Oh sweet Florida

Our annual Madeira Beach Florida trip had finally arrived.  The drive was right around 9 hours with stops and went well but we were all excited to get there!  We had beautiful weather and spent all day Sunday taking advantage of every drop of sun and ounce of water.

The kids had fun riding waves and floating in the water.

Grandpa brought bocci ball for the kids and the kids loved playing with him.

Bryce proved to be just as crazy on the beach as he is everywhere else.  He would go full force running into the ocean and fall face first into the water.  I'd pick him up and put him back on the beach and he would repeat his plunge into he water.  I swear he has a death wish (AKA he is ALL BOY).

Monday after a little more beach time we took the big kids to play some putt putt.  The main attraction at the mini golf place was the live baby alligators.  

Just for a few extra dollars we got to feed the baby alligators.  Luckily from a distance but it was cool to get to see them move around and come closer to you.

 Henley and Leah didn't quite have the skill of putt putt mastered yet but they had fun hitting the ball around.  That left a 3 man competition between me, Kevin, and Chase.  

It was so HOT. I think the temp was around 102 but we played all 18 holes in an intense, family splitting competition. 

I know the suspense is killing you.  Kevin snuck in as the 2017 miniature golf champion.  He knows that it will be on next year!  After some hot days we enjoyed some down time inside the cool condo.  

Oh my goodness, that little man is so cute....

On Tuesday we ventured out of Madeira beach to Tampa to visit Adventure Island, a water park.  We weren't sure how we would manage a water park with Henley and Bryce still being too young to ride most of the rides but they were able to do quite a bit which made for a super fun, super exhausting day.  

The life guard only had to jump in to save Henley once, so we consider the trip a win.  Henley did on this trip decide that she could swim without her puddle jumper and she was doing well.  She had been down a bigger slide by herself and did well and then I let her go down one of the smaller slides in front of Bryce and when we got to the bottom the life guard was in the pool with her.  He said she just struggled a little and I appreciated his caution.  From that point on she wore her puddle jumper.  Exhausted at the end of the day and after fighting Tampa traffic we got back to Grandma having dinner ready for us.  On top of that her and Grandpa had a small birthday celebration ready for Bryce.  

If you can't tell, we had spaghetti for dinner.  Bryce enjoyed his dinner.

Wednesday we spent more time in the sun and water enjoying all the time we could get.  Wednesday night we ventured out for a little seafood.  Two of my handsome men ready for dinner.  

Thursday we were able to use our passes again and make another trip to Adventure Island.  It was so much fun to get to go back another day. 

Thursday while we were gone Grandpa was finally able to find some bate so the kids were able to try their hand at fishing. 

Chase was over the moon when he caught 2 catfish.  The second all by himself and bigger than the first.  Unfortunately the only camera available was my mom's cell phone and it didn't capture very good pictures.  

Friday we were sad our week was coming to an end but we planned some fun to finish our week our strong.  Kevin took the kids out on a jet ski. 

Leah didn't make it very long. She decided real quick that Jet Ski's are not for her.  Kevin dropped Henley off along the beach with Grandma and Grandpa and he and Chase had a ton of fun.  With a quick lunch in between we then loaded up for a dolphin watching cruse.  

We got to see lots of dolphins and enjoyed a relaxing boat ride to end out our week.  As always we were very sad to say goodbye. We enjoyed a week with Grandma and Grandpa and all the fun times we had.  Friday night we had some very tired bed hogs on our hands.  It was one good sign of a great week.  

We can't wait for next year....