More Spring Break Fun!

We are having a great time in Florida with the Klaasens. Tuesday was a rainy, cloudy, windy day. We walked to downtown Clearwater to have some lunch, did some shopping and the kids played at the playground for a while. Wednesday we went to Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. We had a great time!! Got to see lots of animals and the kids got to ride some rides. Elyse and Jordyn loved the Tiger roller coaster! They were both a little hesitant the first time they rode it (I rode with Elyse and Christie rode with Jordyn) but they decided they were brave enough to go just the 2 of them. Here they are one of the first times riding by themselves. They are having a ball but notice they are hanging on!

But it wasn't long until it was hands up all the way!!!

When we got back to our condo - Jeff and I went out to dinner just the 2 of us, while Kevin and Christie watched all the kids. They took them down to the beach and Elyse was so excited when she found this starfish but she was quite surprised when Kevin told her it was still alive!!! They took this picture of Elyse with her starfish before throwing the starfish back into the water.

Today we took the boat to Caladesi State Park. It is an island that you can only get to by boat. We saw some dolphin on the way there. We set up "camp" for the day and had a great time!! The girls had fun looking for shells and I even found a whole sand dollar!! It was such a beautiful day! When we got back - it was Kevin and Christie's turn for a kid-free dinner and we stayed with all the kids. Can't believe there is only 1 more day left - even the kids all got a little sad when we told them we only have 1 more day in Florida. Here is a link to more pics on facebook - enjoy! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=297200&id=559977367&l=a06619366f

Spring Break - the first few days

Our spring break did not get off to a smooth start. We ended up with a flat tire about 2 1/2 hours into our trip. Thankfully our spare tire on the trailblazer is a full size tire - so Jeff (and a guy who saw we were from out of town and stopped to help us) changed the tire and we were on our way again. We stopped in Kokomo for dinner and Jeff checked to make sure the spare tire was doing ok. We kept driving and decided to drive through the night. The kids did great, although a couple times in the night Elyse woke up and asked if we could stop and stay in a hotel because she couldn't sleep (even though she had just been sleeping!). We had a major traffic jam around 2am, Jeff and I actually switched drivers during the traffic jam, since he was getting tired and I was awake. The rest of our trip was uneventful - thankfully!

Since we arrived, we have gone to the beach several times, went on the boat several times, watched dolphin swim by our "backyard" and saw some dolphin up close on our boat ride. The kids have enjoyed the pool and we took a walk down to Pier 60 - where they have vendors, street performers, etc. every night and they also have a nice playground. Andrew went fishing with Jeff and they caught a couple of Spanish Mackerel. We hope to catch a couple of more, so we can have a fish dinner. Andrew was so proud to hold them up for a picture!

The house we are renting is beautiful!!!! It is on the intracoastal, so our boat is right in our backyard and it also within walking distance to the beach. They have tons of beach and pool toys at the house for us to use and the best thing is they have a wagon to help haul all our stuff to the beach! Here is a link to some pictures on facebook of our spring break so far.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=297200&id=559977367&l=a06619366f