Florida | Day 4

On Day 4, we went to Legoland!!

We surprised the kids with Legoland tickets as an early Christmas gift a few days before we left. It was a huge hit.



We love that this time of year there are basically zero lines, no crowds, and almost every ride is suitable for their ages / heights.



And of course, they love Lego everything.





Remembering how dizzy spinning rides make me now (above)...



Miniature land 









Even though Brecken got carsick on the way to the park, I was happy he didn’t get sick on any rides (or on the plane).



Beautiful tree from the old Cypress Gardens days...



The waterski show was amazing!















Could resist tacos...





Ryder’s favorite thing about the park was that you can bring minifigures in and trade them with any park employee. They wear their minifigures on their name tags. By the end of the day Logan and Brecken we’re into it, too.

It was almost 2 hours back to our hotel. The little two kids slept on the drive and we ate at a restaurant in downtown Clearwater Beach for dinner.

Florida | Day 3

Right away in the morning, the kids wanted to give tennis a try. Turns out Ryder and Logan both loved it - and did really well for not having even held a tennis racket before. Ryder actually beat me in our first game and I tried pretty hard. I’m not good, but have at least played a few times before.

After tennis, we made plans to head to Fort DeSoto for the day.

On our way, we grabbed our coffee and took the Jeep across the street from our hotel to drive on the beach by the water.



It’s a pretty great location - you can watch the sunrise over the bay on one side of the street, then cross over and watch it set into the ocean on the other side.

After that, we continued the drive south to Fort DeSoto. It’s a pretty drive down the key through a bunch of little beach cities.



Fort DeSoto was perfect. We found a great spot with a little shade, put up our beach tent and hammock, played some tunes and cracked a few beers.



I loved watching all the kids play together - and Ryder (a 10 year old!) just play in the sand. 

This place has some of the softest, whitest sand I’ve ever seen.



Reading, relaxing :)



Perfect spot for a photo op :)



I really don’t know who was enjoying the Jeep the most - me or the kids...



On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Snack Shack for dinner. After our fish tacos and listening to the one man band, we headed to the sand for the sunset.



An intense game of family touch football to end the day :) 



Brecken watched from the sidelines while driving matchbox cars in the sand.







Another perfect day.

Florida | Day 2

Our morning started with a Jeep ride down the key to drop Shawn off for a one way run. Really was a win-win. He got to run along the beach, I got to take the Jeep out for a drive and the kids got to go out for donuts.

We usually spend our time exploring and trying new things on trips, but one of our favorite things to do here was to just hang out on the beach with our tunes and play games with the kids.






Apparently our kids are good at chess?!





While we played games, Brecken was pretty content playing in the sand. They had a ton of sand toys.



Beach volleyball - parents vs kids.



There are going to be a lot of Jeep pictures...sorry... :)



Our favorite beach bar down here is Caddy’s.. Perfect location, amazing sunset, and an outdoor band almost every night.



Sometimes Brecken still seems so little. Then he wakes up and starts using words like bro, dude, brah, and I realize he’s one of the big kids.


Mini-Shawn

Family handstands...





And our parking spot on the beach :)

The sunset was an hour later than back home (5:30pm) giving is a slightly longer day but still helping the kids get to bed at a decent time each night.

Florida | Day 1

I always say this, but the first day at the beach is the best. The excitement of the arrival, the massive change in temperature, the first beach sunset...

This trip was no different. Well, maybe a step up from usual. 

Our family has this game of guessing the color of the rental car each trip. Sometimes we’re even crossing our fingers for a van upgrade. This time we had our colors chosen and were anxiously walking to space 273 to see who would win. 

As it turns out, we all ‘won’. Shawn pulled some strings and had a Jeep waiting for us!!! We were beyond excited. We took the top off and headed for the beach :)

Our first stop was Rockaway Beach Cafe for lunch where we had drinks while the big kids played in the sand.

Then we checked into our hotel and played at the beach. Sand toys, kite flying, sunset watching. The best. 

Afterwards, we swam for a bit.

For dinner, we were pretty exhausted, so stayed at the hotel. And as it turns out, their restaurant felt like a rec room with tvs and a pool table. We had some snacks and called it a night. 

It’s awesome to be on vacation, awesome to be at the beach, and the coolest to be doing it cruising around in a Jeep! :)

Halloween

This year I tried to talk the boys into a family costume, but they had their own ideas of what they wanted to be.

Brecken bounced from a baseball player to a fireman (again - and he did wear that to school) and landed on a skier for Halloween night. He is SO excited to ski this winter for the first time and wore his goggles most of the evening - even in the house. He also insisted on using his Easter basket ;)

Logan went as a snowboarder - only due to the fact that this plastic snowboard was much lighter than real skis.

And Ryder went as a soccer player - for the second year in a row. He also wore this for career day since he still wants to be a pro soccer player when he grows up.

While it was only about 30 degrees at night, we stayed pretty warm while trick or treating. 

Brecken slowly made it around our neighborhood loop over the course of about an hour (even with skipping at least 50% of the houses!) The big kids took off with their neighborhood friends, racing from door to door.

A successful night :)