Evening with Chel

We haven't seen Kelley's friend Michele in a few years and were so happy we could share a dinner/evening with her over our Florida roadtrip.  This is the face we got when deciding on Longhorn over Five Guys.  It's tough being six.

The kids were happy to put on silly faces with Aunt Chel after dinner.

Because they do what they're good at...

This evening went way too fast!

When we got back to the hotel, Chloe colored for a bit...

While the guys had a serious discussion on the sofa before bedtime.

We didn't stay up too late as we knew we had a long day of driving to head home the next day.

Afternoon on Clearwater Beach

After staying up so late, we all slept in and took our time getting ready in the morning before leaving Orlando and driving to Clearwater Beach.  We stopped for lunch at the same restaurant we at at on Thanksgiving day when we first got into town.

The kids were happy to be out of the car and breathing fresh air again.

Once we finished with lunch, we changed into our swimsuits and ran to the beach.

The kids hopped waves.

Such a fun day with absolutely perfect weather!

After coming out of the karate camp all revved up with the Tae Kwon Do spirit, they were all doing karate kicks into the waves.

There was definite chilling going on in the surf while watching parasailors and boats in the distance.

 Soccer balls were brought out into the ocean.

As was a football.

Chloe had to stop to build a sand castle.  Because that's what my girl does when she's on sand.

Chloe made a friend on the beach and they played together for an hour, building sand castles and jumping waves.

Todd and Owen played catch.

And it wouldn't be a good day without cartwheels from our cartwheel-lovin-boy.

This boy is so silly and was doing a weird frankenstein walk.

I love this out-of-focus shot of Owensk.

We packed it up close to 4pm and headed out of this little beach town for our hotel in Tampa.  Such a relaxingly wonderful day listening to the ocean and lounging on beach towels!

Last Night at Disney World

We returned early in the evening and rode a few rides before trying to find a very late dinner.

The kids were thrilled to be up past their bedtimes, riding the tram AND be at the Magic Kingdom after dark!

The railroad station was all lit up just waiting for us to return.

We arrived just after the Electric Parade had started.

The floats were all very cool.

We stuck close and held hands since it was dark and still very crowded.

There was a fun laser show over Cinderella's castle for close to an hour.

Much different than the laser show at Stone Mountain!

The laser lights really transformed the castle.

And of course there were loads of fireworks!

It was very late and while standing in line for a long time to ride the Astro Orbiter, we realized that our grumpy kids were extremely tired.  There were tears over getting out of line and leaving for the hotel.  It was not a fun departure as we worked through crying as we left and then an hour of standing in line for a broken down monorail to come pick us up.

We didn't get back to the hotel until after midnight and the kids did not wake up as we carried them inside and put them to bed.  It was a fun, but very long day and we were all exhausted.