Little Toot

The time has come and gone for our annual family vacation. This year we went back to Indian Rocks Beach, FL so that we could relive old memories of Red Tide and family bonding. The bonding part came quickly as it took us 100 years 14 hours to actually get there due to rain. I'm not sure why we can't strap a jumbo umbrella to a 747 and call it a day but whatevs.

We chose a new condo this time around:

 It was overcast and windy on our first full day so I didn't get my usual favorite view from the balcony until later in the week. I'm not breaking out in hives over it this year because Red Tide really had a mellowing effect on the high strung blogging part of my frontal lobe. That being said, this is my view taken from the balcony on the first day.

 The ocean waves were high. High and dirty. A dirty ocean is unsettling to swim in because you can't determine where sharks are lurking. And sharks totally lurk.

 As usual we had the beach to ourselves. This picture seems to make it so ominous though. I really like that word ominous. I should probably write a book.

 This is Jason sitting on the balcony of our condo while I was out taunting lurking sharks from the shore where they could never get me.

 The boys finally joined me. That was a skillfully crafted sentence.

A little wind and rain has never deterred my children from pool activity unless it's accompanied by temperatures below 40. 

On our way up to the condo we found this real live snail. I'm not sure what is so fascinating about this snail, but there's no shame in it.

 

Really our first day was consumed with nothing. We walked on the beach, the boys swam in the pool while I read a book and never has there been less to say about a first day of vacation. I was a teeny bit delighted when I was able to capture a beautiful sunset because the weather had been so crummy.

 Also. This is what a sunset looks like when you walk outside and it's muggy and you didn't clean the lens of your camera. I call this "Muggy Beach". Sounds like someone getting robbed on a beach, but the name is catchy either way.

 I forgot to mention that we went grocery shopping and I found that the state of Florida apparently doesn't have Girl Scouts, so they've come up with a suitable replacement.

 We went to Busch Gardens the following day (this was a Thursday. I feel it's important to say because Red Tide has diminished). The amusement park wasn't busy at all which led me to believe everyone was at Disney World instead. Within in the first hour or so however, the park had a power outage and we couldn't ride anything. We sat down to eat and feed the birds even though there was a sign that said "do not feed the birds".

We got to feed some kangaroos.

This little guy felt it necessary to prop his leg onto my arm which caused me to drop Evan's bowl of food and it dumped on the ground. But no worries. I picked it all up off the ground one by one and saved the day. You'll see me in the next Marvel Adventure.

Evan rode nearly every ride at Busch Gardens and even lifted his hands on a roller coaster like a Cedar Point junkie. Makes a mom proud.

On the other hand, Jason offered Dawson $20 to ride the Sheikra and he refused even though he's begging to earn money so that he can buy a pair of Beats wireless headphones. He came around eventually.

Jason pleaded with me to end this day by eating at Skyline Chili (this is his picture. I ate a baked potato with butter, cheese and sour cream. In return, he said he would buy me a $4,000 diamond. Fair.

Friday morning from the balcony:

We got to meet up with Jason's sister who had just taken their girls to Disney. We got to spend several days with them which was much needed! They came to our condo on Friday and the kids got to swim while Jenessa and I hunted for whale barf shells on the beach.

I had this great idea to count to 3 and have all the kids jump in the pool at once. #haveallthekidsjumpinthepoolatoncefail

 Evan would spend all day digging in the sand rather than exploring in the ocean like Dawson. Some days this could make me wonder if they are truly brothers but they fight like it so I let it go.

 Speaking of the sand. This is my footprint. Just before a tractor came on the beach and swept up my sandals which rendered me devastated at the carelessness of life shoe-less. They were my favorite $1 pair of Old Navy sandals.

 Dawson and M-bug love the ocean.

We ate dinner at our favorite pizza joint: The Slyce.

On Saturday, both families joined up to do a Dolphin Watch. I  heart dolphins. They seem so socially affable. The Little Toot is quite possibly the best name for a Dolphin Watch Tour ever.

Like most of our vacations, Dawson was happy and Evan was grumbling about something. In this case, I think Evan was upset because he wanted the chair Dawson was sitting in, or possibly he was grumpy because I didn't let him jump off the pier. Who knows.

Speaking of pier, we did a walk down Pier 60 before the dolphin tour because we got there early and needed to fill our time with activity to keep us all from sweaty breakdowns.

Once on the boat for the tour, I talked to Dawson.

  We found a pod of dolphins but our tour guide told us their behavior indicated they were sleeping, so we moved on. I totally get that because hell hath no fury like a dolphin scorned or something.

My screaming footage of our dolphin friend. It's also unfortunately terrible footage that I couldn't rotate in YouTube because they are pirate overlords. It just felt good to say. 

Afterward we went out to eat at a seafood joint that didn't have snow crab legs! Can you even? My diva came out and I ordered fish tacos with an attitude.

Sunday began with Evan eating Ramen noodles for breakfast.

 

 Our beach time was inundated with minnows.

 I was finally able to take my favorite picture of the beach from inside the condo.

 And we had another great sunset.

 Jenessa and fam had to leave on Monday so we had our last day on the beach to ourselves which made me more apt to wallow in self pity that they had to leave.

While I wallowed, Dawson took the net and went on the hunt for Loch Ness.

 Jason found me a Sand Dollar. (spoiler, there are no dollars in a sand dollar).

 Jason buried Evan in the sand.

Then we went for a drive to John's Pass Village.

We took a evening stroll on the beach, and Jason's camera is crappy on his old phone.

We left for Orlando for our flight home on Tuesday. Since we had time we stopped at a mall and wandered around aimlessly looking for something exciting to happen like a mime to talk or a clown to chase us. Instead we found a Bucca Di Beppo and no one wanted to share pizza with me! I'm getting all worked up just typing it out. But Dawson had been begging for Chicken and linguine with alfredo the whole week long so I had to sacrifice for the better of society as a whole. I really wanted their garlic bread too and Jason nixed that idea because the garlic is too garlicky and really, I didn't blame him because that sort of pungent garlic breath would make me feel bad for God if I needed to say even a short prayer on the plane.

And that brings us to the conclusion of this vacation.

Surviving LegoLand: A Vacation

We had the blessing of returning to Indian Rocks Beach Florida over Dawson's fall break last week.

Day 1: Denver

Any vacation that begins this way is optimistic in my book:

Especially if you're able to convince your 3 year old to handle the luggage in the airport.

Day 2: Traveling

 And speaking of said 3 year old, I'm still exhausted from the effort I put forth in keeping him entertained on the flights. We are currently pricing private jets as a result.

 We landed in sunny Florida on Tuesday afternoon with this view from our balcony. We were in the same condo as last year but had to rent a different unit which was actually a dive. But a dive with a view. Which is how I imagine most non-hollywood famous residents are able to afford to live in California.

It was late by the time we got unpacked and bought groceries so we called it a night.

Day 3: The Beach

 Of course the following day we wasted no time and headed to the beach.

Jason let me go for a run and I took a short video of the ocean because I love that sound. Maybe you can play it on repeat and use it to help you sleep at night.

This whole day was spent at the beach.

 Evan loves to dig. He ran back and forth from the ocean to his hole in the sand to fill his hole with water. After just one trip, he says "Mommy, help me. It's teamwork." I said "Where on earth did you learn about teamwork?" "Spongebob," he said matter of factly.

We went for a walk along the beach and we spotted a bird pecking at a dead fish so we went to investigate. The fish turned out to be a shark and Dawson picked it up.

After a few seconds of holding it, Dawson said "Uh, I think the shark is alive!" And the shark started to flap it's fin. Do sharks flap fins? Wiggle? Whatever. So he threw it back into the ocean and we never saw it again. Thankfully. Because I told Dawson if I got attacked by a shark later that day I'd hold him personally responsible. And that is the true story of how Dawson rescued a shark on vacation. Which pretty much makes him a marine biologist.

All daylight hours of day 2 were spent at the beach or in the pool.

 "Over there is the Kraken"

 Day 4: LegoLand

While planning our vacation, we decided we would give LegoLand a shot this year. In order to make this happen, I spent several weeks selling as much junk treasure as I could on a garage sale FaceBook Group I'm in. This helped tremendously and we made all the money we needed in order to buy cheap tickets on the black market. Otherwise, tickets are $90 per person. I could have purchased two chrome shoe racks on Amazon for that price. Before we get to pictures, I'll share the lowdown on LegoLand, in case any of you are actually interested in going there.

1. Purchase tickets through Costco (we actually ordered them through Costco online). They are $55 a piece. Much cheaper. And with the money left over you can buy me a gift.
2. If you're able, go in the fall. We basically had the park to ourselves, and the ride wait time was less than 5 minutes on every ride. Actually, most rides had no line and we were able to get on immediately and were told we could just stay on when the ride was over if we wanted to.
3. You can bring your own food and drinks.
4. Most rides require children to be at least 36" tall. So if you have little kids, they will enjoy the park much more when they reach that height.

 Dawson loved LegoLand because he's in a huge Lego phase right now and has gone so far as to actually sort out ALL of his Megablocks and put them in a container and gave them to his brother.

 We had to find a ride for Evan quick, before we started the day with a meltdown.

 I personally am rather fond of this picture, even though the girl on the left seemed rather disgusted by sheer awesomeness.

Hands in the air Evan. Or, you can put them at a 90 degree angle like you are surrendering at gunpoint. It bothers me that the blue shoe kid didn't have his shoe tied.

 Since many rides that Dawson could ride, Evan couldn't, Jason and I would take turns and one of us would ride something with Evan while the other was with Dawson. this little safari ride had Lego lemurs. I loved them.

 We took the boys to a show: Brick Beard's Pirate something or other. Probably not the actual title. But there is skiing and people dressed up like Lego's so it was entertaining.

 Evan loved the opportunity to drive his own car.

It was serious business though when it became a race.

 Located in the center of the park is an area called "MiniLand" which has Lego sculptures.

By the end of the day, we were all exhausted... except for Dawson.

 I looked exactly how I felt: A tired, sunburned, grumpy person who could be mistaken for someone who had just been run over by a truck.

On our way home, we stopped at a local favorite called Crabby Bill's where Jason ordered enough food to feed himself and a small island. You'll the see the plate of fries that belong to Evan on the left. All he eats is fries. All of you wish you could have a child so picky.

 Day 5: Dolphin Watch Tour

Each day we tried to spend as much time as we could at the beach before taking off on an adventure. If you see two boys floating in the middle of the ocean while you're out and about, let me know.

 Jason showed me this long row of clams that had washed up on shore and they were still alive!

 Evan could have spent each and every day in the pool.

 Jason had done some research and found that the best dolphin watch tour (according to Yelp reviews) was on a small tugboat called "Little Toot". 

So we went to Clearwater Beach that afternoon. May I remind you that the sand there is imported.

We actually went for a walk on Pier 60 this year which made me feel a bit Diva. Until I saw the bird poop on the guard rails.

Once it was time to head to the bay area for our tour, a nice guy offered to take our family picture.

 We spent the entire tour going all over the Gulf and never spotted one single dolphin.

 Evan got bored.

 I saw this house and told Jason we should buy it.

 And as we were on our way back to the marina, we got a call that another tour boat had found some dolphins. So our captain extended our tour and took us back out so that we could see them. Check out this awesome picture I got of one jumping! Is he jumping? because they don't have legs. So.

And THEN, I got this awesome video.

 On the way home, Jason suckered us into eating at Skyline. 

 We got our best sunset pictures on our walk on the beach later.

 I got jealous of their sunset action.

 Day 6: Tarpon Springs

We spent Saturday morning scouring the ocean for sea life and Dawson and I found hermit crabs. This haus wanted to eat me and to prove it, I got a picture of it coming out of it's shell toward my face.

 Dawson found an empty bigger shell and Jason told him to put the shell in the bucket with the hermit crab to see if he would change shells. He did and Jason got video. I'm glad he changed shells, because the nasty ghetto shell he was currently inhabiting was covered in barnacles and they make my skin crawl.

That afternoon, we met Jason's Aunt Karolyn and her husband John in a quaint little Greek town called Tarpon Springs. It's known for it's spongedocks and Greek food.

We visited a small aquarium there.

Dawson was fascinated by this remora fish that kept attaching itself to his arm

Evan was fascinated by this alligator that stared.

 I fed a stingray and I didn't die.

And Jason and Evan fed a shark

We at lunch at a quaint little Greek place called Hellas 

and then got back in time for an evening stroll on the beach.

 Day 7: John's Pass

As we neared the end of our vacation, we made one last day trip out to a small area just down the beach from us called John's Pass. 

In case you ever go there and need to know where all the stores are located, here's a directory.

It has a board walk. We walked down the board walk to a fishing area in the bay and I saw a dolphin! In the wild! But I didn't get a picture.

 It also has a shop that will put a picture of your dog on your shirt for you. I lean more toward air brushed shirts, but whatever.

 We didn't get a shirt.  Maybe next year. Instead we went back to the beach where Dawson and Jason buried Evan in the sand.

 A happy sea turtle.

Jailbreak.

 Then the boys lounged by the pool.

We spent every evening past 7:00 laying in bed watch cable in case you were wondering. I found a new to me show called Tanked, and now I'm obsessed with owning an octopus.

Day 8: Good-Bye

It was time to say good-bye to our awesome Florida vacation. 

So we did that by taking selfies on the beach.

Dawson made a sign for the sand castle he and Evan built "Welcome People of the The World to Our Sand Castle"

 Good-bye Indian Rocks Beach!

 I'm leaning more toward a vacation in Italy next year.