On the way to Missouri...

This time we picked an evening flight from Copenhagen. My experience tell me that it is easier to fly in the afternoon or evening with small children. We flew cheap with Norweigan and got lucky so we had 6 seat for us 4, which meant that both girls could lay down and get a whole night of sleep! And both of them slept for most of the flight. We didnt have any delays or unexpected problems and landed 8.30 in Florida. I can say it is alot easier and more relaxing to travel two adults instead of alone with the girls!  It took a while at the airport to get the luggage and go through the passport control. I also had to see some more people from the homeland security to verify my visa, but that was pretty fast. We took a cab to Miami Beach, app. 40 min from the airport.  It was relatively expensive (70 USD), but it was late in the evening and we needed to go to bed as quick as possible since we knew the girls were going to wake up quick after bedtime.We picked a hotel one block above the beach (Catalina Hotel), but we didn't read the reviews so much and this hotel was obviously not a family friendly one... I guess it was a good location for partypeople..but not for us... It didn't matter so much because all we did was to sleep for a few hours and then left,  but I don't recommend this hotel for families.

Miami beach was nice, we had a half day at the beach and because Jamie woke up at 2 a.m. we started the day early.... The sun didnt rise until close to 7 so we had alot of hours to kill before daylight. Next to the hotel they had a really good breakfast restaurant, and we had a looong breakfast there while Jamie took her (normally lunch) nap. Before that we took a walk in the area in the middle of the night and looked for a coffeplace or something that served food... but everything except a grocery store was closed until 7 a.m... We could at least get something to snack on for the girls... Well, we walked along the beach until sunrise and actually played in the water for quite a while before breakfast. The beach was very nice and relatively shallow so the kids could play without too much worries. We were going to catch our fight  3 p.m in Miami so we had the whole morning to play at the beach. The hotel offered free shuttle service so we took that for the 30 min drive to the airport...saved some money and got Jamie the opportunity to fall asleep again before our flight.  We only had a short first flight to Atlanta so we didn't "need" her to sleep over that flight. Between our flights we had dinner (Really good homecocked Salmon by the foodcourt!) and let the girls run around as much as possible at the gate. We had 3.5 h to Tulsa so we knew Jamie would go to "nightsleep" during the flight. We were all still jetlagged and tired so the rest of us actually slept for a while as well. When we finally arrived in Tulsa it was 9.30 in the evening so Rhonda picked us up and I can say I fell asleep as soon as I got in the car and barely heard the extreme thunderstorm on the way to Rhonda's house in Stella,Missouri...

Last days by the ocean...

Last two days in Florida we relaxed a lot. In Ft Lauderdale we played at the beach, didnt swim in the ocean but the girls liked to play in the sand. We took a cab to Sunrise (~25 min), I guess it's like a village with the famous Sawgrass Mills. Sawgrass is a huge mall with alot of outlet stores and I bet you could spend a week there shopping without even go through all stores... My plan was to go shop as much as possible during a few hours in late afternoon and evening....

We stayed at Doubletree by Hilton in Sunrise. A hotel I really recommend if you want to go shop, or anyway. Must say Hilton won over Marriot this week... Perfect location and good shuttle service with very helpful crew members. They even took us to a place called Flamingo Gardens  which was like 6 km outside without charging us anything. I gave good tip anyway...

In the morning we were at Flamingo Gardens. There was a good not to large nature walk with alot of birds. This is originally a sanctuary which helps hurt animals or animals that got rescued from abuse or beeing kept in very bad conditions. From what we could see I think they did a serious work with the animals. Our main goal was to see flamingos and they had some.. Natalie had looked forward to see them so much but we or at least I was a little disappointed because there were not so many and we didn't get to see them so close. All in all we were satisfied with our morning and I think Flamingo Gardens is worth a 2-3h visit. Entrance fee 16 $ for me free for the girls.

After the girls slept we went shopping. As usual I mostly bought clothes for the girls... I got myself some nice things at Victoria secret's and a new pair of RayBan Wayfares! As expected it is not so easy to go shop with the two girls so I didnt really have time to look... We also spend alot of time at the Rainforest Café...a really nice restaurant for families. I remember I've been once before in London...hmm that was without kids and after a whole afternoon with cheap drinks at a bar somewhere around Piccadilly I think... me and Johanna B laughed so much because of the moving animals...so fun memories!

Anyway Sawgrass Mills are well worth a visit. There you can find all major name brands and even the really luxury ones like Gucci, Prada, Burberry and many more... I wish I had much more time by myself to go shop..but I guess in the future...

Sunny day...

Yesterday we had a really nice day! Alot of swimming in our pool and we played at the beach. Jamie was her happy self again and I felt better in the afternoon. It was warmer outside, but still a cooler wind. I decided to stay one more night at this hotel, didnt feel strong enough to pack and get us to the another one...but we will do that tomorrow! 
Here are some pics from the morning...I can say it feels good to know that the lifeguards looks trained enough to handle any rescues!

Beachside...

We had a sunny but windy day with temperatures around a cooler swedish summerday. Since we woke up so early we were ready to go to the beach after Jamie woke up from her nap. She is not feeling so good
...runny nose and a little fever. Hopefully she doesnt get bad with her breathing again like she has all the other times she's been sick.

The beach is very big and beautiful! I haven't been to a typical "citybeach" before, and it's not so hard imagine a life close to the beach here...People seems to really use the beach for all kinds of excersise and the whole area exudes a fit lifestyle...neon bikinis for sale everywhere!

We played at the beach for a while but we stayed in the pool for swimming. Natalie had fun but Jamie still seems like she's a little off... I think the 6 hours difference also has something to do with it.
Our night ended pretty quick...we picked an italian restaurant by Las Olas bvd.  Natalie wanted pasta.. well Jamie fell asleep again, I couldnt eat anything and started to feel really bad in my stomach! Oh no! Ive been around so much travelling in asia and I have never been sick...and now it was probably a healthy smootie that got me!
I can say my night was horrible..luckily both girls slept good until 5.15. I really hope this goes over quick.. Its impossible for me to rest til I feel better... but at early breakfast today I managed to drink half a coke I got some sugar at least...