gets to go back next week! 

We survived!