Fun in Florida! Day 1 and 2

We decided to go back to Florida during Spring Break this year.  As you know, my parents are Florida Snowbirds.  They live part of the year in Virginia and part of the year in Florida.  We have gone to Florida for Spring Break a couple of times.  Most years we go to Disney or Sea World and Busch Gardens or Legoland.  This year we decided to do things just around Clearwater (where my parents snow bird house is).  On our first day, we went to a local flea market.  We don't have flea markets in our area and I always think they are so neat.  Never really buy much, but think they are neat.  We spent the morning there and the kids hung with my mom.  They went swimming in their community swimming pool and played shuffleboard.  This is how we spent our downtime while we were there.  The kids also bring their scooters so they can scooter around the community as well.

On Sunday, we visited Indian Rock Beach.  My dad took us there and stayed with us for the day.  We had lunch there and Mike brought his dad's metal detector.  He enjoyed looking for treasure--which he didn't find.  :)  Was still fun looking.

 The weather was beautiful!  The wind was pretty crazy this particular day, but the sun was hot and the water was warm.  Well, once you got in for a little bit it felt warm.  We managed to get sun burned that day.  I was so mad at myself.  I failed to get any of the spray sunscreen and simply forgot to reapply.  Not horrible sunburns, but bad enough.

 The girls found a cool place on the sand dunes to play for a bit.  The wind was not quite as bad there.

 Finding buried treasure.  It is crazy how excited they can get about finding a rusted fishing lure.

 Meanwhile, back at our chairs . . . . Ryan decided he wanted to build a big hole and bury himself in it.  I was volunteered to help him accomplish this since his sisters were out hunting with their Dad.  It was pretty funny.  He asked me to go down the beach and find Mike and the girls so they could see him like that.  Digging the hole was quite a project.  As it turns out, we really could not dig it so that he could stand in it, which is what he wanted.  The sand keeps falling in the hole and just made it hard to compete with.  Instead, we dug it wider so he could sit in it, criss cross.  Then I piled sand on him as he was sitting.  Still makes him look like he is standing.

 Nice ocean view.  And, of course, I had to make him pose with his sisters.

 He wanted me to take a picture of him covered and pictures of him coming out of the sand.  Pretty neat.  He loved it!

 Traditional sibling picture in the water.

 This particular day was Easter Sunday.  It is so neat, for someone who lives in Virginia, to be able to say that they were at the ocean and swimming on Easter Sunday.  That night, my parents community, had an Easter dinner.  It was a deal where everyone brought a dish.  Lydia emailed my mom for a week or so prior to our arriving.  She wanted to teach my mom how to make Easter bird nests as our dish to take.  My mom was making some other things to take, but this was for Lydia to take.  In her emails she wrote that she wanted to teach Grammy this so that Grammy "could make them later in life."  Soooo funny!!!  This is Lydia and my mom making her nests. 

Lydia proudly carried over her nests to the club house with my mom and her dish.  All of the snowbird ladies who were setting up made over Lydia's nests.  It was great!  She was very proud of herself.  Was a great two days!  Continue reading for the other parts of our great trip!!