Florida!

Christian and I got to take a little vacation last week while he attended a conference for work. They held the meetings in Miami and we figured since we were already there, we would extend a couple of days and enjoy Florida. We caught a flight out of Cody at 6:30 Thursday morning and got home late Monday night. Grandma Foulger was nice enough to come and take care of the boys while we were gone.

Thursday, we arrived late to our hotel in Miami Beach and made our way down to the welcome dinner. It was super windy, so we grabbed some dinner, walked around and met up with some couples that we have gotten to know pretty well by attending these meetings and then decided to call it a night. Friday, Christian had meetings all day, so I made my way down to the pool to soak up some sunshine. I met up with Christian for lunch and then went back down to the pool with some ladies that I have gotten to know from previous trips.

The view from our room in the hotel.

This was a sign on the way out to the pool area. It's kind of hard to read but it says I followed you to the sun...I was so happy to have some warm sunshine to soak up, that's for sure! It was usually pretty cloudy in the mornings, but by around noon, the clouds were usually gone making it wonderful outside. It was in the upper 70's to low 80's while we were there.

Friday night, they bussed us around the Miami area to eat at different restaurants. We had dinner at Prime Italian and it was awesome! It was located in South Beach and it was sure fun to sit and watch as Lamborghinis, Rolls Royce, and other luxury cars would pull up in front of the restaurants...it was a pretty upscale part of town and restaurant!

Ready to head to dinner with our shades from the night before.

Christian and I both ordered a filet and they were delicious. We had garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus also.

They brought out 4 large desserts for our table to share. The red velvet cheesecake was the best of the bunch!

Saturday was a day of leisure. We got up and had breakfast and then walked the beach. We found lots of seashells and all sorts of creatures that had washed up on the beach during the night.

These jelly fish were all over the beach. At first we weren't quite sure what they were because they didn't have any tentacles attached to the ones we saw. We found this guy and figured it out. They were pretty cool. Christian tried poking one with a stick, but they were pretty tough.

 

After our walk, we went back to our room and got ready for the day, had lunch and then went on a tour. We decided to do and airboat tour of the Everglades and alligator show. It was fun to get to ride on one of the boats. They can really get going! We spotted quite a few alligators, a huge snapping turtles and lots of birds and fish while we were on our airboat.

Our tour guide

One of the first alligators we saw hiding back in the brush.

Gator!

Christian on the look out for gators!

Snapping turtle.

 

After the boat ride they did a little show and talked about the difference between alligators and crocodiles.

After we got back from our tour, we showered and got ready for dinner that night. They bussed us to Nikki Beach which was a restaurant. We had a nice buffet and listened to music. We were able to eat some alligator that was really good!

Sunday, we got up and went and sat on the beach. The wind was blowing like crazy and we were getting pelted with sand while we were sitting there, so we decided to move to the pool (which was way less windy).

This guy chilling on the bush not too far from us at the pool.

We sat by the pool and soaked up the sun for several hours reading, visiting and people watching (which was probably our favorite thing to do).  We had lunch by the pool and then decided we were a little toasty from sitting in the sun and went for a walk on the board walk. We ended up walking 4 miles. It was beautiful to walk along the beach!

 That night, we grabbed a pizza and a burger from a restaurant at the hotel and ate it in our room and watched tv. The night life at the hotel was pretty extravagant and  we felt kind of out of place at night. This hotel was a pretty high end hotel on Miami Beach and at night people would come all dressed for the club that was there and would drink quite a bit. Apparently the club at the hotel was the best one around. One night, Floyd Mayweather (a champion boxer) was there hanging out in the lobby and the next night Ludacris(a rapper) was performing at the night club, so yeah... Just a different atmosphere than what we are used to in good ol' Wyoming.

Monday was our departure day. We woke up to grey skies and hard rain! It rained for quite a bit in the morning. After it stopped, we went for another walk on the boardwalk and then waited in the lobby until it was time for us to make our way to the airport.

Watching the rain come down.

 We got home late Monday night. The boys were happy to see us Tuesday morning. They had a great time with Grandma! They got to spend a couple of nights in Powell at Grandma and Grandpa's house. One night, they got to go to McDonalds for dinner, pick a treat to take to the movie, see the movie Wonder and enjoy popcorn and slushies...heaven for boys!

They boys always love to tub in grandma's big tub because she FILLS it with bubbles! Landon sure looked like he was enjoying his bubbles!