Even MORE Family Fun

Sorry this post has been delayed. Can you believe there are even more pics of the family fun we had? The last day, we went to the outlet malls before hitting the beach one last time. The boys made these fun glasses with their wiki sticks at lunch. Very creative...

Family photo before the sand happened:

Let the sand castle construction begin!

Ethan wasn't super excited about having his toes dipped in the water. At last... here is the finished product complete with a moat and coconut.

We were heading to dinner after all of this, but the boys' clothes were soaked and sandy. We dug down deep into our Arkansas roots and decided to air dry their clothes out the window as we drove to the restaurant. Classy, right?

We were sad to see our family go, but their trip wasn't over. They had some time in Orlando before heading home. They sent us these two sweet pics from the Disney All-Star Sports Resort where they were staying. I must say that little E looks really comfortable on that football field....may have a future star on our hands.

Family Fun Continues!

Monday we headed to the Seaquarium and basically had the place to ourselves! I'm not sure if that is because school is in session or because it was a Monday. Either way, it was nice not to have to fight any crowds. First up..... the manatees! (Steph Lane we thought of you!) There were three rescued manatees munching on lettuce. They are huge!

Next we went to two different dolphin shows. The second show featured Flipper the dolphin, and he is pictured below jumping over the rope. The trainers did some nice tricks in the water with the dolphins, and Flipper could jump pretty high!

Show #1

Show #2: Go Flipper Go!

After lunch, we went to the show featuring Lolita the killer whale and some more dolphins. I have to say, it was pretty impressive. Lolita's trainer was in the water with her doing all kinds of fancy tricks. The pics don't do it justice. We thought we were safe sitting several rows up, but we did catch some of a BIG splash that sent Austin & Uncle Adam jumping up a row!

Trainer going for a ride

Prepare to be splashed!

Crazy trainer at top!

Lolita is smiling

Since the sea lion show was closed for "park enhancements," the only other major activity left to hit was hand feeding the sting rays! You put the food between your fingers and stick it underwater. The sting rays glide by and take it out of your hand. The boys were pretty timid but still stuck their hands in the water.

Whew! What a day! I was going to include another beach visit on this post, but there are just too many fun pics! I'll do a separate post with sand castles and waves.

Family Fun

We're still recovering from our visit with the Bradley clan. They were here for 4 nights of fun! Brian & Cynthia were troopers flying with 3 kiddos, luggage, carseats, and strollers.

A tickle-fest ensued immediately upon their arrival. Would you expect anything less from Uncle Adam?

Ethan was all smiles for Uncle Adam. Such a handsome little man!

We took an everglades airboat tour the first afternoon where we saw 3-4 gators and a couple turtles up close and personal.

The boys liked this little palm tree that was just their size. We tried to get them to help hold the gator, but they wanted no part of that. I think they both touched, it though. :)

After dinner that night, we drove over to the beach for Italian ice. Yumm! The boys loved sticking their feet in the water and were feeling silly.

Bed time was pretty exciting, too. We set Austin & Noah up in our closet with an air mattress and all kinds of sheets and blankets that made it into a tent. I wish we had a better picture of it.... 

The next day we packed up the minivan and headed to the beach. The one we chose was especially great for the kiddos because it had a manmade atoll pool that is flushed naturally with the tide from Biscayne Bay. Here is Ethan chilling in the shade:

The beach boys:

Alas, those are the only two pics I have from that beach day. Cynthia had some better ones on the real camera. They built a pretty cute sand castle... but there is another one later, too. :-) After some beach time, we had lunch at Johnny Rockets in Coconut Grove. We had no idea the balloons that the boys got there would serve for hours of entertainment later with both Biscuit and the boys.

Later that night, we had dinner down in Key Largo where the boys fed the tarpon from the dock. The pic with the bucket full of fish is what they were throwing in the water as food.

And this is one of my favorite pics... the boys being silly after their baths. If you look closely, you can see that Noah's shirt is on backwards. Ha.

The next post will feature our trip to the Seaquarium and another beach visit. Stay tuned!