You can’t tell by the looks of their faces but this picture was taken at 4:45 in the morning at the airport! We’ve been looking forward to our trip to Florida for a really long time! Our day started really early as we woke up at 3:20 am (after having turned the lights out at 1:30 am) to begin our trek. We gave Lily and Brutus a small bit of breakfast, packed up the car with our bags, and took off for the airport. This is the least amount of baggage we’ve ever taken on a trip! Kevin and Finn shared a suitcase, I had one, and Finn had a small roller bag with his lovies and blanket and books and such in it. Kevin had his briefcase and I had a purse and that was it! So we didn’t check any bags for this flight. I was pretty impressed, I honestly didn’t think we’d make that happen. Griffin was excited for this plane ride, it is his second one, and he was all smiles once we got on the plane. It was still dark out (we departed at 6 am) so we couldn’t see too much but he got the window seat anyhow. He didn’t nap at all on the flight, instead he played games and watched a couple shows on his tablet. 
When we arrived in Ft. Myers it was cloudy and raining. Mom and Dad picked us up at the airport and we headed toward Siesta Key, stopping for breakfast (which seemed like the lunch hour to us!) at Cracker Barrel. After we arrived at their condo we hung out and then headed to the beach, as we thought we had a break in the weather. Not so much! It was windy and cool so we didn’t last too long! Finn did play for a short bit at the awesome playground they have at the beach area. 
Finn loved checking out the pool at the Condo with Grandpa (and splashing through the puddles to get there!). Compared to the air temp the pool felt super warm!
After a long morning the boys (cousins and daddy included) all enjoyed naps while watching a show. They were in deep sleep here!
Over the next few days we enjoyed lots of delicious food, ice cream, time at the beach and at the pool. We arrived in Florida a few days before the Bethune’s departed so we could all hang together for a couple of days. It was a great time!
We stayed at a hotel in Venice, a short half hour drive to Siesta Key. We started each morning with a yummy breakfast at the hotel 🙂
The water temperature was right around 70 degrees. It definitely felt cool when you first dipped your toes, but after a couple of minutes it didn’t feel so cold. We didn’t go “swimming” in the ocean but we definitely played a lot in the water and walked in up to our bellies!
One day after arriving at the beach some yelled “Kevin!”. As it turns out Kevin’s second cousin, Patrick, who lives in Ohio, was sitting directly behind us (literally 10 feet) at the beach! This is a huge and crowded beach so the fact that we were sitting right beside one another was crazy! Not to mentioned we had no idea they were in Florida and vice versa! Patrick was there with his family for winter break and his mom, Lauren, was there too. So we all hung out for a bit, fun times! 
One evening at dinner we celebrated moms 70th birthday! Wowzer, how can that be? Amy and I and the kiddos had met up at home a few weeks ago and the kids made a hand-printed platter for her. They each chose the color for their handprint and the stem of their flower has the number of leaves to represent their age when we painted it. On the back they each chose a “bug” to paint and they each wrote their names! It turned out super cute. 
When Grandma Kirk lived in Sarasota one of her favorite restaurant’s that we would go to when we visited was a place called Millie’s. We had a morning girls breakfast there while the guys made a breakfast for the guys at the condo 🙂 They are known for their apricot stuffed french toast – so that’s what I had!
Griffin had his first real taste of fish while we were in Florida. We went out for dinner at Phillipi Creek where Kevin ordered Red Snapper and Finn enjoyed several bites. 
On Saturday morning the Bethune’s headed back to Ohio and we moved from hotel in Venice to the Condo in Siesta Key. Later that morning my cousin Missy, and her husband Dave, and their kids Lindsey and Maggie came to visit. They live in Vero Beach, FL, but had been in Apollo Beach about an hour north of Siesta Key. So we hung out for the afternoon mostly at the beach. Griffin loved playing with the girls and really enjoyed playing football at the beach. Kevin had stayed back at the condo as he was very pink from sunburn! They also came back on Sunday and we met up at the local Art Fair in downtown Siesta Key and had a nice lunch together there too. Then they headed out and we went home to get Kevin ready to fly back home for a few days of work. He sent us a pic of our condo from the sky!
On Sunday there is a drum circle at the beach, so after Dad returned from taking Kevin to the airport we walked over to the beach and checked out all the action. Lots of people (and good people watching, lol!). 
February 26, 2017
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Griffin enjoyed some bears in the snow pancakes from the Pancake Pantry one morning 🙂 Then we explored the Village area shops for a short bit and then later headed to Dollywood. The weather was so warm! We were in short sleeves and were toasty walking around but once the sun went down the temps dropped too. We had a great time and Finn got to sit and talk with Santa. He asked for a real baseball bat, a real baseball, and a real baseball glove. (No more of this soft stuff!). He also saw Clarice, Yukon, and Abominable again this year. He also played a “baseball” throwing game where if you get all 3 balls into Abominable’s mouth you win a stuffed Abominable toy. Sure enough, he got three in a row on his first try! We were happy for him and he was so excited. He was tall enough this year to ride several of the rides this year so we saw several smiles of him enjoying new things. He and Kevin even rode on a crazy spinner ride that he thought was great!
Another new adventure for us this year was heading to Ripley’s Aquarium in Gatlinburg. It is really a nice place and we spent a few hours walking around checking out the different animals. They even had a couple of animals you could touch so Finn got to feel what a jellyfish and a horseshoe crab feel like!
Another really neat area was the penguins. There are tunnels that kids can crawl through that go right through the swim tanks and then they can pop up and stand amongst the penguins! He loved going in and out several times. 
A new restaurant we hit up this year for breakfast was Crockett’s Breakfast Camp. Oh my, it was delish! I had their signature pancakes that are cooked in a cast iron skillet and they are literally 2 inches tall, each! Griffin helped me polish off the strawberries and whipped cream that accompanied my griddle cakes 🙂
We moved cabins this year in the middle of our stay as we were there long enough that neither cabin had the full length of our stay. The second cabin we went to, “Lover’s Lookout,” we stayed for only single night before being moved at our request due to gross amount of cockroaches that we discovered after returning to the cabin on what would have been the second evening. Gross! Fortunately, we were able to move to “Treehouse” which was a great cabin and we enjoyed the rest of our stay there :). 
And here are some videos from our time in Tennessee, including Griffin’s first flip! He was so excited that when we went back to The Island the next day he wanted to do it again.
And we celebrated anniversary #4 while on our trip this year. We spent the evening at the Dixie Stampede and then moving from a yucky cabin to a clean one. It was memorable!
Aaaaahhhhh, vacation week! Can we go back already?! We look forward to this week all year long. Seems hard to believe that this year is our fifth year heading to Ocean Isle Beach. Five years, what?! Wishing time would slow down.
Grandma found the most awesome toy this year for all of the kiddos – a set of over 700 straws and connectors. Throughout the week the kids (and Grandpa and Grandma and other adults too, lol) made several really cool pieces of art! 
Sometimes being corrected is rough. Finn is really sensitive and often gets teary when he gets corrected or feels he disappointed someone. Kevin and I are realizing we’re being far to “adultish” on him and need to be much better about letting him be a 3 year old and do what 3 year olds do – and not correcting him so much. That’s not what’s happening here, Grandpa was just having a talk with Finn, but I thought it was a good way to capture his expressions. He has really mastered the sassy-lip face, almost making his lips look like the beak of a duck!
Though it is hard to tell, this is Dad and me, heading out pretty far into the ocean. The water was quite warm and nice this year!
This year we found a little, tiny, sand crab! Finn thought it was so cute and wanted to hold it. 
Here “Spidey” is throwing his webs at Grandpa!
This year we took a road trip to Southport, NC, about a 40 minute drive away. It is a cute little town with many shops and restaurants. We took a picnic lunch, and then walked around for a bit and shopped and went to a maritime museum before, you guessed it, meeting everyone to eat again for dinner! Finn has his dinner a bit early at Fishy Fishy!
This is the first year we tried out the surf boards. At low tide it was awesome to teach the kiddos how to ride in the waves. Oh, and they thought it was pretty fun to zoom down the beach on an inch or two of water. They even pulled each other!
We enjoyed an nice date night again this year at the Sugar Shack followed with enjoying the nice evening on the upper deck at the Ocean Isle Fish Company!
This years take home lovie was a shark. Finn fell asleep on the way home from a quick trip to Callahan’s in Calabash. This year he slept in a big boy bed at night and the cot during the day for naps. Not sure why, but that is what he consistently chose each day. I checked on him one night before going to bed and below is what I found! When we were at the store, he wanted to give lovies to each of his cousins too – so the last morning we took the annual jammie photo with each of their lovies.
It was nice weather on our drive home, however, Powell was getting big storms. So we decided to stop in southern Ohio at my old stomping grounds, Ohio University, and have a nice dinner. We had drinks on the patio at Jackie O’s Brewery (which wasn’t there when I was!) and dinner downstairs. Their beers are served throughout Ohio and in Columbus but I’d not had one before being there. I had a raspberry wheat and it was yum! We walked around a bit too, took photos of some familiar places, and had ice cream at a coffee shop that I went to all the time when I was in school. 
Dad and Mom gave us copies of all the photos they took too – there were so many great ones! So I’m including a bunch of them here 🙂 He really captured everyone’s personalities quite well. Some were taken with his waterproof camera from out in the ocean!
