We had one more surprise up our sleeves at the end of the trip. Legoland! We were pleasantly surprised at what a fun time we had and were wishing we had one more day to spend there. Such a fun time as a family and loved how excited the kids were while enjoying the day.
Grabbed coffees for Mom and Dad while the kids had a chance to check out the map.
Just loved the hot air balloons!
The carousel is my kind of ride. :)
This was a favorite...everything made out of Legos of course.
Awesome show!!!
Wave Rider
Some kind of Safari ride...which I loved because of all the animals built out of Legos!
Makin's favorite for Legos...Nexo Knights!
Loved how he thought to pose with the bad guy!
4D Nexo Knights movie.
The Bouncing Beetle was a favorite ride.
Who can resist a pic with a triceratops built out of Legos!?
It started pouring the last hour they were open. This gave us a great chance to check out the Imagination Zone.
We closed them out and wished we could have stayed longer!
Heading out of the park we had to check out the kitty and puppy out of Legos and were thrilled to find out they still had some Apple Fries left...we were all ready to go back just for the apple fries. Soooo good.
At the hotel that night I was already looking up prices for coming back here.
You know its a great vacation when you would go right back again. :)
We were only a couple of hours away from my uncles, aunt and grandma, so we made the jaunt south to visit for a couple of days. Although it was hard to see my grandma and realize she no longer remembers my name, we hope we brought some bits of joy to her for a couple of days. We are so thankful for my aunt and uncle for having us in their home.
We enjoyed several rounds of Yahtzee and Uncle Brian gave them bowls of ice cream both nights.
They loved swimming in the pool!
When planning the days to visit my aunt and uncle the kids said,
"We have to go to the beach with them! They are the best at finding shells!" So we did.
We visited Grandma in her housing facility.
Brad and the kiddos played checkers while Grandma and I watched and chatted.
It was great to get a few glimpses of Grandma in a few things she said.
This disease is so difficult to comprehend. You are mourning the loss of someone who is still right here next to you.
All I can focus on is that I'm thankful for the years we have had, so thankful for her legacy.
So, I struggled to decide about possibly hiring a photographer during our visit. It made me nervous to hire someone without any recommendations. I decided to just forgo the photographer and have our own photo shoot, which I sort-of regret because we didn't get an awesome family picture. Glad we have a few keepers of the kids, but still a bit disappointed.
(The reason this took so long to get posted...we never thought about how many people would be walking in the background as we took pics with the tripod and remote...sooo Brad had quite the photoshop job ahead of him. Poof, empty beach. ;) )
You all know I love my toes in the sand! Beach time was a huge priority and we loved fitting a lot of that in! The kids were really into boogie boarding this trip. Other than Indian Rocks Beach we also made trips to a couple of beaches nearby, Clearwater Beach and Treasure Island.
That smile says it all!
This was to rinse our feet off...
I loved that I could quickly go take a pic of the sunset!
Makin got a rash on his legs from one of the boogie boards.
This was a bummer for Mr. Speed and he decided to take a few breaks when it was hurting,
but he did not want to pose for a picture with his mother. ;)
Ok, so this is a break from the beach, but didn't know where else to include it. ;)
Something about food on the patio at the beach house just makes it something you want a picture of. :)
Loved our patio time!!!
One of the first things out of L's mouth when we told them we were going...
"We have to go buy a journal so I can write all about my trip!" (Thank you Mrs. Rhine!!!)
Leaving The Lower Deck! So thankful for our time there. :)
If you have never seen the movie Dolphin Tale, our kids would tell you to stop right now and go watch it! :) (And then they would say to go watch Dolphin Tale 2!) These are movies based on a true story (our favs!) and since learning that, the kids have been talking about the day we could visit Clearwater Marine Aquarium and see Winter the dolphin for ourselves. Lorelei currently aspires to work there someday.
The kids have patiently waited and anticipated this trip and it was such a big day for them. We arrived at CMA a little too early (somehow I missed they opened at 10 rather than 9?!) but thankfully they had a penny machine in the parking garage to help kill some time while waiting.
Getting in early. :)
We booked an animal experience for the kids (because if this is your dream trip...I think this is just a must!) and they absolutely loved it. They were able to work with Nicholas, the less-famous-but-still-awesome dolphin. CMA's policy is rescue, rehab, release, but the three dolphins still at CMA are unable to be released. In Nicholas' case it is because he was found as a baby with his mother. His mother passed away but he survived, but could not survive if released because he was never taught how to live out in the ocean by his mother. He also suffered sunburns while he was beached and still has the scars from those. We found out from the ladies who worked with the kiddos that he actually starred in both movies, but played a dolphin other than himself. (It was so fun watching Dolphin Tale 2 on the flight home and seeing Nicholas as well as his trainer in the movie now that we knew that!)
Their experience was amazing. They were able to not only pet and feed Nicholas, but give him signals as well, that ended with a splashing war. Just awesome. We cannot say enough good things about the CMA staff. They were incredible at their jobs with the animals, and they also were just so good working with our kiddos.
(A couple of green screen shots below...)
After the animal experience we spent the day checking out CMA as well as attending just about every "talk" that they had on the schedule. We learned a lot and loved the day.
Getting an up-close face-to-face with Winter and Hope was pretty special.
The little boy in the picture had some toys making noise that they were interested in so they came to check it out.
(His mom used to volunteer there so she knew just what to do!)
Checking out Winter and Hope.
The tail talk not only let us learn about Winter's prosthetic tale,
but also told us the differences between the movie and the real story.
Quite a few sea turtles live at CMA because they get hit by boats.
This makes them have air pockets in their shell and they are unable to swim like normal.
You can see how its hard for them to get very deep
when their bum wants to stay up in the air from the air pocket!
Underwater view.
It is a working recovery aquarium so you get to watch some of Winter's therapy in action.
Girl can't get enough.
We love CMA!!!
We had supper out on the deck at Island Way Grill,
which was a restaurant from Dolphin Tale 2!
(Check out Ms. L with her Winter stuffed animal who had to join us for supper of course!
Although they were a little fancy for our taste, L said she would enjoy eating there since it was in the movie.
They even had a word search with names from the movie for their kids menu. :) )
