I posted an obnoxious amount of pictures on social media, but here are many of them (and more) for you to see again. I forgot my real camera which is so typical of me, but thank God for smart phones being able to capture pretty decent pictures anyway.
And we were off! Packed in like you can't believe, but we had what we needed. Only question I have is...where are we going to put baby Kai next year?
Nothing like just getting to a beach condo and getting that first peek out on the balcony. We decided to go to the west coast of Florida for a change in scenery but also because the water is much more kid friendly. It's warm and clear and shallow and calm. Our east coast water is great for surfing, but can be a little rough for the kiddos.
Someone fell in love with this hat and wore it a good bit.
First night- dinner on the balcony while watching the sunset. Oh and while the boys were already asleep. Such a nice feeling for two exhausted parents.
Poor dad got lots of quality time with these two. :/
Getting them to smile at the same time is nearly impossible. Busy, busy boys!
Love these two personalities. John can swim but insisted on wearing this floatie every time he went in the ocean "just in case it was rough." Sam cannot swim and hates to wear a life jacket and will dive straight in like he has been swimming for years.
There goes Fearless.
When Sam would nap, John would often get to go down to the pool with either me or Matt. It was nice to get a little one on one time with this sweet boy. I had forgotten how important that time really is for him so it was a nice reminder that even though he is a "big boy" he still needs undivided attention too.
On day two of hanging at the beach, it became clear that Sam had a serious chafing problem. John always has issues as well so we bought him these under armour like shorts a few years ago and they work great. We had to do a target run to get John a bigger pair and pass down these to Sam. It was the funniest sight to see. The first day of realizing he was super chaffed we attempted to do a swim diaper, under armour, and a swim suit, but it became clear that he was going to have to do the beach with the under armour alone. I laughed out loud every time I looked at him.
These two are master sand architects. I did my best to just sit in one spot and watch. Whoops.
Mr. Independent would spend so much time just playing in the shore. It was so cute to watch.
I was on vacation too in case you wondered. I could tell I was getting a little sunburned and forgot the sunscreen in the condo so John was helping me by lathering me in "natural sunscreen." Delightful feeling.
Wednesday night we met Poppy, Nonny, and Callynn for dinner and had a great time catching up with them. We thought this was the only time we would get to see them, but our darling presence tempted them to sneak out of work early and do a boat day the next day. ;)
Waiting on the sun to set so we could go ghost crab searching. It ended up that Sam had to sleep instead of hunt for ghost crabs, but John and Matt had a delightful time.
Apparently they only saw one ghost crab, but they did see some lightning and boy that had John so excited he forgot all about ghost crabs.
A little lunch on the way to Poppy's for an afternoon on the boat.
I had the great idea to order virgin daiquiris for us to share. Well Matt and I didn't get any and the boys had daiquiris for lunch, but it was vacation right? We had to just go with it. We tried to hide Sam's but he acted a fool and being the great and consistent parents we are, we just gave it back to him and let him consume sugar for lunch.
These boys are very relaxed on the boat. Sam was exhausted by this point and feel asleep every time the boat was moving.
John was pretty cozy too.
Riding to dinner! and Sam is out again.
On the way home from dinner we ran into a little bit of a storm and had to go rather fast to get back home. I was a little nervous, but John is still talking about the ride home being the highlight of the trip.
By Friday both boys were pretty tired and Sam's little legs and bottom needed a break from the sand and sun for a little while so we loaded up and headed to the Florida Aquarium in Tampa.
There was a lot of this happening while we were there.
Of all the things we did, I think Sam enjoyed the aquarium the most. When we got to the sting ray touch pool, he was speaking gibberish so fast and so excitedly that we could not stop laughing. He is actually talking a good bit now but the excitement overwhelmed him and he was speaking Samspeak like a million words per minute.
This guy is not as sure about characters as John was at this age. Matt took a picture of John with the turtle that I need to get! It was precious.
Funny moment- we decided to leave the aquarium for lunch and to buy me a pair of shoes because mine broke while we were there (how do shoes break you may ask? No clue, but mine totally broke). When we drove in we saw tons of restaurants so we walked around and it turned out they were all closed for lunch...except for Hooter's. So we pushed a double stroller right on in and dined away with all of the middle aged men that were also there for lunch.
And then it was back to the aquarium for the last couple of things that we didn't get to do and back home for one last late afternoon on the beach.
This is a rare sight.
John said he was building a tower. I couldn't help but take this picture to show him later in life. Forgive me.
The last afternoon on the beach was the best. We had so much fun and didn't want to go in. We were forced inside by a storm (it rained every day around 6-7 pm) luckily because the boys needed sleep.
And watched one last sunset with Matt while the boys slept.
Saturday we ended up here somehow. John has been wanting to try it and they had some discounted tickets on undercover tourist.com so we went for it. It was a ton of fun so I'm glad we did!
Jousting- right up this guy's alley.
Only bummer about Lego Land is that they have a lot of silly height requirements for things. They have a ton for little kids to do, but a lot of the rides that are so simple (like a boat ride around a little pond), they wouldn't let Sam on so that was disappointing. I do my best not to constantly compare parks to Disney, but this was a blemish on ole Lego Land to me. BUT there were a ton of positives as well. Anyway- Ole Sam was running through the bushes and pointing as John and Matt rode this one. He was a bit disappointed as well. ;)
John's first "coaster!" He did the goofy ride at Magic Kingdom on his fourth birthday but he hated it so it has taken us a long time to try to convince him to try another. I was so proud of him for getting on this. Matt said he was a nervous wreck and teared up on the ride, but he told me it was awesome when they get off so we'll see how long it takes to get him on another. I can't blame him. I try to always be pregnant so I don't have to ride roller coasters. ;)
And then we headed home and now life is back to normal Monday stuff! Cannot say enough good things about this trip. It was just what the doctor ordered.