"It was a Tigertastic trip!"

The quote that is the title of this entry came from Jonathan last night as we drove home from the airport after spending a week in Clearwater Beach, Florida. It was his way of saying that he had a blast, as did we! When you live in landlocked Kansas (and come from coastal states), spending time near the water is great for your soul! We had a terrific time, did lots of fun things, also a lot of nothing but sitting on the beach or the pool, and kept no schedule. Here are some pictures from our hotel and the beach right in front of it...

Christopher even found this amazing shell in the gulf on day one...

The sunsets were beautiful too!

Our second day in Florida, we drove out to Legoland which was so much fun, especially for the boys! We went on different rides, Chris went on his first "real" rollercoaster and we saw a really cool "Pirate Show" with very talented water skiers...

Saying "arrrrgghh" to the pirates...

Of course, on Saturday, we had to celebrate St. Patrick's Day at the O'Keefe's Irish Fest in downtown Clearwater...

Chris showed off some of his dance moves in front of all these people to a little "Whiskey in the Jar."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk8UaZ8vxmE

Christopher and I went parasailing on Sunday, something I've wanted to do for a long time. It was really fun! We had a beautiful day for it and even had dolphins following our boat's wake on the way back in...

Of course, we had a lot of fun meals, a ridiculous amount of pizza, and several trips to the ice cream shops of Clearwater...

The boys' favorite dining experience by far was Lenny's. You can see why...

They even had fried matzo on the menu! 

On our second to last day there, the Kearns family drove all the way out from Orlando (where they were staying for the week) to spend the day with us. We all went to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, known mostly for the "Dolphin Tale" movies and the rescued dolphins that are the stars. Zaira (one of J's favorite people in the world) once did a "trainer for the day" program there so she was more than happy to come visit again. The weather, which was initially supposed to be really bad that day, passed Clearwater over so we all went to the pool, beach, lunch and dinner before all the worn out kids made their way to bed and back to Orlando. It was a very fun day!

We had one last full day before we had to leave and the weather, while beautiful and sunny, was cool and very windy. We decided to part for Tampa and found a children's museum that the boys had fun in until it was time to leave for our flight. The Glazer Children's museum...

Thank you Florida for an amazing week!