Our first day of vacation went amazingly well. Our flight was scheduled for 8:10 AM out of Champaign. We arrived at 6:30 AM and they put us on an earlier flight, which was nice. I would much rather spend some extra time in Chicago rather then Willard. :)

Broderick loved his first flight and he and Bridget both had window seats. Bridget has flown before when she was much younger, but this is the first flight she can remember.

The layover in Chicago was fine, although we got there early enough to have possibly caught an earlier flight to Miami, but it looked too full, so we decided to wait it out.

The flight to Miami was pretty bumpy, one of the more turbulent flights I have been on in a long time, but the kids loved it! I am glad it was a positive experience for them. The only minor bad thing is that Bridget's ear still hasn't equalized fully.

We took a cab to our hotel which is right on South Beach. I am so glad we did that over the hotel shuttle. Our hotel itself isn't anything to write home about (although there is wireless in my room, which is a plus) and our room's view is literally looking at another building 40' away, but it is right on the beach!

Pretty amazing leaving CU where it was 30 and landing in the mid 80s! The water is so beautiful! SC has more of a greenish tint to it and you can't see more then 2" in front of your face. Here, the water is more brilliantly blue and you can easily see the bottom in many places.

The kids braved the ocean and swam (well, played in the surf) for about an hour before we came back up to our room to clean up. We also walked along the beach in both directions.

I am surprised that I haven't seen more spring-breakers, but they must be in a different area. The beach was pretty empty and many out were families.

We ended the evening by watching Polar Express, which none of us had seen before. It was pretty good! I am sure that we'll buy it when it comes out.

Oh! We are on a Star Wars kick right now with Bridget and we've watched the original 3 movies and #1. I brought #2 with us and we'll probably watch it tomorrow. :)

I tried to watch the Incredibles on the plane, but my headphones only had one side working... so that sucked. I ended up playing the Star Wars game for about 2 hours, not bad!