Florida!

Florida was so great and I even have a little bit of a tan going on! There is a definite line between pale and pasty on my arms. Perhaps this weeks trip to Cedar city will help the line continue! So here goes my journal entry run down of the whole trip.

Wednesday-
Our flight wasn't until a little later in the afternoon so Brad and I went and looked at apartments first. We were glad when that was done and we were able to get on our way. I watched a bunch of food network on the flight over. It made me crave Macaroni and Cheese....... Dad Dimick bought me some easy mac the last day we were there as a joke. I still want some good deep fried macaroni casserole though..... Picking up our rental car proved to be a little more difficult than necessary. The girls were being silly and the guy behind the counter was being ridiculous. After standing around forever while everything got settled we finally got to our minivan. The windows in the middle rolled down! I was amazed and I think my mom should upgrade her minivan for this feature alone. (I'm easily impressed) We got out the gps but unfortunately it didn't know where the heck our hotel was. We finally called Jackie and got directions and tried to find where we were going. When we would call the number that we had no one would answer so we were worried that if we even found where we were going we wouldn't be able to get in. By the time we got to the condo complex it was about 2 am. We had to go on a treasure hunt to find the first condo which had a box and in that box was an envelope with our name on it which led us to our
condo. We were all sorts of confused and happy to finally get to some beds.

Thursday-
We had planned on going to the theme park the first day but because of our late night we decided it was a beach day instead. We started the day with some breakfast at IHOP. While we were there a balloon guy came up and tried to entertain us while we waited for our food. Scott hates the sounds of balloons squeaking so he just got out 5 bucks left it on the table and went and stood outside. The balloon guy was really not funny at all and he was slow. The best part was watching Devin and Josie trying to figure out his jokes. What they didn't realize was that there was nothing to get because the jokes just weren't funny. He made a friendship flower containing Josie and Devin's favorite colors, he also made a heart with 2 lovebirds for Brad and I.
After breakfast we drove west to check out the beaches on the gulf coast. We went to a beach in Clearwater. I saw some Dolphins swimming in the distance. Brad and Scott got in and had fun jumping the waves. Josie buried Devin and then everyone took some peanuts and fed the birds. Brad had the birds trained to hover just above his head and then they would catch the peanuts in their mouths.
After the beach we headed back to Orlando and we got some dinner at subway. We tried to go to bed early so that we could get to the theme park early the next morning. But of course having a room next to 2 excited 14 year olds makes going to bed early difficult.

Friday-
We got up early and got ready to go to Universal Studios. The forecast called for rain and so we wanted to hurry and do all the outside rides first before it began raining. I actually went on the Hulk roller coaster! I was so proud of myself. I got out of line at Lagoon once because I was too scared to go on Colossus. This ride makes that one look like a kiddie ride. We went on the Spiderman ride which was an awesome combination of a 3d show and a ride. That was probably my favorite. We tried to go on the new Simpson's ride but after we waited for an hour in line they came on the loudspeakers and told us that the ride was broken. "Sorry for any inconvenience." So after we were done going on rides we went home and showered. It never rained so that was nice. When we were ready to go to dinner the girls had fallen asleep and didn't want to get up to come with us so we went to TGI Fridays for dinner without them. We had a lovely cross-dressing waiter/ess who took over an hour to get our food. There was another balloon person but luckily they got pulled to a table on the other side of the room just as she was about to get to our table.

Saturday-
Saturday we went to the Kennedy Space Center. We had a blast! (pun intended) We took the bus tour and went around the complex and learned all about the history of NASA and space exploration and we got to see the things as we were learning about them. We sat a little too close during the 3d movie about walking on the moon and my head kind of hurt for a little while. We also got to go in a simulator that made you feel like you were taking off in the shuttle. Basically it just tipped you back in your seats and shook you around a lot. It was neat. While driving home we got to experience a good Florida thunderstorm. It was raining so hard we could barely see in front of the car. At one point we could smell smoke, probably from a fire that started from the lightening, but it was raining so hard we couldn't see where the fire was. When we got home that night we were flipping channels and we caught "When we left earth." We were excited to continue our space knowledge with a Discovery channel documentary on the very things we just spent the day learning about.

Sunday-
Sunday morning I woke up early (I can't help it anymore) and I went downstairs to eat breakfast and I turned on the tv while I waited for everyone else to get up. Our flight was in the early afternoon so we decided just to sleep in and not worry about getting in any more sightseeing. While I was watching tv I started flipping through the guest book and came across a page that had in bold red letters that checkout time was at 10 and that late checkouts would be charged. I ran upstairs because it was exactly 10:06 at that time. I got Brad up and he woke up everybody else and we all hurried and packed up our belongings. Scott went and turned in the key and it seemed like there wasn't going to be any problem so hopefully there wont be an extra charge. Our flight had a layover in Cincinnati so it took longer to get home. On the first flight the
TV's didn't work so we slept a little. We had exit row seats on all our flights and the flight attendant on this flight asked me if I was 15. (Enter my Napoleon Complex) Brad said he was more offended for his own sake because he didn't want people to think he was married to someone that wasn't even 15. On the flight to Salt Lake the TV's were working but the satellite was down so all we could do was pay to watch movies. I watched the Bucket List. I liked it a lot. We'll probably rent it and watch it again so Brad can see it. When we were getting on that flight I asked a flight attendant if the TV's were working and he said he thought they were but when he saw we had paid for movies because the satellite was broken he felt bad so he refunded us the money we paid to watch the movies! It was awesome.

Overall the trip was so nice! We are so grateful to Josie and Devin for getting good grades and to Scott and Jackie for inviting us and paying for everything! It's an experience that as newlywed students we would have never been able to do on our own. If anyone else needs chaperone's for vacations and you want to pay for Brad and I to go anywhere we will try our best to work it into our schedule!