Fort Lauderdale: DAY 5

We had a bit of a slower paced day today, which the kids (and me!) really needed. After breakfast and a quick trip to the grocery store we spent the morning at the pool.

After swimming we headed up to the hotel room for lunch and then Drew and I took the kids to see the new movie Epic. 

Now we are all settling down for the night to get a good night's sleep so we can be ready for a busy day again tomorrow :)

Fort Lauderdale: DAY 4

Today of course began with breakfast at the hotel, Drew even joined us this time! (sorry no picture...you can only look at so many pictures of the kids eating breakfast). Next the kids and I went to the Museum of Discovery and Science. There were tons of things to look at and do, so be warned that this is a fairly long post with lots of pictures! I've broken it up into sections for each exhibit. Here we go!

EXHIBIT: Florida Native Creatures

The aquarium portion was really neat and well done.

Aubrie and Jackson standing in front of the bats!

They had a really neat otter exhibit. The otters would swim right up to the window and play.

I think this is called a spiny lobster. It was sooo freaky...

Hands-On Science

(This was actually split up into multiple exhibits at the museum: Space, Weather, Flight, Health, Etc. 

Don't let the picture above fool you as it did me. It's a hurricane wind force simulator, notice the number at the top. It was blowing at 91 MPH! Jackson took it well so I walked into it without thinking it through to see what it was like. My sunglasses went flying across the room, my purse and camera hit me in the face, and needless to say I had a bad hair day for the rest of the afternoon. We will be evacuating the next time a hurricane comes through our area!! :)

This was a GIANT kaleidoscope. 

They had a couple of really neat flight simulator/games that Jackson really liked. 

Tony Hawk Skateboarding Exhibit

(This was a brand new exhibit that had literally just opened today. Although I thought it was kind of an odd addition compared to everything else the museum housed.)

Of course no day is complete without some sort of mishap:

Prehistoric Florida 

Jackson comparing his size to the size of a mammoth. 

Aubrie was enamored with all of the shiny rocks and minerals. 

Play Area 

This was called the hammock playground and was really cool! Jackson loved it but Aubrie was too scared to climb up it. 

This was a pretened orange grove where you picked oranges off the trees and put them in the machine that went through an automated assembly line and orange juice came out at the end. Of course, the bike is what powered the machine!

This was Aurbie's favorite thing in the play area. You built the walls to the house with pieces of individual square foam. 

We all had a blast at the museum but did unfortunately have to fight a few large school groups so we didn't get to stay at some of the exhibits as long as we would have liked. But by the time we left the kids were tired and ready to go.

We headed back to the hotel and had a late lunch before we went down and swam in the pool for about an hour and a half. (Drew came down with us and to watch the kids swim and try and catch a few extra ZZZs)

After the pool we were all exhausted from a looong but fun day. We headed up to the room for dinner and "chill" time until Drew had to leave for work and the kids had to go to bed. 

Now, I am one tired mamma so I'm off to bed! Good Night!

Fort Lauderdale: DAY 3

Day 3! We all woke up well rested and ready to play today. When I came out of the bedroom, this is how I found the kids:

Then of course was breakfast and again the kids stuffed themselves :)

Next was onto the Splash Adventure Park where the kids and I had a blat for almost 5 hours! It was a giant water playground surronded by a huge pool that was no more than 12 in deep anywhere so I didn't have to worry so much about the kids if I couldn't see them. 

There was this huge bucket of water that dumped out over the playgound every 7 minutes or so. I would start beeping before it dumped out to warn you ahead of time. And of course as all the kids were running towards it to have the water dumped on them, my kids were running away from it:

Luckily about halfway through the day Jackson finally warmed up to it. However, Aubrie did NOT. 

We had a picnic lunch.

I even attemped to get a couple pictures of myself with kids, lol. I'm going to have to work on my technique....

Aubrie was having such a good time she didn't want to leave! (None of us did, but after almost 5 hours in the South Florida sun it was time to go before we turned into lobsters ;)

We spent some time at the hotel with Drew when we got back and then we all went out for pizza. We're heading to bed now so we're ready for lots more fun tomorrow! 

Fort Lauderdale: DAY 2

And so our adventure continues! We woke up this morning in Gainsville, FL anxious to get on the road to make it to our final destination and see Drew.

The thing the kids were most excited about in the hotel was the complimentary breakfast and they were not disappointed.  They had lucky charms cereal, pecan swirls, muffins, apple juice, and orange juice. 

The kids were understandably ancy in the car but surprisingly good and we only had to stop one time so made really good time :) When we arrived we had a quick visit and lunch with Drew and then headed to the pool so that Drew could get in a nap before he beings working nights this evening. 

The water was warm and the kids jumped right in and had a blast!

But like all fun times, they had to end, so we wrapped up in our towels and headed back upstairs to spend some much needed time with Drew. 

I don't know who was more excited, Drew or the kids?

We've all had a really long day so we're heading to bed (well everyone except for Drew who unfortunately has to head to work). We have big plans for tomorrow. Good Night! :)