Florida vacation

We just got back from a two week (one week for Matt and Cricket) vacation to Matt's parent's home in Florida, and we had a blast!! Brenden and I spent the first week relaxing at the house and getting used to the pool. We also had Matt's sister Stephanie and her two boys there with us for the first couple of days and that made our time there that much more fun. Brenden loved getting to know his cousins, Christian and Dawson. They all love Spiderman and all had spiderman jammies, they even had the same swimsuit (thank goodness for Walmart!) :)

After they left we went with Grandma to a crocodile zoo (I can't remember the name) outside of Naples, and saw all sorts of creatures, we even got to pet a baby croc. Grandma talked with the turkey and taught Brenden how to "goble goble goble" to which the turkey responded "goble goble goble". They fed the deer and the hogs, what a great day!! The next day we tried the park on the beach, we had more fun at the park than at the beach because Brenden doesn't like to have his hands dirty and was afraid to stand in the water. Once I got him to stand he wasn't so afraid of the water but he didn't want to stay any longer. We were at a beach on the river without any waves but he was still afraid of the water. After that we didn't have any more adventures for that week.

Matt and Cricket arrived a week after we did and boy was Brenden excited to see his daddy. They pretty much spent their time together in the pool. Monday and Tuesday mornings Matt and I did our open water scuba certification and finally became scuba certified. I can't say it was a cake walk becuase I did have a random panic attack on our first major descent, apparently we were at the bottom I was just a couple of inches away while Matt and the instructor were standing already (the vis was about 3 feet) and I just lost it and can't really explain why. But I passed anyways and the next day Matt and I drove to Fort Lauderdale and chartered a boat at Pompano beach. What an amazing experience!! We first went to a wreck and swam with two giant sting rays who probably had a wing span bigger than my own, the second was a drift dive at a reef! I can't explain how cool it was but if you're certified than you know what I am talking about, AWESOME!! Sorry no pictures of us in our gear, maybe one day. We did manage to sneak a shell from the reef, nothing great just a memory shell.

Thursday was a chill day and we managed a trip to the beach where Matt took his mom out on a beach dive and they did buddy breathing since she hasn't been certified yet. While they were out Brenden and I built a sandcastle and dropped shells and sand into a bucket of water! Matt and Grandma came back with a little starfish for him to see and once he got it he said "Patrick" (for those of you who don't watch Sponge Bob Square Pants, Patrick is his best friend who happens to be a starfish). I then found a square shell that was pourus and told him it was Sponge Bob and he had a great time dropping them into the bucket. Grandma was digging around in the water and she found a conk shell that was about 6 inches long and 6 inches in diameter and he called it "Gary" which is Sponge Bob's pet snail. What a funny day that was. Brenden tossed the conk shell into the ocean before I got the camera out.

Friday we took the boat out and Matt and I went diving again while grandpa, grandma, and Brenden took a little snooze and waited till we were done. The current was a little stronger than we were anticipating and we kept drifting over the reef before we made it down but we did see the edge of it and saw some really cool snails and fish. All in all it was a great trip!!

We are totally hooked on scuba diving so let us know when you plan any great trips and we might be able to go along.