Florida Vacation Memories 2015

There's just no way I can possibly write up our entire trip, so I figure I'll cop out and bullet point the highlights (and lowlights) of our vacation this year:

 - Getting to go at all... Airline tickets were astronomical, but Hari thankfully managed to get tickets that cost slightly less than restoring Buckingham Palace. 

- We had to fly in and out of Tampa, approximately 2 hours from our destination

- Sunny warmth!!! There days into our trip NJ had a major sleet/ice storm.  We enjoyed 85-degrees-and-sunny every day of the trip. 

- Swimming- both of the boys (ages 4 and 6, mind you) have become such strong swimmers that they spent 3 hours playing in the pool with friends and neither Hari nor I ever got wet. We watched them of course, but they were fine. Ryan also started getting the diving squids off the bottom of the pool in the deep end. "I'm getting all three.  In one breath. Watch me!"

- Seeing friends: we managed to see The Bunches twice.  Catching up with them is so nice, and no matter how long it has been it always picks up as if we were just together yesterday. True friends are awesome like that. 

 - Relaxing. Is is the first vacation I can remember when Hari didn't work at least one day. He made a couple of quick phone calls but spent less than an hour (total) working. 

 - Exercise- we went for a few family runs, including a 5.5 mile trek. The long trip was broken up by multiple stops (butterfly garden, tennis courts, playground) but that is still a long way for two little guys. Colin was of course unfazed but poor Ryan had a total meltdown around mile 4 and simply refused to go any further when we were about 1/4 mile out. Hari had to carry the bike and I had to carry Ryan the rest of the way. 

 - Bald eagles... we saw two of them in the top of a tree and were able to approach as close as the base of the tree. Beautiful. As we were watching them Colon told me that it was "a real special treat" to be able to see them up so close. 

 - Swimming every day!

 - AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR!!!!!

 - New shoes for the boys. They wore their old ones for our trip down, and on the last day we went to Sports Authority and for them both new treads. Colin is now in a pair of black size 3 Nikes, Ryan is wearing stylish size 11(T) blue-on-blue Asics. 

 - Both boys did some worksheets and flash cards so we stayed on track for school. (It paid off - first day back to school they both had good days).

 - No canceled flights!  Woo hoo!

 - Ryan seems to have figured out how to sleep through the night. Finally!!  Colin still wanders into my room every night, but I can't complain because I not-so-secretly love cuddling with them. 

 - First trip to the beach was amazing. On the boat ride over we saw 5 osprey. Each one was standing on top of a pole in the water eating a fish, so we got an up-close view. Amazing but gross. Then we saw three dolphin (I spotted them!).  Colin and Ryan of course made a new friend at the beach, then on the return trip Hari spotted a pair of bald eagles on a tree on a small island. 

 - Hari and I finished watching the NETFLIX series "Narcos" about Pablo Escobar.  It was fantastic but during the final episode I was so tired I was falling asleep sitting up. Ridiculous!

 - Colin and Ryan both had their first ice cream cones. They have devoured plenty of ice cream, but this trip they each had their first cone. Colin of cours was wearing ice cream by the end, while Ryan somehow managed to eat the bottom of he cone first and still stayed drip-free. 

 - And we ended our trip with our Carolyn tradition: dessert for dinner... everyone got ice cream from Handels.  If you don't know Handles lets just say you are missing out on enormous portions of homemade ice cream.

Coming back to NJ was harsh... The high today was 34 degrees and tonight it is going down into the teens. But it just makes me appreciate our little escape all the more.  The weather was amazing, the location beautiful, but the biggest treat was getting to spend QUANTITY time with my three guys!