December 2 - Tampa Fun

It's December people-only 23 days to Christmas. Are you ready? I know I'm not. We have a lot to do in the next few weeks. It will be hectic but fun! Also-today is a special day. It's my amazing sister-in-law Jill's birthday. Don't forget to wish her a fabulous day!

Okay, it's time to recap our fab Thanksgiving trip. I'll split it up over a few posts because I have a lot of photos. Let's dive in....

We left the Friday before Thanksgiving at 4pm and commenced our 3rd (and last) east coast trip of 2014. We hit bad traffic in Baton Rouge and arrived at our hotel in Mobile after 1am. Luckily the kids fell asleep in the car en route and quickly went to sleep once we got there. We hit a lot of rain the following day once we crossed the Florida border but there was no traffic. Yay! After a quick trip to Brian and Craig's new farm in Ocala to drop off Amelia, we arrived in Tampa in time for a delicious spaghetti and meatball dinner. 

We had an amazing time in Tampa visiting Grammie, Uncle Chad, Uncle Greg, Aunt Nicole and Leah. Let's not forget the cats, the kids LOVE Grammie's cats! On Sunday, we all went to Picnic Beach. The kids had fun on the playground and then playing in the water. They weren't in bathing suits but that didn't stop them from submerging themselves. At one point Leah was soaking wet and then started rolling in the sand. Trust me, they were all sandy messes!

The following day we took a cruise around Clearwater and saw lots of fish including wild dolphins, it was amazing. We also went to a little beach and the kids hunted for sea shells. The cruise was part of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, a facility dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating sea animals. Have you seen Dolphin Tales 2? Winter the dolphin is at this facility and we saw a boat used in the movie. Pretty cool!

On Tuesday, we planned to go to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure but the weather didn't cooperate. So the kids and I went to the movies and saw Big Hero 6. It was really cute and the kids loved it!

Thanks for everything Grammie-we had a fabulous time!

Attempts at a group photo..tough when the girls are making a break for the water!

and...they are in the water

Yamo girls

My love

Looking for shells in Clearwater

Cold little man on the boat

Julia's new pose for photos...zombie

He loved this elf hat

cousins!

Grammie gave the kids glow sticks and they had a BLAST running around the yard at night with them

Mmmm....delicious ice cream

While we had fun in Tampa, Amelia was making a new friend at the farm-Pearl