A Florida birthday surprise trip for a very special little boy (Day 1 of 4)

Hello there, it's been awhile since I posted & I have not had much time to sit down and write. Last week we surprised our little guy "J" with a birthday trip to Florida. Hubby and I planned this trip a couple months ago. We decided that we would leave on a Wednesday and return on Saturday evening. The ticket prices were a lot less leaving in the middle of the week vs. the weekend.

We did a good job of keeping in a secret. We told our son that we both took the day off of work because Daddy scored some tickets to an "open house" airshow taking place at the airport & we wanted to let him see the insides of some of the big planes. When we got to the airport in the morning and opened the trunk to get our suitcases we told him that we were sorry but we infact lied to him about the airshow but we were going to see his uncle D & aunt M instead. His eyes got so big and he asked us "really, are you being serious?" After we assured him that yes we were & he would be riding on his very first plane, he did a mini jump & ran to us and gave each of us the biggest hug. You could just see the excitement in his eyes.

We got through security & made it to our departure gate with about 40 minutes until boarding. I wish I would have video recorded his facial expression when we boarded the plane. When we got to the door of the plane the stuardess gave him a little plastic airplane wings pin after he announced that it was his first time ever flying. We got seated and shortly after we were ready for take off. As the plane started to climb in the air he kept saying "whoa, whoa we are really high" & "oh Mom, look we are in the clouds, awesome"

It was so funny because his eyes were completely glued to the window for about the first 15 minutes, until he decided to pull out the tablet. He played some ship building game for the remainder of the flight. After landing in Orlando we got on the monorail that took us to the main terminal where my brother was waiting outside to pick us up. As soon as the doors slid open to the outside, we were instantly greeted with the nasty heat & humidity. Welcome to Florida.

We piled in my brothers car and headed to his house to drop off our luggage. Once we unloaded at his house we headed over to Burger 21 to get something to eat. I rarely eat at burger places & was pleasantly surprised at how good this one was. I ordered the Ahi-Tuna burger & let me say "yum yum"  it was delicious. I wish we had one near my house because I certainly wouldn't feel guilty eating any of their seafood burgers.

After eating, we all decided to go on an airboat ride at Boggy Creek Airboats. It was a nice 30 minute ride in and around the swampy waters. We saw a mix of birds but no alligators, I guess it was just too hot for them. After the ride they brought out a small alligator that J got to hold & he was happy with that.

As we were leaving, we noticed a good mix of animals roaming around a fenced in area. At first we thought it was some kind of petting zoo. The lady at the airboat place said it was a private owner who lets them roam around. We pulled over next to fence to say "hi". They were friendly & you could definitely tell that they are used to being around people. The little ponies had us all laughing because they kept backing up to the fence and rubbing up and down to scratch their butts.

It was 4pm when we got on the road to my brother's place. It was still fairly early enough & we were able to squeeze in a short helicopter ride around the Disney parks. Yeah it was ridiculously expensive ($55/person) for a 10-12 minute ride but it was very cool to be able to fly relatively low & over some of the parks. Great way to end day 1 of our trip.