Treasure Island Fun with Mimi and Papa 2013

 

We got up fairly early Sunday morning and ate a healthy breakfast of powered doughnuts and strawberry milk in the room. The boys were so excited because the knew my parents were coming down for the day. We filled the morning with playing in the sand and pool anxiously awaiting the arrival of MiMi and Papa. 

 

Levi loved the water and hated the sand last year at the beach, but this year he wasn't so sure of either element.  He's the kid that cannot stand getting dirt on his feet so we had to carry him a lot of the time. He liked the water, but was a little overwhelmed by the waves and really didn't care for the salt in his eyes.  He did get used to it enough for it to be fun thought. He just preferred the pool, and after our swim lessons with Tiny Bubbles we could not keep that child from trying to swim.  He thinks he can swim the entire length of the pool without coming up for air!

 

 Bennett loved both the sand and water, but only in spurts. This was our first year experiencing chaffing with him, and boy was his daddy sympathetic.  I tried to tell him that if he wouldn't roll in the sand, it wouldn't get in his pants but that took all the fun out of it, so we would carry him to the shower and help him shower off everything. Bennett also loved the pool. And even though he can swim really well, he isn't very confident. He did venture away from us a few times and really enjoyed being able to touch the bottom and walk around. 

Mimi and Papa finally showed up after lunch, and the first place we went was back to the beach! Both boys had so much fun playing and showing off for their grandparents.

 

 

 After we finished playing in the water, we headed across the street to shop. Both boys picked out boogie boards and about a gazillion toys (that we did not buy.) Bennett REALLY wanted a "turnip" crab (also known as a hermit crab) We told him if he found one on the beach that we could keep it, but we were not buying one. 

 

We had planned on going into Clearwater and checking out Pier 60 for dinner, but it started raining.  After waiting about 30 minutes, we decided to try and go anyway. We got to the truck and realized we were BLOCKED in. Everyone was in a designated parking place but the spaces were so close together that we couldn't back out of our spot. This is one of the main reasons we won't stay at the Thunderbird again.  Luckily (well actually, thanks to a quick prayer) the people behind us were leaving about the time we had given up. So away we go.  It rained the entire way to Clearwater. Because of the rain the events at pier 60 were postponed so we walked over and ate a Crabby Bills to wait. The food was great, but service was not.  I cannot believe that my 5 year old loves mussels. We ordered him an entire appetizer of mussels as his meal and he ate most of them!

The rain finally stopped and we walked out to the pier. We didn't go all the way out, but the water was beautiful. The beach was another story. Pick up your trash people! We couldn't believe all the litter everywhere.

The cool thing about Pier 60 is that they have vendors and street entertainers all around. Their is also a lot of sketchy people, so we didn't get too far from each other. The boys loved watching all the performers though.  Bennett didn't want to leave the man using buckets as drums.  And Levi liked the guy juggling knives and balancing on ladders. But both boys' favorite was the acrobats. They were really fun too watch even if their humor was a little too adult for my kids.  Bennett and Levi have reenacting that show many times since coming home.

It was getting late, and the people were getting creepier so we called it a night and headed home.