This weekend we fulfilled a main item on our summer bucket list... "Staying with Grandma and Grandaddy". We did this last year and had a great time. This year was a bit more difficult because we had to work around school schedules. But... we made it work. The other downfall is that I am working without my Canon Rebel at the moment so I wish I had better pictures at times but didn't have the option. Mine broke in Weeki Wachee a few weeks back and hasn't been replaced yet.
Friday started with Steven deciding to stay home and work from home a portion of the day. He dropped Kenzie off at school which let me stay home with Will and get some laundry and stuff done. When he got home, we decided to go for a walk to get some steps in since we knew we would be driving a lot during the day and miss some prime stepping opportunity. It was nice to just push one child instead of two. Eventually I packed up Will and the dog and left Steven and home so we could go drop Jack off at Nana and Papa's house for the weekend. At Nana and Papa's house we went to lunch with Nana and Aunt Danielle. Then we decided to hang around a while before we had to head over to Grandma and Grandaddy's house. It was easier for us to drive up, drop off Jack and then go straight there as they only live about an hour apart. On the way there, Will and I had to drive over the St. John's River at one point on a large bridge. He proudly announced that it was the ocean and we were on the 7 Mile Bridge. No matter how much I insisted we weren't in the Keys, he stood me down. I gave up. Stubborn toddlers. We didn't have any issues getting to Grandma and Grandaddy's and beat Steven and Kenzie there by about an hour and a half. It was funny how much quieter it was before Kenzie showed up.
We had a great dinner made by Grandma of chicken parm. It was quite yummy. We also had sausage balls for appetizers. Kenzie was so excited to have them. When Steven and Kenzie arrived, I told Kenzie that the bad news was that I had eaten them all before she got there but the good news is that they were yummy. I made her cry. Oops. She was happy to see that I had not touched them yet. Then her and Will tried to devour all of them. After dinner the kids read some books with Grandma before we went on a walk on the intercoastal through their neighborhood. It was such a nice night! An awesome breeze off the water and the kids ran and walked along the entire thing. We walked about .7 of a mile in one direction, rested a bit and then walked back. I was surprised that Will only asked to be picked up once, which I didn't do, and both kids were still happy and (mostly) running by the time we returned to the cars. We saw an osprey, a few deer, and an enormous grasshopper. Will's favorite parts were the boats though. Or maybe getting to pee on a tree when we were almost all the way back. Poor kid was telling me he had to potty for 3 or 4 houses and was dancing so we took him behind a tree and let him go. Good thing he is a boy.
When we woke up on Saturday (early) we had a yummy breakfast. Or as Kenzie said, "Can we have like when we have breakfast for dinner but in the morning?" Um... so, breakfast? Sure, kid. Can you see that we don't do big breakfasts very often? As soon as we finished breakfast, we ordered subs from Publix and went to pick them up on the way to Jungle Hut. We were wanting to get there super early because the weather was calling for rain all afternoon and we wanted to be done on the beach before it showed up. When we got to the beach, we decided to set up the tent despite the fact that it was crazy overcast. The plus was that it was an amazing day! The sun never truly came out and there was a nice wind but it made it bearable. It has been so hot this summer that this was nice. The only downfall was that the water was rough because of the weather offshore. Will actually got super mad because I refused to take him to the "deep end" to jump waves. Steven tried to take him out, but it was rough and they came back. Will was so mad at me before Steven tried to take him out that he ran crying to basically tell on me. Who is this kid that wouldn't go anywhere near the water at the beginning of the summer?? He is coming around. He may be running in like Kenzie does by next summer. Though having a bit of a setback initially wouldn't surprise us at all. Steven also tried to take Kenzie out, but it was just too rough. It wasn't bad though because it was actually nice that the adults didn't get really wet or sandy. The kids... eh. Not so much. They were filthy by the time we left. We walked a good way down the beach and back picking up shells. The kids collected quite the bag full. I had to inform them that if they started picking up broken ones or super tiny ones, I was getting rid of them. We have so many shells in our house, that we don't need any more. Before we were ready to have our lunch picnic on the beach, we busted out the kite that my brother and sis-in-law gave the kids a couple months ago. It was crazy the difference in the kids last year and this year. Last year, Kenzie could handle it but Will was iffy. This year, they were on an even playing field. They argued over whose turn it was and both loved flying the kite. We did it for quite a while. Finally the kids got tired of it and their tummies won the war of needs. It was time for lunch. We only stayed for a bit after lunch as we had plans for the afternoon but it was long enough for the kids to get ridiculously sandy. It was rough getting them cleaned up enough to get in the cars when it was time to leave.
We were only at the house for a bit before we turned back around to head out to the Tanger Outlets in Daytona. Both kids fell asleep on the way there and I had to carry Will in as he wasn't fully awake. We started in the Nike outlet as both Steven and I were ready to buy new running shoes. It took a while to try on a bunch of things but we made our decisions and were out of there. It's always exciting to get new running shoes. I can't wait to break them in before our next 5k in a few weeks. We then walked to the other end of the outlets to Old Navy. I've been looking for a specific type of jeans and finally found them there. Then was the main event (for the kids). The splash pad. An outlet mall with a splash pad is super exciting. They LOVED it. This outlet mall was crazy empty too and for most of the time we were there, the kids were the only ones on the splash pad. One other child joined at some point but she only stayed a minute. Just long enough for her to ask Kenzie if she wanted to play tag and Kenzie to shoot her with a water canon. It took Will a few extra minutes but eventually he was letting water shoot him in the face and running through it with his sister. Just earlier this month he wouldn't go anywhere near the fountains in Winter Garden but today, he was all for it. Crazy how their moods and what they are willing to do can change. Finally we had to get out of there because we had dinner plans and still had to drive the 30 or so minutes home. The kids weren't super happy but they had fun while it lasted. Will kept referring to it as the "water park" and he kept saying bye to it.
We made it back to the house, changed, and headed out to Hidden Treasure. We went there for 1 reason, and one reason only. Fried pickles. Kenzie was soooo excited. We sat down, tried to order them, and were told that they no longer carried them. Poor Kenzie burst into tears. The server obviously felt like a terrible person. I felt bad for her. We calmed Kenzie down though and ordered calamari which she inhaled with the help of Will. All was well and good until Kenzie spilled her water. All over Steven. For some reason, we spill a drink almost any time we go there. I have no idea what it is about that place. Despite the lack of fried pickles, the rest of the food was awesome.
When we were done eating, we stopped outside to let Kenzie dance to the live band. She made friends with an older woman and they danced and spun around for a song. It was cute. Kenzie was so excited to have someone ask her to dance with them. The band thanked the dancers when they finished the song. Kenzie was on cloud nine. We then headed back to Jungle Hut to walk on the beach one more time. This will probably be our last time during the summer being on the beach (though we go back throughout the year... just not to swim). We walked up and down it again but tried to keep the kids out of the sand entirely as we didn't want a repeat of the morning at the beach with all the sand because we forgot to bring extra towels. The kids gathered a few more shells. Will decided that since he was on the beach, it was okay to randomly just pee. So... that happened. He is so used to being able to sit in the water and go... but that's not what we were doing. He actually peed and then asked if that meant he could go in the water. He really just was looking for a way to get in the water, I think.
Once we got back to the house, we cleaned up the house some, got the kids in pjs and set them up with some popcorn. They are obsessed. Then it was time to bed and they pretty much fell into bed. We had to go into the room once because Will had to potty but other than that, they were OUT. They were exhausted from the day. Will had a 30 minute nap and Kenzie took a few minutes but that was it. And we were go, go, go all day. We were all ready for bed. We stayed up a bit but I think we all fell into bed ourselves.
Sunday morning started similar to Saturday. Early. Will woke up again about 6:15 but this time we pulled him out of the room so he wouldn't wake Kenzie. He ended up in bed with us and fell back asleep for a bit. Kenzie "slept in" until 7:30 or so. We think she awoke when noises started related to breakfast but it was fine because she was waking up anyway, I'm sure. Breakfast was yummy again. We had whole wheat pancakes and bacon. Other than Grandma potentially poisoning us with (really) expired syrup (which tasted okay and we are all fine but we are never going to let her live it down), everything was great. We didn't rush out as early on Sunday because we didn't plan to hit up the beach or anything and if it rained, it wouldn't be a huge deal. Once we were all dressed, we headed over to a new park in town. It was AWESOME! Seriously, one of the best (if not THE best) park we have ever been to. I wish we had one built like it at home. The kids were seriously obsessed with the roller slide. I think it was their favorite but there was even a zip line. If I could have gotten Kenzie to work up the courage, I would have pushed her down it. I considered trying it myself but wasn't sure of the weight limit. The park was designed for kids under 12 so I might have been over that limit. Haha! We let the kids run around and play for a while before dragging them out of there so we could go back to the house and pack up in preparation for leaving just before lunch. I think they could have stayed and played all day. And the set up was so nice, that I could see us letting them do it. I really wish we had a park like that at home.
Once we were packed up, we left for Ponce Inlet. On the way there we stopped at BJs Brewhouse. We have been there before and it was good, as usual. The only downfall was that being a weekend, there were no lunch options. Those are my favorite. And the best deal. Will slept the entire way to lunch but woke up to eat. Kenzie rode with Steven and Grandma and Grandaddy had their own car. We had to take all 3 because we had plans to leave from Ponce Inlet.
Our plan was to take in the Marine Science Center in Ponce Inlet. It was easy enough to find and parking was simple so that was a plus since we had 3 cars between us. It was right next to the lighthouse, but we didn't have time for that on this day. We have plans to go back though one day for that. Maybe when Will would be more able to climb the lighthouse. Far less expensive than St. Augustine and although I thought it was smaller, it is actually the tallest in Florida so we would love to climb that. When we got there, the kids hid a couple of rocks they brought with us. One that they painted and one that we found elsewhere and were rehiding. Kenzie was so excited when by the time we left, hers had been taken. We moved Will's to a better spot before we left so his would be found too.
The Marine Science Center was great! It was pretty small but the cost was feasible. We got all 4 of us in for less than it cost us 2 years ago to go to the Key West aquarium (per person) and the kids got just as much out of it, I think. The highlight was the touch tank with 3 cownose rays and one bottom dwelling ray (that I can't remember the actual name of). The rays were super friendly and loved to be pet. They reminded me of dogs. Kenzie was initially unsure but we kept coming back and by the third trip around, she was petting them too. Will never really got into that part, but he liked to watch them swim around. There were a lot of other tanks too with some pretty fish in them. There was even an octopus but he was hanging out in a "cave" in his tank so we couldn't get a great look at him. We walked out to the bird hospital section and saw some of the raptors they had out there. The kids were super enthused with the turtle ICU. Two of the employees were doing tests on a really large turtle while we were there. We aren't sure what they were doing, but it was interesting to watch. We also checked out the laboratory which was fun for the kids as they got to learn about some native and invasive animals in Florida. We went back to the touch tank for the feeding demonstration. It was pretty cool. I wanted to feed the rays but I decided to step back as there was only so much food and a lot of kids wanted to do it. I didn't want to take an opportunity from one of them. Neither of our kids wanted to do it. Kenzie might have said she would, but I could see her grabbing her hand back or freaking out at her turn so we didn't let her. After we spent some time at the center, we drove over to get a better look at the lighthouse (from the cars) and then left for home. We made it home fairly quickly and were able to have dinner at home so that was a plus. I think we both put on a few pounds by not sticking to our healthy eating plans over the weekend. Hopefully it drops off as easily as it came on... we will see.
We had a great time this weekend and I'm glad we decided to add this weekend trip back on this year for our summer bucket list. It isn't far, but it is nice to spend some time with Grandma and Grandaddy away from home. We spent the week with my parents too earlier this summer so it was fun to do it with both sets of grandparents. Hopefully we can keep this up for summers to come.
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