Florida Part I

I hope you have a lot of time on your hands tonight--because this blog post is so long, I had to split it into two.  We just got back from Florida, and it was an awesome trip.  The kids and I survived the ride down, and they were so happy to see their daddy when he picked us up from the airport.  Since he was doing sales calls while we were there, we didn't get to see him during the day, but we kept busy and had a lot of fun, and it was nice to go out to dinner and hang out at night.

It was so nice to see Austin and Callie.  I got to spend a little time with them while my kids napped to make up for their 3 a.m. wake up call to head to the airport (I may have gotten a nice little nap too). 

When the kids woke up, we all headed to the park.  The kids were SO happy to be outside!

On Thursday, we went to Zoo Miami.  The zoo is huge and so awesome.  I couldn't believe how close we were to all of the animals.  And the extra bonus is that we practically had the whole place to ourselves!

We went into the tropical bird house and got to feed the birds.  They were just landing all over us.  It was so crazy.  

I loved the turtles.  They were huge!

We took a break and let the kids play at the playground, which was super nice.

We got to watch feeding time with the gorillas, which the kids thought was pretty cool.  

The coolest part of the zoo is that you can feed the giraffes.  I didn't know if our kids would be scared or not, but they did great.  It was such an awesome experience!

On Friday, we headed to the South Florida Fair in West Palm Beach.  The first thing the kids saw was an Army helicopter.  

At the Sandwich Fair this fall, Reese was afraid of most of the rides, so I wasn't really sure what to expect.  This time was a totally different experience.  The girl was fearless.  She wanted to go on everything.  I was so proud of her!

Charlie was not too please about sitting on the sidelines, so I took him on the one little ride he could go on.  He freaked the heck out when the ride ended. He was not happy that it was over!

We ventured over to the horse barn, and the kids loved the ponies.

I saw the biggest horse I have ever seen in my life.  I still can't get over how big this guy is.

For comparison, here is a normally large horse in a stall the same size.

We headed over to the petting zoo, and the kids enjoyed feeding the animals.

Of course, we couldn't skip the pony rides. :)

Don't worry, Charlie didn't ride by himself, I walked with him.  I just stepped back for a couple quick pics before they got going.

As soon as he got on, he started yelling, "Giddyup!" over and over.  So cute.

This was the only ride Reese wasn't really a fan of.  It was a little jerky, and her face each time the ride passed by kind of broke my heart!

I'll end this post with the video of Reese riding the "big" roller coaster at the fair.  She requested to go on it, but she wasn't big enough to ride alone, so I went with.  She rocked it!

Don't miss the next post with the rest of our trip below! :)