Our home in Fort Lauderdale is 3,116 miles away from my parents' home in Washington. It takes over 6 hours on a direct flight to reach Seattle. Needless to say, often times I feel VERY far from my family living here in south Florida.
Last Christmas, mom and dad gave me the best news I could possibly imagine...they, my two little brothers, and my sister-in-law were all going to come out for Christmas break to spend the holidays with us in Florida! I spent the next couple months preparing for the ultimate itinerary of fun to fill our days and let them see the highlights of where we live. It was such a blast having them all out here! We had a house full of family and I couldn't have been happier!
Since everyone flew in on different flights, Stuart, Gel, and Bradley on a red eye, with my parents coming into town later that night. We spent the first day letting everyone relax, rest, and hit the beach for a few hours before mom and dad got in later that evening.
The next day we embarked on our epic three week adventure list by hitting Zoo Miami. My youngest brother, Bradley, was completing his undergrad in Animal Sciences and loves animals so we thought it would be a fun way to start off our trip. Zoo Miami is 280 acres and since mom's knee and back were still recovering and Gel was 8 months pregnant, we decided to rent a couple surrey bikes for our adventure. It was pretty funny to see us pedaling up and down the paths, swerving to run each other off the road every now and then. Daxton had a blast climbing from spot to spot being totally spoiled by aunt, uncles, and grandparents.
Our whole crazy crew about to set off!
(L to R) Gel, Stuart, Mom, Dax, Dad, Me, and Bradley
Last Christmas, mom and dad gave me the best news I could possibly imagine...they, my two little brothers, and my sister-in-law were all going to come out for Christmas break to spend the holidays with us in Florida! I spent the next couple months preparing for the ultimate itinerary of fun to fill our days and let them see the highlights of where we live. It was such a blast having them all out here! We had a house full of family and I couldn't have been happier!
Since everyone flew in on different flights, Stuart, Gel, and Bradley on a red eye, with my parents coming into town later that night. We spent the first day letting everyone relax, rest, and hit the beach for a few hours before mom and dad got in later that evening.
The next day we embarked on our epic three week adventure list by hitting Zoo Miami. My youngest brother, Bradley, was completing his undergrad in Animal Sciences and loves animals so we thought it would be a fun way to start off our trip. Zoo Miami is 280 acres and since mom's knee and back were still recovering and Gel was 8 months pregnant, we decided to rent a couple surrey bikes for our adventure. It was pretty funny to see us pedaling up and down the paths, swerving to run each other off the road every now and then. Daxton had a blast climbing from spot to spot being totally spoiled by aunt, uncles, and grandparents.
Our whole crazy crew about to set off!
(L to R) Gel, Stuart, Mom, Dax, Dad, Me, and Bradley
For the first few minutes all you could hear was us laughing as we got adjusted to pedaling the surrey bikes. Love some of the facial expressions in the pics below!
Everyone was pretty patient with me documenting everything, especially dad who willingly stuck his head in the elephant's butt poster. We saw lots of different animals along the path, including rhinos, lions, otters, and a bear.
Daxton was in pure heaven with all the extra attention. He followed grandpa around everywhere! There was a gorilla sitting right next to the observation window, which was pretty cool, but from my angle you could see that the gorilla was taking it's poop and throwing it down the drop off behind...so gross!
Visiting the elephants and zebras
Selfies while pedaling
Love mom's photobomb in the top pic below!
One of our favorite things to do at Zoo Miami is feed the giraffe! Everyone got a kick out of how long the giraffes' tongues stretched. I love mom's face in the pic below...priceless!
Every time Dax would see a tongue coming closer he would squeal and laugh. He thought it was so funny to see the giraffes wrap the lettuce and pull it away. I love the pics below...you can see how much fun he was having.
Family photo in front of all the giraffes
One of our favorite parts of the zoo is the Amazon trek. The surrey bikes aren't allowed along the path, so we walked the rest of the way. Dax loved being able to run from enclosure to enclosure and then ride in his stroller to drink his icee from Grandpa every so often.
I don't know where this cutie gets his energy!
He climbed on anything and everything and loved asking grandpa about all the different animals.
As we were leaving the Amazon, Dax sprinted towards the splash pad fountains. It was all I could do to rip his shirt off before getting completely soaked! That kid LOVES water! He thought it was pretty funny to give grandpa hugs while dripping wet.
It was a perfect day at the zoo and a great way to kick off our adventures for the holiday break!
That night, we got to celebrate Dallas's 35th birthday. Dallas had to work that day to finish some important things before the holidays, but he got to join us for the rest of the fun the next couple weeks. We sure love this hard working man of ours!
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