Thanksgiving Day

Doesn't Dylan look sad?  He didn't want us to leave.  He was giving me those sad eyes before I took him to the kennel on Tuesday afternoon, but he had a lot of fun playing all day with other dogs.

We left for Orlando early Wednesday morning in our minivan and Grandma Suzanney's car.  A normally 8 hour drive took us almost 12 with holiday traffic.  It was a long, tiring day of driving but we made it safely.  I caught one break from driving for almost two hours and spent most of it sleeping in the passenger seat, although I did manage to get this one pic of Spanish moss.  I love Spanish moss!

The next morning, we headed over to Clearwater Beach.  The kids found sand to play in as soon as we stopped and covered their feet and legs in it while we tried to find a good seafood restaurant that would be open on Thanksgiving Day.

The local police were very friendly and took time on their beach golf cart/dune buggy to ride up the beach a mile to see if one of the good restaurants was open...and it was!  They weren't serving seafood yet, but the breakfast menu was very tasty!  It was warm enough to eat outside on the patio.  In short sleeves!  And shorts!

And the lighting was great for pics while we waited for our meals.  Yay! 

My huevos rancheros were most delicious and I ate everything on my plate.  :)

Afterwards, we walked down the little alley next to the restaurant and straight onto the beach.  Grandma Eloise hung out in the shade and watched the rest of us play in the water.

It was definitely warm enough for bare feet!

As I was walking up to the rest of the crew, I spotted a dolphin barely 30 feet from the shore.

I let Todd know what I saw and he quickly pointed the dolphins out to the kids.

It was so neat seeing dolphins so close and that were in their own habitat and not a big tank of water!

We didn't bring the kids' swim suits, but they had an absolute blast playing in the water and going up to their waists.

They ran.  They splashed.  They had so.  Much.  Fun.

Even the seagulls played along with them while the kids pretended to fly through the water.

We got some good beach pics of the kids with Grandma Suzanney.

And with Papa Wenzel and Grandma Sharon.

Towards the end, the kids started digging holes in the sand, transporting wet sand, making up rules and building hunks and mounds of sand castles.

It was so hard leaving this gorgeous weather and beach to go back to the rental house in Davenport, but we had to get a turkey in the oven if we wanted to eat Thanksgiving dinner on time.

And so we did.  We had a feast set out before us with two clean kids in their pajamas and a bunch of adults sighing with happiness over a fantastically wonderful day spent together.  This will be a hard Thanksgiving Day to beat.  And wishes were voiced to do this again next year.

We may just have to do that.  Thanksgiving spent on the beach, in the 80s, close to dolphins and with two happy kids doesn't get much better.  Unless of course, we had ALL of the grandparents with us to celebrate this day of thanks.