Our Vacation

It's been three years since we have taken a vacation as a whole family. We decided it was time to visit the family in Miami, Florida. My husband has a whole slew of Aunts, Uncles, and cousins there. So we made reservations and it Aunt Momo's house, booked our flights over three months ago and started counting down the days.
Our flight there was AWFUL! Our pilot seemed to enjoy skimming the clouds so we could fly in turbulence the entire way. I got so sick that I actually had to pull out those barf bags they put in the compartments on the back of every seat. I puked three times. It was so bad that I had to grab the one in the seat next to mine just to double bag it. I tried to be discreet, but how discreet can one be when they are losing their entire day's worth of food and beverage.
Luckily the rest of the vacation was fabulous. We got to rest and relax by Momo's pool every single day. We went to the beach four or five times and had many great meals with family and friends.
Franklin and Beatrice were spoiled the most. My son now thinks he no longer has to sit in time out when he's acting up and he thinks he gets a toy whenever we go anywhere. I'm doing my best to put a nix on those thoughts. I told him he doesn't get any new toys until Christmas. So all you grandma's, aunts, and cousins out there, if you send him any toys, he will not get them until Santa comes.
Our Aunt Momo has a beautiful yard. She has an avacodo tree with fruit the size of eggplants. All her foliage is so lush and green with little AND BIG lizards running all over the place. We caught a couple of lizards for Franklin to pet and then let them run free again. If only we could've caught this Iguana. He was way too high up in the tree or else we would've tried.
My kids had such a great time playing in the ocean. I love going to the beach in Florida. The water is warm and clear and there aren't any waves.When I was a kid, the only beaches I went to were in California where the waves would crash on you and you'd get salt water in your mouth and nose and if you weren't careful the undertow would suck you back under so you could get another beating by the next wave. Plus there was all that yucky seaweed and what not. So I much prefer the warm tropical ocean instead even if it means dealing with the tropical rain storms that come with it this time of year. We were lucky enough not to be stuck in a hurricane, but everyday it rained. The showers usually started around two or three so if we wanted to do anything outside, we had to do it before then. I've been home for two days and I still think I'm hearing thunder when I lay down because it stormed that much. It was absolutely beautiful though.
One day we visited Lion Country Safari. It's an amusement park and safari/zoo all in one. We were able to drive our car around the zoo looking at all these amazing animals. They gave us a cd to play while driving around that educated us on the different animals and their habitats. We loved it. However, as soon as we finished our safari tour, it started to rain, so we didn't get to enjoy the amusement part of it because of the daily tropical storm.