Florida

My sweet parents flew me and Abby into Florida before Christmas. I like to think that they missed me but who am I kidding. Anyone who has children know that you take a back seat to your kid when they are born. Your child becomes their pride and joy, and why not? They are too young to do anything to disappoint them, they can spoil them rotten and not have to deal with any of the consequences later, I mean the list goes on and on!
We arrived on December 13th and stayed until the 21st. Our first whole day there, we went to go visit my uncle in Miami. I was a little worried about Abby and the 4 hour drive that we had to take, but she was wonderful the whole way there. As soon as we got to my uncle's place, he gave Abby an early Christmas gift (shocker!). She got a tickle-me-Elmo. WOW this thing is obnoxious! I understand why kids like it but geez! We then ventured off to South Beach and had a scenic walk down the strip. I got to see Versace's home. It was cool so I took a picture but I refused to stand in it. Something about standing where his body was found got to me. We also took Abby to the beach and let her put her feet in the water. She didn't like it at all. Granted it was 75 degrees outside, the water wasn't as warm for her! After the beach, we went to eat at this little cafe on the strip..it was so yummy! After we left, my dad was thinking about the bill and how high it was. He mentioned it to us and we were all thinking about why it was so high. Apparently in Miami, the gratuity is already added! No wonder the waiter was so thankful to us as we left, he got a sweet tip! We laughed all the way to the car :)
We also went to the Florida aquarium while we were there..wow this was a pill to swallow. With all the cool animals that were there, Abby only wanted to see Nemo and Dory. As soon as she found them, nothing else mattered. Forget the huge sharks, or the fun rays and sea otters...nope, it was all Nemo and Dory. At the end of the day, we went into the gift shop and Abby saw a clown fish and of course said "Nemo! Nemo!" She put one in each hand and started running around. My parents told her that she could have one, so they took one away from her and she decided to throw a fit in the shop. Apparently she had to have 2 of them! Well, that wasn't going to happen so we just bought her one and eventually she calmed down. The rest of the day, she would not let ANYONE touch Nemo, and she gave him kisses all the way home. One of the coolest things I saw at the aquarium was the biggest fish I have ever seen. I passed by it and thought it was a large rock. It was the ugliest thing I have ever seen but man it was huge so I thought it deserved a little credit.
On one night, we took a trip to Orlando and went to a all you can eat lobster place, The Boston Lobster Feast, aka HEAVEN! I will not divulge how many lobsters I ate, but in my defense, I don't have lobster very often so I felt I had to take advantage of the opportunity. After dinner, we went to downtown Disney and walked around a bit. We met the toy soldiers that were over 10 feet tall and they were booty dancing with a college basketball team. That was pretty entertaining. Abby busted a move or two but my camera had died at that point.
We also took a trip to good ole Clearwater beach. There are a bunch of street performers there but as soon as Abby saw the little monkey, she didn't want to go anywhere else. Of course you couldn't touch the monkey unless you gave them money so Abby held out a quarter and the monkey would walk over and take it from her. What a joke! There was also a street performer there that I had seen a few years back. He was doing the same act that he did when I last saw him. You would think that if this was his only source of income that he would come up with new tricks!
We spent the last night in Florida at my brother Bryant's house. He was such a good host! When we got there, he had the BYU football game on for me, since it was their bowl game. He made everyone delicious fried chicken and salad, and we all talked and enjoyed each others company. I stayed late and we watched "What happens in Vegas". We did a lot of other things but I didn't have the pictures for them. Thanks to my family for a wonderful time in Florida!