Epic Vacation Day 5 - From Grandma's to Club Med

After taking a laundry day, and just a swim, we got to bed at a semi-reasonable hour Tuesday night.  Unfortunately, Jacob fell out of bed at 2 am, and needed to switch places with Christopher, and I couldn't fall back to sleep .  So I started a load of laundry of our day clothes in Mom's washer.  Well, that woke Sam, so he took my place in the bed, and I took his spot on the couch.  It wasn't as cushy.

They are the sweetest when they sleep. <3

I didn't sleep well, but they did.  And they had energy.  And then we commenced with washing as much of the laundry as we could and packing before we headed out. 

On the way to Aunt Teri's for laundry, I saw this huge bird out front of one of her neighbors.  Wowza.  I think it's a Broadwing Hawk, judging by the bands on it's tail. Either that or a Red Tailed Hawk.  But he didn't seem red enough.  

Some of the local birdies.  

The pond behind Mom and Dad's building had all kinds of birdies. 

I think one was an Anhinga, and the other something white Egret. 

Mr. Great White Egret takes off!  

Jacob found another visitor in the front yard as we were packing up, Mr. Stork. 

He was a hoot chasing the Wood Stork down the street! 

He got such a kick out to the birds!  

Bye Bye Grandma's House! 

Maybe next time we visit, Grandma and Grandpa will actually be there. 

Three boys, being crazy, in the car. 

We were driving through the swamplands of mid-Florida when a storm popped up. 

Still looked pretty cool! 

I literally found myself asking the age old question, "What's that white line?" And explaining it to the boys.  Now they know what the White Line is. 

The White Line is a big rainstorm. 

Check out this pic. As soon as we were out of the storm, the ground was dry, the sun was out, but my car was soaked, and it was still Dark behind us.  Very Cool. 

We began to see Pelicans flying as we neared the beach.  The best quote of the day was Jacob, "Oh I want a Pelican!  I want to eat a Pelican!"  Eww.  But he thought they'd be tasty just like any other bird.  

And Welcome to Club Med! 

We pulled in just after 3.  As we stood there, Mom and Dad came in behind us.  Eric came shortly thereafter with Karl and his crew, they'd flown in together. Within 10 minutes, all the Willmans congregated upon the Club Med Lobby.  It was Awesome! 

The hotel helper offered to take us in his golf cart to our building/room.  

The kids couldn't wait to ride it.  So we let them ride in the golf cart, while we followed in the minivan. 

A tour of our room!  

The boys were bummed, we didn't have the room with the bunk beds again.  

However, our room was right next door to Aunt Teri, Alexis and Kaylee.  

Apparently, they only took 4 to a room, so one of the boys got to have the privilege to sleep in Grandma and Grandpa's room if they were good.  

View Haloo!  

The boys LOVED the view from our lanai!

View Haloo!

Mommy practices getting a Panorama shot. 

When Jacob saw all the sailboats and giant yellow paddleboards on the beach, he began declaring how much he wanted to go do that.  The other best quote of the day, "I want to go waterboarding on the beach!"

Priorities. 

Since dinner wasn't until 6:30, we opted to go to the little cafe, and get a little snack at 4.  We ended up meeting various family members.  And Priorities Yo, Mommy got a nice chilled glass of pink wine for her first beverage of the treat.  There was no drinking while driving, nor drinking while I was the only grownup on duty with the kids.  But now I had lots of Fam helpers.  We got some shrimp on a stick with a side of macaroni and cheese which was amazeballs, with 4 cheeses and bacon. Oh yeah. 

As we sat there discussing everyone's trips, we got a bit of rain, not as bad as the storm as we'd had on the drive though. 

 That's Florida.  Give it 10 minutes and the weather will change.  Like this!  

Check out this buddy we met on the way back to our room. 

All I could think was Mmm... look at that delicious crab claw! 

Kaylee caught her first lizard, this little baby enchanted all the boys the way this little baby ran up and down her arms and legs. It was super cute! 

Sam at sunset. 

On the way to dinner, Sam and I were dallying, looking for Mr. Crabs. He's so handsome.

It was a great note to go end the day, a beautiful sunset, and a yummy dinner with our family. 

They didn't put us in group together, but I sat where I could watch Bryce eat, and chatted with our family in line.  So it was still cool, and there is so much more to come! 

Epic Vacation Day 4 - Dunedin

The town that my in laws have their condo is called Dunedin.  The first few months, in my head, I called it 'Dune-den'. It is not pronounced Dune-den.  It is prounounced, 'Done-Eden'.  This has taken me some getting used to.  And I kept thinking to myself, what kind of town calls itself Dun- for Done in America. On occasion I say that I am D-U-N done, like stick a fork in me Done.   But still, it strikes me odd.  Anyway, I figured on this day, we'd explore the town, go to the Beach.  My goal was to go to the Beach at Sunset, so I could take pictures of the sunset at Florida's west coast, and then hit a sunrise on Florida's East Coast.  It didn't quite work out.

For one, it rained most of the day on Tuesday.  

We'd gotten home too late on Monday to go find the beach or a sunset.  

So we had a leisurely morning, which involved Laundry, because dang.
As it turns out, the four of us can go through a lot of laundry when we travel for four days straight.
It was also raining.
It's a good time to do laundry, in the rain.

But as we approached lunchtime, I felt the need to actually get out.
I wanted seafood, real beach fare.
And there was a break in the clouds.  

So we headed into Dunedin.  

There was a cute pub that I thought Eric would love. 

And a nifty doggie mural on the side of a building near a dog friendly advertised bar. 

Turns out the main part of town is super cute, it reminds me of Petoskey. 

We drove through town, I just wanted to find the water.  

We'd been inside all day, I'd hoped to find the beach, but it was raining off and on.  Glad I was in my car.  Turns out Dunedin is just down the way from Clearwater. 

Welcome to Dunedin!  

Guess it's a Scottish type town.   At least, judging by the Great Scot on the Welcome board. 

This was my view from the place we chose for lunch.  

It was called Bon Appetit, and was at the very edge of the street ending right in the water. 

My three sweetboy dates.  This restaurant reminded me of Rick's Cafe Boatyard.

It was classy, could be a nice date spot, but we ate outside, which wasn't as fancy, and that was fine with me.  It was still nice, and the weather for the moment, was perfect. 

The fanciest hot dog in the state of Florida.  

Jake got a super swanky peanut butter sandwich.  They even cut the crusts off for him. 

Mommy got some of the 'soup of the day' a nice southern gumbo.  

Oh yeah. Shrimp and sausage.  I can deal with that.  

Looked pretty too. 

Christopher got a cheeseburger.  

This made the fourth consecutive day he'd had a cheeseburger.  

He decided, over lunch, that his New Goal for Vacation was going to be to eat a Cheeseburger every single day.  Given what I recall of Club Med, I think that may be able to be arranged. 

Mommy's Grouper special. 

Apparently, Grouper comes from the Gulf.  So it's caught FRESH.  Right here. 

So when in Rome...

So I have decided to eat as much of the local fare as I can.  

This pan fried grouper sandwich was scrumptious!  

Even the tartar sauce was homemade from scratch. 

As we left town, we found this pretty dolphin leaping off the corner, like one of the Bison floating around Indy.  

Earlier in the day, I had told the boys we would go swimming.  When it finally stopped raining, Jacob said, "I want to go to the pool." I asked him, "Do you even know where the pool is?"  

Jacob replied, "Yes. Far."  

I giggled, for he had no more idea where the neighborhood pool was any more than I did.  We looked for it after lunch, and found nothing.  As it turns out, I wrote on FB about the conversation with Jacob, and so a reply from Aunt Teri came through, and she said, "About 20 paces out the back door."  Well, we hadn't gone out the back door, let alone opened up the window back there, we had stayed out of the the back porch and door, because there was some of Aunt Teri's stuff back there, and I didn't want it disturbed.  But upon reading that, I took a look.  

And there it was , the pool was 20 paces out our back door. Ha!   

So I showed the kids, and after flushes and whatnot, we decided to go for a swim before dinner.  I didn't eat much for dinner, since I'd had a decent size lunch, we grabbed some turkey and bread, to make sandwiches.  In theory we were planning to watch the sunset, but with all the clouds and misty rain, we decided to stay put through the sunset.  The kids were happy watching tv after our swim anyway.  

After a day indoors, the boys couldn't wait to go for a Swim at Grandma's new neighborhoood pool.  New to us anyway.  

Jacob has begun to venture out from me.  And he doesn't drown.  He makes me nervous though. 

They boys were having a great time, playing with pool noodles they found, and laughing. 

Their laughter is the Best Sound! 

Mommy has happy vacation toes.  

I hadn't had much time to do my toes before we headed out.  On Tuesday, I did. 

I did them while we had a break watching TV with Grandma and Grandpa.  

They are a lavender color with neutral tan and peach seashells, a hostess exclusive from June 2015, perfect toes for a Floridian vacation. 

And lastly, this pretty plant grows happily outside of Mom's window.  

It is called Ixora, also known as West Indian Jasmine.  

Beautiful.  

And after a long day, an evening swim was a perfect way to end.  

Epic Florida Vacation, Day 3 - Ocala

 All right friends, now we got to Florida late Sunday night.  It was late, it was dark, we couldn't see anything of where we were, so we really didn't get to enjoy it until Monday morning.  But we did enjoy it!  The boys slept in until 8. And we didn't have to pack up Anything.  That was worth it, right there, that made it ok that we drove so late the night before, and Jacob had pooped 1/2 hour before arrival. Ugh.  But it was a New Day! 

Grandma told me there was bread in the fridge and peanut butter in the cabinet, so the kids were perfectly content with Toast and Peanut Butter for breakfast. 

We were looking at all the various bug traps in the daylight.  The boys didn't believe that Grandma's house would have bugs.  But I had to explain, the bugs don't die here in Florida in the winter, they just get bigger.  Chris was shocked.  "What do you mean bugs don't die here?! There's no Winter in Florida?"  Yeah, imagine if he remembered how they light up the palm trees with Christmas lights.  They have no idea how good they have it! 

Sam and I took the table, while the other boys ate in the kitchen.

I had a leftover yogurt and Ningxia Red for all.  I packed it so no one would get sick on our trip. 

I really don't want anyone getting sick!

The one thing that we had on the docket was to meet my friend in Ocala at the Discovery Center at 1 pm.  It was about 2 hours away. But the decision the boys and I came to the night before, was that having a free place to stay, and NOT having to pack up was Worth driving the extra few hours.  So we did it.  And we did it again. 

It was worth it.  

As we drove out for the day, we caught this amazing view of Tampa Bay as we crossed it from Clearwater, to head back to the major highway.  The night before, all we saw was darkness.  

This was Gorgeous. 

The kids are hypnotized by the view of the water as we cross the Bay to Beach bridge.

We stopped for lunch at a Wendy's on the road.  Jacob had gotten a happy meal while we were on the road, but it didn't come with a toy.  He was sad, so we tried again.  This time, loved the Transformer toy Optimus Prime, and he played with it while we hit the road.  

Unfortunately, when as we were arriving in Ocala, I received a note from Melissa, the friend we were meeting.  The Discovery Center was Closed on Mondays!  Oh no!  

I had her hang tight until we arrived.  I hadn't seen much civilization on my way in, however, as we pulled in to the parking lot across from the Discovery Center, we parked next to a park/playground. 

So we set the kids loose to play, while we came up with a plan. 

It turns out letting the kids play in the 90 degree heat in mid-Florida was great.  

After two solid days in the car, the boys needed some free play.

It was hot, they played hard, and they kind of let us talk.   

We did manage to hold them still all together for a moment to get a picture. 

It's clear as they get above age 10 that boys and girls are Different. 

Alexis didn't really play with the boys for much longer than a few minutes. 

Talking to the grownups was more cool.  

But the boys played hard.

I loved looking around at this park. 

Check out this Spanish Moss!

Melissa was apologetic, in her mind, this wasn't anything exciting.  

She'd offered to go to a Jump-n-Play sort of place, or SkyZone. 

I was like Nope.  Chris can't hear in there, and tends to go into his own world, and it's hard to pull him out.  He ends up quick to anger.  I didn't want that today. 

I walked around and took a few pictures of the trees. 

They are so different than what we have in the midwest.  

I think Melissa forgets what it's like in Fall in Indiana.  They've lived down here for 4 1/2 years, they moved just after Jacob was born.

Spanish Moss is not a parasite, living off its host until eventually it kills them.  But it does stunt the tree's growth.  It just lives off nutrients in the air and rain. Cool.

Meanwhile, the kids were not cool. 

They were hot. 

We were all so hot, that when the Kona Ice truck showed up, I caved. 

I bought all the kids their own small Shaved Ice snack. 

This truck was cool, and the kids could build their own flavors. 

Red 40 wary Sam of course, chose the green flavor, which was a Lemon Lime.  He liked it ok, but not enough to finish it. Jacob chose two flavors, Tiger's Blood (which was kind of like Pina Colada) and Strawberry.  Lots of Red, and it was Yummy, because he didn't eat much. Chris ate Blue Raspberry, and held on to it, until it pretty much melted and he could just drink it. 

These two met when they were toddlers.  They were in Kindermusik together for probably about 4 years, and graduated that class together! 

I went to find a photo of the two of them together, but they weren't alone.  

Then I found this.  They both used to love to dance!

Next to the park was a creek/river, and I saw some strange birds nearby. 

I decided to go in for a closer look. 

They definitely were not like birds in Indiana. 

They look so strange, like some kind of African bird.  

I didn't know what it was.

Upon closer examination since I've been home, and a bit of Google, we find it was a Wood Stork. 

Three Wood Storks take off.

Only after I come chasing. 

So Neat watching him fly off. 

After much heat, we decide to leave the park and go to Chick Fil-A. 

It will be cool and have a Playplace for the littles. 

Alexis was too tall to play, but she gladly sat in our Oily Discussion. 

Melissa joined my Oily Team back in 2015 from a Facebook class I held, but this was my first opportunity to be able to share oils and knowledge with her in person.

I had brought Cindi's Zyto Scanner, and I went ahead and scanned them both. 

We discussed oils for pregnancy and discussion, and both of them scanned for Aroma Life, a calming blend good for your heart.  

Alexis took our picture together.  

Melissa has the cutest Baby Bump.  She's didn't think children were possible, then God laughed, and Surprise! 

 I gifted her with a bottle of Gentle Baby, a Perfect Oil blend since she's going to be having her own little sweetboy soon. Hooray for Miracles!

I cropped Alexis' photo of us, and it turned out very cute!

On our drive home, we hit one of those famous Floridian afternoon popups.  

But as we stopped for gas, we discovered this one left us with a Rainbow!

During these long drives, I figured it would be a great opportunity for the boys to share deep things that are on their hearts.   So I often turn off the screens, turn down the Hamilton, and ask them for their thoughts.  Chris asks me his deep thoughts, "Mommy, do you think the Flash drives when he goes on vacation, or does he just run carrying his luggage? Does he need to make more than one trip?" The things that occur to this kid, they never occur to me. 

The boys begged us to stop for Panera on the way home for dinner, so finding one (not as easy while on the road) delayed us.  Still, we made it through the city just as it starts to get dark.  

I've decided I don't much like driving at night anymore.

The sun sets as we cross the long bridge to get back home.  

Beautiful.