Christmas 2016

For Christmas this year we decided to go on a vacation for Christmas.  All I wanted for Christmas was to feel warm.  The only one of the kids not on board completely with the idea was Makai, but he had fun and since his birthday is the week before Christmas he'd just gotten several gifts.

We flew out of Kansas City because we can get better deals out of Kansas City and Kansas City Airport should have awards for convenience. We flew into Orlando, but didn't stay in Orlando.  Right after arrival we started driving down to Miami.

Waiting for our rental car in the Orlando Airport and feeling pretty cool!

Orlando, airport!!

                                                        WELCOME TO MIAMI!!!

Monty found out the Miami Heat and the Lakers were playing the night we got into Florida and they were retiring Shaq's number that night, so he got tickets to surprise the boys who all LOVE the Lakers and Shaq.

We were in the second to last row from the top.  The boys were excited to see that they gave t-shirts to everyone in attendance to wear during Shaq's retirement. 

Trey didn't want to put his t-shirt on because he is a LAKERS fan.  I reminded him that Shaq played for the Lakers!  In the heat stadium he had no problem cheering every time the Lakers scored.  GUTS!  The Lakers were ahead most of the game, but lost in the last few minutes.  During this time Trey was in tears.  It was sad to watch.  He took the loss pretty hard.  

Trey after the game.  Nothing could cheer him up.  It didn't help that the line to Taco Bell was too long so we went somewhere else.  

The boys sure slept well that night.  We didn't get into our hotel till about 2am, so we were all pretty tired.

 Day 2

And the next morning he was back to his normal self.  We went to this place called Manolo's for breakfast.  Several people recommended it to us.  They had some pretty good Churro's, but that is about the only thing good about the restaurant.  It was very expensive and very small portions.  After spending over $60 on breakfast we ended up having to go somewhere else to fill the boys up.  I was pretty mad.  When Dad got his omlete he said, "Wow, I didn't realize I ordered off the kids menu.

Dad and Trey share a favorite football team.  Last time we were in Florida we didn't make it to the Stadium, but this time we really wanted to.  Unfortunately, the Dolphin's didn't have a game the week we were there, but it was still fun to see the stadium.

Boys--dreaming that one day this will be their face on the banner.  

After seeing the stadium we started making our way North to yet another sporting event.  From Miami we headed north to Jacksonville.  We spent the night in Daytona and saw the Speedway.  It is huge!  We learned that the speedway is used no only for car races, but also for car manufacturers to test their cars.  It was fun to see.

The boys took turns playing on the Nintendo DS.

We watched the road

Even Mario drove.  Obviously the boys had my camera.  

Then Kyle spotted something orange on the side of the road.  For about a 10 mile stretch these bad boys were all over.  Right on the side of the freeway.  Pretty sweet!  Some were bigger than others, but they were everywhere. 

Day 3

We drove north for one very important reason.  The Tennessee Titian were playing the Jacksonville Jaguars.  Why is this important you might ask.  Well, because Marcus Mariota, Kyle's favorite player plays for the Tennessee Titan's and sins Jacksonville doesn't have a very good team tickets were very reasonable.  The game was all going well and Kyle was so excited to maybe get a high five from Marcus at the end of the game, but then tragedy struck and Marcus went down and we all knew it was bad.  Sure enough he was taken off the field in a go-cart and didn't return.  Later that night on Sportscenter we learned he broke his leg along with two other quarterbacks who broke their legs that day.  Bad day for Quarterbacks.  I was sitting by Kyle and saw his eyes swell with tears, but he held them back.  Tennessee lost! 

But one of the players gave Kyle this move from the tunnel as he left and all was again well in the world.  Besides Marcus getting hurt and the annoying lady who sat behind us, it was a great experience. 

Then it was time to get back in the car, but this time we'd get back in the car to head to where we'd spend the rest of our trip.

ARE WE THERE YET!!??

                                                        MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

We drove from Jacksonville to Sarasota.  When we arrived in Sarasota I saw my kind of Christmas Tree!  A perfect place to spend Christmas!

Photo Bomb!!

Turtle Beach was a great place to spend our Christmas afternoon.  Everyone swam and played and swam and played.  

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I don't see a color in the picture I don't love!  Beautiful and warm!!  

The boys humored me so I could get this picture.  I love it.  

This trip we are going to find a Shark tooth!!  Venice beach.   

We ate dinner Christmas night in Venice at a Burger place.  There were only two places open, so we went with the cheaper option.  But everyone enjoyed their dinner.  It was a perfect Christmas.
DAY 5--Caladesi Island

The boys made a friend

Trey being Trey.

On the boat ride to the island Makai was scared to death.  He had me in a death grip.  Yep--he still needs me.  

Dad still looking for a shark tooth.

The boys all linked arm and were pretending to be navy seals.  I learned that during this activity poor Makai swallowed a lot of water.  He will always hang with the big boys, no matter what.  He is a tough little guy. 

I'm so lucky!!

In Nature.  So, at Turtle beach the first day Tyler was pinched by one of these bad boys.  I was not very sympathetic, until I was pinched by one on Caladesi Island.  Let me tell you--it was pretty painful and scary.  Tyler told me I deserved it, which I think I did and it was better than the sting rays and rattle snakes they warned us about.   

Kyle--still loves birds and is a good photographer.

On the boat home.

When leaving Caladesi Island we were driving around Honeymoon Island because I wanted to try and get a Sunset photo.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw this little guy!  We love Florida Wild Life!!  You never know what you'll see next!

Day 6--Our last day at the Beach.  Dad was determined to find a shark tooth.  He did some research on the internet and learned that we were at the wrong part of Venice beach a few days prior.  So, we went to the right beach.

FINALLY!!!  Knowing where to took and for what, black not white teeth, and SUCCESS!!  

He finally found his shark tooth and man did we find shark teeth.

Kyle cracks me up!!

Even Makai found several.

When we got home we put our collection together at it was about 95 I believe!!

Kory even found something a little bigger.

We spent the whole day looking for shark teeth and the boys never tired of it.  We did take a break to have a fun lunch.  Papa Johns. We'd forgotten how much we loved their pizza we haven't gotten it in so long, but it made the perfect lunch for a hungry group.
But this hungry group is always willing to pose for a photo shoot.

And we watched this mother take care of her babies throughout lunch. 

Then we went back to the beach for the rest of the evening.

Tyler and I started looking for Shark teeth in the sand, when he got the idea to just start digging.  He dug and dug and dug.  This made Makai nervous, but we reassured him it was not against the rules.  

He was having his own fun in the sand.  I went back over to help Tyler and turned around and saw this!

Makai, sound asleep, face down in the sand.  I kinda panicked for a second afraid he'd swallowed too much water, but after seeing he was breathing just fine we left him there to rest.   

He swears he didn't fall to sleep.  

Meanwhile, Tyler crawled into his whole.   

And I finally got a picture of the Sunset!

Reluctantly we woke up Makai.  He was less than excited to be woken up.  Poor kid was covered in sand, wet, cold, hungry and slightly confused.  Sad--we all left the beach.  But when you are with a bunch of boys one thing can always help.  FOOD.  We found a place called Tijana Flats.

Kyle took a picture of his Chimichanga and yes. It was as good as it looks!!  And the jalapenos were so hot they caused Kyle, the kind of Sriracha, to cower in pain.  He jumped out of his seat and walked around screaming.   

Kory thought he'd died and gone to Heaven with his plate of Nachos.  

Day 7 The last day of our trip we went back to Orlando.  Orlando was so crowded we were very glad we had not spent the week there.  We wanted to do something fun the last day and the ESPN grill seemed like it would fit the bill.  It was connected to Disney World and was ESPN.  Not only was it a pain the the neck to try and get into the food was not very good and super overpriced.  I wanted to leave the second I saw the menu, but didn't because I was there for the boys, not myself.  Makai ate his burger in about 2 seconds and said, "Can I have another one?"  Um...for $9.00, NO!!  I was not impressed at all and Dad and I decided we are not convinced that Disney World is a place we'd ever want to visit.

But, I did get this cute picture of the boys in front of it.  

Then we went to the Lego store there and that was a bad idea.  I thought it would be cool to see the fun things made out of legos, but Makai just wanted something and this led to tears and a very unhappy boy.  I even explained to him before we were not going to buy anything, but he is an eternal optimist and thought we'd change our mind. This is a pretty cool picture though!  

So, I didn't enjoy our day in Orlando.  Probably it was a mixture of vacation being over and the last day being a let down.  But we loved our trip and loved just hanging out as a family.