Fun in Florida--Our last day :(

Thursday was our last day in Florida.  We went from Friday to Friday and did all of our crazy traffic traveling on Friday.  On Thursday, Mom had found this really great place called Myakka River State Park.  It was in Sarasota FL.  We took an air boat ride around the river and saw many alligators sunbathing.  We were also able to walk out on a deck thing that had alligators swimming under it and a grassy area where they were very close.  It was really cool!!  It was funny the people who were around us who were very scared and concerned for us because we were apparently too close for them.  :)

On our way to see the Alligators, there was this great tree that we took our picture in.  This branch was really thick, but moved when they moved.  It made the kids a little nervous that it would break, but it never did.  Made a nice picture I think.

Got kids and us in the pictures.

Our boat ride was really fun.  We were not all able to sit next to each other, but very close together.  It kind of worked out better this way as everyone ended up being pretty close to the side and could see pretty well.

This is Mike and Lydia on the other side of the boat.

My parents were with us at the state park.  Made a really great time with everyone.  Mom and Dad sat right in front of Emily, Ryan and myself.

Ryan took a few pictures of this boat.  We passed it on our boat tour.  It looked like the one we were on.  Our tour guide was Robert.  He was really great!

This is the fan that pushed us around the river.

Not sure how well you can see them, but there are two alligators in the above picture--sitting on the shore and one on the bottom with his mouth open.

This is a pretty big one with his tail showing pretty well.

My mom packed us all a lunch to eat there.  There were a ton of picnic tables there.  We enjoyed our lunch, but there was a squirrel there who came VERY close and tried to eat our food.  :)

Another feature in this park was the Canopy Walk.  It was a tower that was built over 780 feet in the air and a bridge that crossed from a smaller tower to the bigger tower.  Only four people at a time could walk across the bridge.  It was really pretty.

There was a nature walk from the road to the tower and bridge.  This is what is considered a forest in Florida.  Very different than the ones in Virginia.

This is the big tower we climbed up in.  I could not get low enough to get a really good look at the height of it.  Many flights of steps.  Very cool!

This is the view, over the treetops, from 784 feet up.  It was so amazing!  You could not stay up there too long.  It was a very small space and about 7 people could get up there at one time.  So you could look around, but had to move pretty quickly so that other families and people could have their turn.  Was really amazing!  These pictures really show nothing compared to what was visible in real life.

There was a couple up there when we arrived.  They asked that we take their picture and they returned the favor.  784 feet up.  The tower was swaying.  :)  Still so pretty!!

After visiting the Makkaya State Park, we headed south to Herrmann's Royal Lipizzan Stallions of Austria.  On our way, we crossed Sunset Bridge.  It is tall enough for the cruise ships to pass under and such a beautiful place to see the sun set from what I understand.  We did not pass at the correct time.  Off to both sides of it are parts of the old draw bridge.  They turned them into fishing piers that you can drive out on.  So neat!

It was really very beautiful!

This place does a training show each Thursday in the month of April.  They bring out their stallions and now also some of the mares, as it was started my Captain Herrmann many years ago.  They talked about the different ways the horses helped with fighting in the wars.  That before weapons were effective, the horses were the weapons.  Kicking and running, etc.  Was neat for the relating to back then.

They had a Shetland pony that was there for the use of the grandchildren in the family.  Lydia kind of liked him.

Duke is the head of the stable.  He is an old horse and there is another horse, Autaurus, who wants to have the dominating role, but Duke is not giving it up that easily.

This is the new pony.  Just a few weeks old.  He stood with his mother in the pin with the older mares. I am sure they are all careful with him.

Wednesday! Hate when vacation is half over!

After spending the morning playing at the park, we went to Safety Harbor.  It is this fantastic little park with boat docks and a pier where you can often see Manatee in the water.  You are also able to see other areas of Florida that jut out into the water.  It is so beautiful there!!  We went up there and walked out on the pier.  Ryan hoisted himself up on the edge of the pier and we all gather around him for a picture.  We enjoy this place and would have stayed longer, but we had plans to go to Celebration Station!

I emailed my mom prior to our visit.  I asked her to find stuff for us to do that was cheap or free.  :)  She and my dad looked around and asked their friends and found some really neat places.  We went to a place called Celebration Station.  It was kind of like a Chuck E Cheese, but better.  In addition to the pizza and arcade, there were go karts, putt putt, and bumper boats.  It was great!!

Kids and Mike on the bumper boats.  The "packages" that they offer are pretty good, but they were in even number increments.  2 people and 4 people.  We often get screwed in this department.  Apparently the package deal people don't realize there are families of 5.  So, I sat out that day.  Which was fine because I could take pictures.  And, Mike is more of the ride person than I am.

The boats had little water guns in the front.  The kids were able to spray each other.  Mike got soaked!!  :)  Lydia sure knew how to use hers.

Emily and Ryan doing the water shooting thing.

Not sure if the favorite was the bumper boats or the go-karts.  You had to be a certain height to drive the go-karts by yourself. Ryan and Emily were tall enough, but Lydia had to ride with Mike.  This bummed her out at first (very understandable), but when she realized her dad was going to lap her brother and sister, I think she liked riding with him.  :)  She had her own steering wheel to use and really enjoyed it!!

Emily's little arms barely reached the steering wheel, but she did it on her own.  She was great!  She went a little slower and seemed to prefer it when people were not near her (the bumping that happened when they were close was not a favorite), but she did really well for being a 10 year old who had never done it before.  Ryan was great!  He had driven go-karts before so it was not a big deal to him.

Mike and Lydia zooming past.  You see that smile don't you?

Getting ready for a race!

A little arcade fun.

Mom and Dad took us to Celebration Station.  Well, we followed them there.  I wanted my dad to watch Emily putt putt.  Even though putt putt is nothing like golf, I wanted to see if he thought she might do well golfing.  We are thinking about trying it this summer.  We did both courses even though we were only supposed to do one.  Shhhh.  :)

Lydia did this and I asked her to do it again so I could take a picture.  Reminded me of He Man.  :)

We all had such a great time!  At the end, Emily ended up with a bad headache and had to stop early, but she still got a lot of fun time in!  We were there from about 2 until close at 9.  We got our moneys worth for sure!!!  Cool place!

Bingo--who knew it was so fun?

I am not quite sure why BINGO is typically set up for older people.  It is pretty fun!!  Every Tuesday, my parents go to a close restaurant and play BINGO.  Their community also hosts a BINGO, but they deal with money.  Therefore, it is a form of gambling and children can't even be in the room when it is going on.  This restaurant gives gift cards out for their winnings.  We played 8 games or so.  Can't really remember the total.  Of the 8 games, Mike won one, Ryan won one and Lydia won the main "fill the whole card" game.  It was so cool!  Emily wanted to win SOOO badly, but she didn't.  She still had a good time playing though.  The kids had fun playing with and meeting Grammy and Paw Paw's friends. 

I think Grammy enjoyed having her Grandchildren around her during the game.  My dad was there too, but I only managed to get one picture of him (he was beside me) and it was blurry.  :(

The first winner!  Mike!

The second winner!  Ryan!

Lydia filled an entire board during the last game!  She won the big gift certificate.  The guy who was doing the game said that in the 5 years he has been doing this BINGO, this was only the second time a child won the big one.   Pretty cool!! 

Mike gave Emily his gift card and Paw Paw "bought" the gift cards from the kids since we won't be near that restaurant.  The kids were going to just give dad the gift cards, but he insisted since they were worth money.  :)  Too funny!!  They were excited!!

In this restaurant, there were these pictures hanging all over the place.  They all had something to do with food.  They were so cute!  One that said you shouldn't eat anymore than you can lift.  Quote of Miss Piggy.  Another one talked about how bread is supposed to land butter side down and that cats land on their feet.  What would happen if you strapped a buttered piece of toast to a cats back and dropped it?  Funny stuff like that. We walked around and read all of them.  In order to totally appreciate this story, you must understand that Emily is one who is very curious and likes to know about things.  If it is something she doesn't know, she will ask questions or will google something, etc.  She is a smart one for sure!  She figures things out and often does it before the adult in the room.  :)  This particular picture was hanging and she read it out loud.  I was looking at the one on the wall behind her and only realized what was happening . . . After reading it out loud, she took off toward the table where we were sitting.  Mike walks up to the same picture and reads it out loud.  About that time, Emily walks up with a little pad of paper and proceeds to write STRESSED backwards on her paper.  It was so cute!!!  In the middle of her writing, Mike says "Oh, Desserts."  She stopped writing and looked at her Dad with an "oh, ok" look on her face. :) I put it all together and realized what she was doing.  I kissed her on the head and told her how cute she was.  Making her wonder why I was doing that.  Too funny!!!  The one I was reading behind her--was one that said "Ham and Eggs:  A Day's work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a Pig."  They were all so funny!!  

Was such a fantastic time playing BINGO!  We need to have BINGO set up for younger people too.  :)

Fun In Florida 2016! Day 3 and 4

On Monday we went to Duniden.  Our kids have started getting into tennis.  I have been borrowing tennis rackets from the high school where I work.  We have been using them on the weekends and playing tennis.  We are all TERRIBLE at this game, but the kids have really enjoyed it.  As a result, Mike and I decided to give the kids tennis rackets for Easter.  We gave ourselves one too so that we could all play.  In Duniden my parents found this great park that had tennis courts and an awesome concrete trail that had this great hill in it.  Not only did we play tennis, but the kids were able to scooter down the hill, or "roller coaster", as they called it.  It was great!

After we played on the actual tennis court for a while, Ryan noticed this wall ball area.  On the other side of this structure, is just a wall and a concrete floor.  Nothing on the sides.  Lots of people were playing wall ball there.  On this side, it seemed to be set up for tennis practice.  It was great!  We liked this so much better and hope that one day there is something like this at home.  We did this for several hours that Monday and then went back again on Thursday.  So great!!  

On Tuesday we headed back to Duniden to go to Honeymoon Island.  Honeymoon Island has the best seashells in the area.  There are so many that are not broken and many are very big.  It was very overcast while we were there and there seemed to be a thunderstorm off in the distance.  Not crazy warm, but as I always say--a cold day at the beach is better than a warm day at home.  :)  

Emily collecting seashells

 It was cold so the girls tended to keep their towels wrapped around them.  Especially after they got in the water.

 Metal detecting again.

When I was a little girl, I owned a book called "A day at the beach."  In that book, the family lives close enough to the beach to go for the day.  They pack a lunch and stay all day.  Living 3 1/2 hours to the closest beach, I was never able to go for the day.  My dream, as a kid, was to have lunch at the beach--when you visit the beach for a week on vacation--you often stay close to the place you are staying.  If you suggest eating lunch on the beach instead of going back in the condo to eat--it is not taken well by your parents.  :)  I got to eat lunch on Honeymoon Island!  We had lunch at Indian Rock too, but the wind was so bad that we had to cover everything.  Ryan took a picture for me.  Talk about oceanfront dining!!!  

While we were there, we got in the water for a short time.  The water was pretty cold.  We had no idea, but there were dolphins swimming in the water with us!!  Right beside us!!  Below you will see a movie of it.  Right at first, Mike does not realize the Dolphins are there.  There are two of them to the right of the start of the movie.  Within feet of us.  He pans over the shore and then comes back.  When he comes back, you see the Dolphins (there are two of them) swimming away, but going in front of us to do it.

 Click on the link to see the movie

https://youtu.be/TgIYFy_2MwA

On our Honeymoon, Mike and I rented a jet ski that we drove in Tampa Bay.  We ended up falling off of it and noticed the eyes of the Dolphins around us.  This makes the second time I have been able to swim with Dolphins.  No camera with us the first time.

After a few hours, sure enough, the thunder and lightening began to approach.  Ryan and Mike went to the bathroom on our way out and got caught in the downpour. 

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!!