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Thursday, August 2, 2012

Making Memories...

So, we just got back the other day from our FIRST EVER family vacation - as in a family vacation with JUST Reid, Ashley & Caeden.  We've gone on various trips with our parents and such - but this was our first time to go somewhere faraway with just us three!  I was sooo excited the weeks leading up to it - and a little nervous too.  But it was SOOO great and Caeden had a blast!

Back in March, we had booked this trip - we decided to go to Clearwater, Florida, rent a condo, and just spend lots of days at the beach.  Even when we left, we didn't really have a "plan" or "schedule," which made it even better!  This blog post might be a little lengthy, but I will do a quick recap of each day, with LOTS of pictures!!!  Here we go.....!!!

DAY #1 (Wed, July 25th)
We left Bentonville around 2pm and drove to the Springfield Airport.  We were hoping Caeden would sleep most of the way because our flight would not be landing until late that night.  But....he didn't....just a short 30 minute nap...  He did great at the airport with all our stops through check-in, security, getting dinner, etc.  We literally walked up to the gate as they were boarding, so there was no wait time in the airport!  YAY!  As our plane had left the gate and was sitting in the runway to take off on time, a lady started having a severe anxiety attack.  So they had to drive the plane back to the gate and let her get off, which resulted in a 40 minute delay...bummer!  Caeden did AWESOME waiting it out on the plane!



We finally took off at 6:20pm, and Caeden LOVED seeing out the window!  He watched out the window until we couldn't see anything below us!



 We did lots of snacking & movie watching
while we were flying!

Our flight finally landed at 9:15pm (Florida time) - only a 2 hour flight.  We got our bags, got our rental car, and drove the 30 minute drive to our condo.  By this time it was about 10:30, and we were exhausted!  So we put Caeden to bed, and went to bed soon after!!


DAY #2
We woke up that first morning, and had no food....So Daddy saved the day by running to a local Donut shop that we had seen the night before.  As soon as we got food in our bellies, we ran to the closest Walmart Neighborhood Market and picked up some groceries for the week.  Of course, the whole time, Caeden is saying, "I wanna go to the beach!! I wanna go to the beach!"  We would explain that if we didn't get food we would have nothing to eat.  He would then respond with, "I don't need food!"  Ha - we'll see if that still rings true at lunchtime!  As soon as we got home, we put on our swimsuits, packed our lunches, and walked down to the beach that was right across the street!  It was awesome!


The first thing he did was start picking up seashells!  This was one of his favorite parts of the trip!  We had so many seashells, it's not even funny - most of which were broken and looked exactly the same! ;)




Another favorite part was playing in the waves!






We stopped after a few hours to eat lunch, which Reid says was "The best...lunch...ever!"

Don't laugh at my belly...


But I have to say Caeden's very favorite part of the beach, every day we were there was playing in the sand!!!  He absolutely loved it!  He figured out how to pack his bucket, dump it over, and make a sand castle!  He did this over...and over...and over...for 5 days....  Right behind that, he loved jumping on them, as soon as he had built them!!




By mid-afternoon, Reid & I were ready for a break (Caeden wasn't), so we walked back to our condo to take some naps and rest.  After naps, Caeden & Daddy went to play at the pool for just a little bit while Mommy got ready for the evening.




We went out that evening to an area called John's Pass that was neat.  We ate dinner at an outdoor restaurant called "The Hut" and it literally was a large hut.  We chose to eat on the pier that went out from the hut, so we got to eat right on the ocean, which was awesome!  Caeden even got to see a "real" pirate ship sail by!




After finishing dinner, we walked around John's Pass some more, got some ice cream, then went back for bedtime!

Day #3
The next day was a little disappointing....Caeden had been up the night before with earaches.  We knew we couldn't continue our vacation with an ear infection.  So after being on the phone with our insurance company all morning to find doctors in the area that were in-network, and then finding an Urgent Care place with a minimal wait.....we finally made it to the doctor.  We were there for about an hour, which truly isn't bad for an Urgent Care Clinic, but the process still took up our entire morning.  He DID have an ear infection, so then we had to go pick up his prescription and finally made it to the beach at Noon!!  The Urgent Care Clinic was pretty close to St. Pete Beach, which we had planned on visiting one day anyway - so we just made THIS the day we went to St. Pete Beach.  Of course - it was beautiful!!  The sand was even whiter and the water was super clear!  I would stand in water up to the top of my belly, and could still see my feet!

We ate some lunch...

played frisbee...

Daddy found a HUGE sand dolar...

Flew a kite.... 


And of course, played in the sand!!!!



After a few hours, we headed back to the condo for naps, played in the pool some more, then made dinner in our condo.  After dinner, we went to play Putt-Putt Golf at a place called Smugglers Cove.  This was Caeden's first experience with Putt-Putt, and it got to be in Florida!!  The entire golf course had a pirate theme, which Caeden is super "into" lately!  So he absolutely loved it!  Too bad his next golfing experience will be in NWA - he'll probably always compare it to this one, and be disappointed!  







At the golf course, you could buy some bait to feed some live alligators, so of course we did!!!  It was cool, because we would hang the bait off of a fishing pole, and they would literally jump out of the water to get it!  So great!





After putt-putt, it was back to the condo for some rest!



Day #4
On this day, we made a 45 minute drive to Honeymoon Island State Park.  This was obviously an island, so it was a beachy state park, which was awesome!  We basically stayed here all day - from 9:30am-4:30pm. We had such a great time, and Caeden even took a short nap laying on the blanket on the beach!  By the time we left, we had all had a blast, but were exhausted!  So, we spent the rest of the evening, hanging out at the condo, eating leftovers, and playing in the pool!


This is Caeden & Daddy 
building a big sand castle!!


DAY #5
This was our last full-day at the beach so we spent the day at Clearwater Beach. We were there throughout the morning, enjoying the white sand and truly clear water!  





After a few hours, we walked across the street to ride on a boat called the Seascreamer.  It was a very large speedboat, that does dolphin sightings.  We went super fast, and sat towards the back of the boat, so  Caeden LOVED getting wet!!  We also saw several dolphins, which was very cool!  There was one that literally swam right next to our boat, and we got to see one jump through our wakes behind us!!  Obviously it's hard to get pictures of dolphins since they're so fast, but here are a few pics from our ride!




After the boat ride, we rested up at the condo, and then went to dinner at an AWESOME restaurant called "Clear Sky Beachside Cafe."  It was one of the best restaurants we've ever eaten at!  




We then walked down to Pier 60 for an event called "Sunsets at the Beach."  This is where there are various artists, performers, vendors, etc along the pier at Clearwater Beach.  We took some fun pictures together as a family since this was our last night here!

This was a park they had right next to the Pier on the beach - Obviously Caeden loved this!




We then saw a real pirate!  We took some pictures with him - Caeden still tells random people about this!  The pirate even let him scrape his sword on the ground and make sparks!




Fun family pictures...




Day #6
On the last day, Reid & Caeden got to walk down to the beach one last time while Mommy stayed back to pack.  Apparently there were several sting rays in the water that swam right around them several times.  They were both pretty excited about this!  Our flight flew out that afternoon, and we were back home in Arkansas by 8:30 that night!  We all went to bed early, but so thankful for this vacation!

It was so great that God provided us with this opportunity so we could invest in Caeden and each other right before Callie comes!  We all had a blast, and Caeden did amazing with traveling this far!  He is still telling people stories about the beach, and I can only pray he has some small memories from this trip as he grows older!

Just as an FYI: For those of you who remember, we set 12 goals for 2012, and we were able to mark 3 of them off with this vacation.  The goals accomplished were:
#2 - Go on a vacation, just our small family.
#3 - Eat at 3 new restaurants.  The first one we ate at was in Fayetteville earlier this year.  And the two we ate at while in Florida would complete this goal!
#7 - Visit one new state park.  This was done by visiting Honeymoon Island State Park while we were in Florida.  HOWEVER, we also visited Mt. Magazine State Park for the first time earlier this summer.

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