Our Summer Adventures:Florida

It is day three of Thomas's Tonsil surgery, and he feels pretty crummy. He's asleep at the moment so, since we are pretty much stuck at home, I thought I'd get caught up on the blog.

After school let out in June, we spent a few weeks at home and then headed to Florida to visit Grammy and Papa. As always, we had a lot of fun with them and were pretty busy too. This is a great summer vacation for us becasue they have a big boat that we usually get to go on, there are beaches nearby and lots of fishing off the dock in the backyard. (the kind of fishing where you actually catch fish)

We flew out on "standby" so we didn't know if we would actually get a seat. We ended up getting the last 4 seats (Steve joined us later) so all three boys were together in the back, and I was way up front by myself praying they would behave.


After we took off a nice lady sitting in the row across from them switched with me and we all flew close together. I'm sure everyone around them was relieved I was close, especially after seeing those lolli-pops!

The first day in Florida, the boys were itching to go fishing with Papa. So, the following morning he got up early to get some bait and everyone headed to the dock. The boys did this two or three times while we were there, even off the back of the boat a few times. Thomas gave up pretty quick on this day because of the heat. Josh caught one and Charles tried. Yep, even I caught one!



Next we had a short ride on Charlotte's Web over to a marina where the boys got to play in the fountains while Papa pumped out the boat. This was a quick 1 hour trip, but the water was pretty rough which was so fun for the boys on the bow of the boat!


The best part about any boat trip?...your turn driving of course. At least Charles thinks so.


And the fountains were great too.


Our next activity was a Fourth Of July Cooking class that Grammy signed the boys up for. It was held at a cute little local shop/cafe and it turned out to be one of their favorite things this trip. They made red white and blue punch, sparkler fruit kabobs and firecracker quesadillas. Charles was in rare form for the first part of our trip. Lets just say we were butting heads a lot. So Grammy and I were a little worried how he would behave in class. Turns out he was great for the teacher (of course) and REALLY loved the food. Which meant we had a cup of coffee and browsed the shop while the kids cooked.


A few days later we packed up Charlottes Web for an overnight trip to Boca Grande. Boca Grande is about 2 hours away by boat (at least by our boat) and has a great beach. We were a little worried about the weather because they were predicting thunderstorms all day, but it actually turned out great. We did get downpoured on at the beach, but it passed quickly and was sorta fun.



This was our mode of transportation while on the island. Boca Grande is a tiny little place with just a few little shops, houses, a golf course and a great beach.

Here was our beach. Not bad!









An overnight trip in this boat is a lot like a trip in an RV. There is a full galley (kitchen) and two cabins. Plus the kitchen table turns into a bed and there is a couch too. We rented movies for the occasion and Charles was so excited to eat and sleep on the boat. After dinner at the marina we headed to the boat and did some fishing. Then we watched Iron Man and headed to bed.

Charles caught his first fish on this trip, and Thomas caught one too.



Steve had joined us in Florida in time to go to Boca with us. Here he is on the swim step in the back helping Charles get the fish off the hook.



Thomas really likes fishing, but he still won't get near it when he actually catches one. We keep telling him they don't count if he doesn't take it off the hook, but he isn't buying it.





The next day we headed home, and after acting up again, Charles was banished to "time-out" where he proceeded to konk out while Joshua caught up on some Harry Potter.



On the Fourth Of July, we swam in the morning and headed back out on the boat to see fireworks. The boys jumped in and swam a little bit, then we pulled out some glow stick. The fireworks were beautiful over the water.



The last thing we did before we left was celebrate Grammy's birthday. Dinner, presents, cake. The whole thing. That was fun since we rarely get to be with Grammy on her birthday.



It was a really busy and fun trip. We did a lot of swimming, movie watching and mini golf in between the boat rides. We will miss our Florida vacations if Grammy and Papa really do move back to Texas! One last thing...Grammy and Papa live a few houses down from the corner of San Mateo and St. Thomas which just so happens to be Thomas's name (he is Thomas Mateo Kall). It never dawned on us until this trip...so we had to take a picture of him by his sign. Too funny!