visiting the SuNsHiNe state!

 Yay for vacation!  We were all excited to escape for a little bit and get some sun!  Tom and I were curious how Graham would do at the beach since this would be his 2nd time being on the beach but his first time where he could actually enjoy it.  They did pretty well flying here is a picture once we landed in Charlotte.  Garrett was trying to hug Graham...silly boys!

Here is our little sweetie on our first trip to the beach!  Such a cutie pie! We spent the majority of our days starting with time at the beach in the morning and then venturing to the pool and then lunch time.  

Inspecting the sand and trying to figure it all out!

 Garrett loved splashing in the ocean.  It was the perfect temperature, depth, and the waves were pretty calm.  Garrett got to use his kick board aka his surf board to "ride some waves!"

Graham seemed to enjoy sitting in the chair more than sitting in the sand.  Who wouldn't blame him?  Every time I'd get up and come back I'd find him in my chair!  Sneaky thing! We did find a way to keep him still in one place. . .just place him in the sand and he'll stay!

 One evening we ended our nightly walk around the neighborhood with a walk on the beach.  It was so fun to run around and hear the waves crashing.  Garrett was on cloud 9!  It was hard to get a picture of him because he was running everywhere!

 Here's all of us . . . Garrett's running around in the background!

 This little guy is getting the hang of the beach. . . I think he's thinking . . . I can do this everyday!

 Our BIG splurge for the trip was a trip to Kennedy Space Center.  We were a little nervous driving all that way and so on.  We were majorly blessed as soon as we got in the parking lot.  The man in the car right next to us gave Tom 2 FREE adult tickets!  Wahoo!  So we only had to pay for Garrett's ticket.  Can we say AWESOME!!! From that moment I knew today was going to be great!

 A precious family approached us to take our picture for us and then we repayed the favor to them.  I do have to say that this "park" was filled with happy people.  Everyone workers and visitors were wonderful!

 Here's a few pictures of us checking out the "space" stuff.  Garrett is posing with a flight crew!

 Tom got a chance to pretend to be an astronaut and move a satellite around in outer space! I think he was on cloud 9 too!  We even got to see an 3-D imax movie taking place in outer space.  It was pretty neat seeing stars coming right at you.  Garrett thought it was pretty cool!

We made our way to this side of the park after lunch.  You should have heard and seen Garrett as soon as he saw the Angry Bird building.  It was priceless!  He LOVES angry birds.  He's actually pretty good at playing the game.  He even got a Lego set for Christmas where you build a space scene and then launch an angry bird.  So this was right up his alley.  

 Inside was pretty neat they had iPads all over with puzzle games and space Angry Birds.  They even had a mirror maze and a laser beam room where you had to go across the room with out hitting any laser beams - the line was too long so we were able to do it.  I did take Garrett in the mirror maze which was pretty neat.

 This by far was Garrett's favorite.  A life size launcher!  He loved slinging the birds to try to knock out the pigs.

 Playing Space Angry Birds

 Checking out the area!  :)

The next part of the day was my favorite!  We went to the Atlantis exhibit.  I wasn't really sure what to expect but the exhibit was impressive.  

 We all gathered in a room and watched a short video about the construciton and design of the space shuttle - Atlantis.  Then they led us into a room where the movie screen was all around you as if you were right there when Atlantis took off into space.  Once the movie was over the screen lifted and this is the view you saw.  Pretty Amazing!

 They had a model of the shuttle where you could climb through it as if you were really on it.  The scary part was part of it was a clear tube that you could see the ground way below you.  Garrett thought it was pretty cool but me on the other hand was a little nerved crawling above ground!

 They even had a launch simulator and you got to experience what it feels like to be an astronaut getting launched into space.  They even had a switch off set up where all of us go through the line and Tom gets to do the simulator first and while the boys and me waited in a wait room watching a video of the "launchers."  Once the launch was over I got to switch places with Tom and he stayed back with the boys.  Little did we know that when it was my turn I was going to be all by myself!  So in essence I went to outer space all alone!

 Such a FUN day!

 Playing on the space center playground before heading back to the beach house.

Our next adventure was to visit the Loggerhead Marinelife Center.  Here we got to visit sea turtles that were rescued and are being rehabilitated.  

It was pretty low key compared to the Space Center but all in all it was pretty neat to see the sea turtles swimming around.  

Our last day was going to be an extra hot day so we ventured out to the outlet mall to check out the Rainforest Cafe and playground.  Garrett and Graham were pretty amazed as soon as we walked in the restaurant.  They enjoyed looking at the animals hanging around.  Shortly after getting our table we got to experience a "thunder storm."  Garrett was amazed!  

After we ate lunch Garrett got to play on the playground and Graham was able to get up and stretch his legs too!  That night we got to enjoy a pizza dinner and then we played in the pool once last time.  This was a great family trip and I look forward to many more!