Florida Vacation - Day 4

Dearest Beach Bums,

We drove straight from Disney World to Sarasota, which took us about 2 hours.  We were starving when we arrived but I was also very anxious to see the house.  You see, Daddy told me about his family's "Florida house" very early on in our relationship.  So I've known about this hideaway for 15 years now, but this was the first time I'd ever been there.  Great Grandpa & Cousin Ian were already there to greet us and show us around.  We then headed out to a yummy restaurant on the bay for dinner,

Monday morning I woke up with leftover excitement from our adventures the day before and a new excitement for what was to come!  Deanna just happened to be vacation in Sarasota too so we asked her to join us on our beach excursion.  Great Grandpa took us to Siesta Key Beach and I was more than impressed.  Your mommy has seen her fair share of beaches and this was one of the impressive ones!

Colton, you were very cautious at first and did not enjoy the sand beneath your feet!

Jackson, you acted as if you'd found your homeland!

I asked for just 1 family picture before we let you boys have at it in the deep, blue sea.

Then you went for it, Jax!  All.the.way!  Fearlessly and with enthusiasm to spare!

Colton, you took a more timid approach ; )

 While we were all out there together, a family of dolphins joined us (meaning, they swam about 20 feet away from us)!  Deanna tried to get a picture of them but they were rather illusive!  We watched them in wonder for a while though.

Then it was time for some splashing along the shoreline.

And, during our walk, we found the coolest thing ever!  Check out this cute starfish!! 

All of that walking made for a hungry boy so you bonded with Great Grandpa!

Meanwhile, we buried you in the sand!

We wrapped up the morning with you boys playing in this "pool".

We went out to lunch for a little more Deanna-time!

It was then supposed to be naptime.  This was the first day that one of us didn't nap with you.  Instead, we just shut the bedroom door in hopes that you'd fall asleep.  Instead, we heard a lot of jumping, some reading, plenty of laughing, and then some crying.  We let that go on for nearly 2 hours and when we went to get you, this happened:

Oh well!  It was time for us to play "tour guide" as we took Heather & Billy to the beach for the afternoon.

(Our new camera made this water appear green - it was actually quite clear and a lovely blue color.)

Life is so good.