Lane and Bekah’s Visit

The day we got home from Alabama Ben’s brother, Lane, and his wife, Bekah, arrived from Utah for a visit.  We love visitors!  (Hint, hint to anyone reading this!)

They arrived on a Tuesday evening.  We packed in the fun during their 5 day stay.  Let’s see if I can remember what we did.

Wednesday we went to Clearwater Marine Aquarium to see the Winter (my kids call him, or is it her, Splinter) the dolphin from A Dolphin’s Tale.  My mom came, too.  She is always so fun!  She also paid for us and bought each of the kids a toy.  She’s always so generous like that!  Just a pleasure to be around, ya know?

Usually my kids hate these dress up characters but they ran to Splinter and gave him/her hugs. Go figure!

After the aquarium we went to Clearwater beach but a huge storm rolled in so we had to leave after an hour.  The storm was fairly bad and it was rush hour, so instead of driving the hour+ back to our house we decided to grab a pizza and go to my parents’ house, only a 20 minute drive, for dinner.  And, as a sidenote, the storm flipped and rolled Mike and Sarah’s trampoline.

Thursday we went to Green Key Park which is just our little local beach.  Lane caught one fish and let Jax bring it in.  Bekah found some live shells which we brought home and boiled.  The kids had fun exploring and playing on the playground.

Looking for sea shells and crabs.

That evening we went down to our lake where Lane did a little more fishing.  He was working hard (see picture below) but wasn’t catching much.  Well, Ben spotted a huge fish in the shallow boat ramp area so Lane ran over and dropped his line in the water.  We all watched as the fish swam over and took the bait.  It was exciting to watch!

Ben skipped work on Friday and we all headed down to Ft. DeSoto with the kayaks, snorkeling gear, and beach chairs.  Hands down, my favorite place and thing to do locally is a day at Ft. DeSoto!  I feel like a child again.  Love, love, love it!

Getting ready to be launched!

Watching Uncle Lane’s crab.

We were there quite a while.  Maybe 4 hours?  We would have happily stayed longer but an afternoon thunderstorm popped up so we decided to leave as to avoid being struck by lightning.  Too bad because the tide was getting low and I wanted to go out snorkeling.  Ben and I did see manatees while kayaking which was neat.

That evening we slept at my parents’ house.  My dad was gone on a backpacking trip with Michael in Colorado so it was just my mom.  She made us a fantastic dinner and then Lane, Bekah, my mom and I went to the beach for sunset.  It wasn’t that beautiful but it was still relaxing to be there in the evening.

That night I got sick for anyone of you wanting to know.  I overate sweets too late at night.  My stomach is getting more sensitive the older I get.  I didn’t pass out, though, so that’s good news.

Saturday morning we had planned to go shelling at the muddy beach for live shells but somehow we messed up reading the tide schedule and the water was too high to allow us to do it. Instead we went to John’s Pass for a morning walk on the beach and some sand-combing.

After lunch Sadie and I headed to Gramma Meyers’ house to drop off some food while Ben took Lane, Bekah, and the boys to Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks for some shopping and pastries.  I hear they had a swell time.  Gramma and I talked each other’s ear’s off for quite a while, but I still made it home in time to shower and pick up a little before the gang arrived.

That evening we had a babysitter watch the kids and we went out to Frenchy’s Rockaway Grill on Clearwater beach for dinner.  I had fish tacos.  It was pretty good!  We took a few pictures and then went through the shops.  Wonderful, relaxing evening!

 

Sunday morning we had church and then Lane and Bekah packed up and I took them to their hotel in Tampa.  Their flight left at 6:30AM the next morning so they slept in Tampa and took the shuttle to the airport instead of having us drive them at 3:30AM to the airport.  That was so nice of them! 🙂

It was a great trip!  We had loads of fun and it was great to have an excuse to explore this place we love to live!