Florida Pt. 2

West Coast FL: Tampa Bay - Clearwater Beach. Coming here was a flashback to 2009 when Christian met me out there while I was at a public health conference, shortly after we got married.

 Oh and did we mention Gammy and Porter came out for a couple days with us? They are awesome. We went on a dolphin excursion with them. It was pretty amazing. Look at these pics!

 

Claire was dead tired on that dolphin ride and ended up crying a lot and then finally conked out on my lap

 Some sweet ladies were giggling with delight at little Clark. He wasn't so sure about them though...

Legoland

One of our favorite things was the walk through some gardens that Legoland was built around. And this tree!!:

Our engagement spot, built in Legos

By the end of the day, this was our child. Time to go back to the hotel:

Sea World! Even after watching Black Fish I still (mostly) like Sea World

 

She started out brave, but then I think we pushed it too far by going on a ride a little too scary. She has been extra cautious since.

We got to spend some fun time with the Marriotts when we got back to Utah. Claire LOVED being with those girl cousins! They got quite comfortable with each other - I went downstairs and found Liv just loungin' on Claire's lap as they watched a movie. So cute.

Oh and I love Claire's random photo shoots:

Captures a whole new angle of life, doesn't it?

Florida in the Fall pt. 1

As I've mentioned before, I have a money savvy-husband. So much so, in fact, that he got us a steal of a deal on a trip to Florida. It was so awesome to experience this great state which was even the homeplace of my husband when he was 9-11 years old. 

We started it off with Gatorland. Probably my favorite park we went to. Not joking. Where else can you watch gator wrestling and get this close to these guys??

 

East Coast FL: Melbourne.

Christian in front of his childhood home (1994-1996ish?) on the LDS Church Ranch near Melbourne. Those years of Christian's childhood were filled with catching lizards and hanging them on their earlobes (especially Richard), catching frogs (especially Richard), petting armadillos, time in the swimming hole when there weren't alligators around (and then throwing grapefruits at those big scary beasts). Pretty cool life, huh?

Here's proof:

The house today looks a little different according to Christian, but the bikes in front look like they could be Christian, John, and Sarah's - and the dog(s) too - straight out of their childhood.

 

 Oh and we're not done...more to come