Monday Summary

Monday we decided to head over to the Mote Aquarium and St. Armand's Circle over on Longboat Key. Uncle Peter's neighbor Art was very nice to provide us some passes (thanks!) so we headed over mid morning to check it out.
The exhibits were great and everyone had a fun time seeing the Manatee, the Sharks and all the other fish. Some favorites were the huge hermit crab, the squid and the Sea-turtles.
After the Aquarium we went over to St.Armand's Circle for some lunch and shopping. This was a very cool place and we had a cool lunch at a small pizza place sitting out on the hot sidewalks. The shops were all really interesting and cool, kind of a tropical East Hampton and we all enjoyed walking around.
Best of all Lido beach was right off the circle and by the time we were ready for the beach around 3:30-4pm we zipped right over and enjoyed the beautiful beach. The sand was so fine and white, kind of different from Venice beach the day before. More fun with building sand castles. Jenn seemed to enjoy eating the sand no matter what beach we were at...apparently it all tasted good. We stayed until it was time for food and sleep again and headed back to the condo. Another super Florida day.

Check out the cool ship model we found. 

St. Armand's Circle shops...

Octopuss sculpture

Waiting for Lunch @ St. Armands...

Jennifer is being inconspicuous, enjoying the shade under her beach towel. 

The manatee munch...

Octopus... I've got my eye on you....

Nemo... Is that you?

Kids and coral\

Hello fishy.

But whats over there?

Sharks are great! Behind the glass!

Stingrays @ mote aquarium...

Shark

Waking up in florida! Day 4

Sunday Wrap

Today we decided to head down to Punta Gorda to see Grammy and Pa. The ride was shorter than we thought and about 45 minutes after leaving (twice thanks to Dad forgetting the camera) we arrived at their really nice new condo.
Justin and Amanda and I went in the pool with Pa for a little while before lunch. We had a great lunch thanks to Gail and the kids played around the condo while we visited. Dick gave us some alternatives for the route home.
On the way back from their house we stopped in Venice and (finally) went to the beach. Jennifer had her first visit to the florida beaches and Justin and I swam in the Gulf of Mexico for the first time. The beach was right next to a small airport, that apparently Papa and Grandma have flown into a few times.
Justin and I had fun building castles, and Crystal hung out with Jen on a towel for a while. Amanda got in on the castle building as well then she and Crystal went for a walk with Justin for shells while I sat with Jenn.
We drove around looking for a Dairy Queen with no success on the way back. We rode up the coast road 41 all the way back to Sarasota.

Fast & yummy for tired beachgoers...

Woo-hoo dunkies! The girls are psyched.

The "traveling" artist prepares his new work...

Waiting for mom & amanda @ starbucks... On our way 2 grammy & pa this morning.

Saturday Summary

Today we headed out to Siesta Key for breakfast. We found the beach and the village no problem, not far from the condo at all. We are figuring out where stuff is on Bee Ridge Rd., most notably the Starbucks…
The Siesta Key village area was nice, the beach looked gorgeous. We ate at a place called Napoli's, and the breakfast was decent.
After breakfast we walked around a little and found a bunch of cool stuff in the Beach Bazzar store where we ended up spending most of our time. Justin got a cool Pirate Beach Chair and a skim board. The girls got some other beach essentials and we headed back by the beach. By this point (around noon) the beach, and parking lots were full and we decided to head back to the condo.
The kids swam in the pool for a while and we relaxed a bit until it was time to go over to Peter and Elaine Allen’s house for the evening.
Their place was really cool, we all really thought Pete’s Pub was neat, and the house in general was beautiful. Justin swam in the pool, and Quincy the dog was flustered by his swimmies (my theory). Apparently he would usually swim around with him, but he wasn’t up to it. We had a great dinner and really enjoyed our time with them.
Back to the condo for the night.
Regarding the pics below... I managed to fail to get a good shot of our gracious hosts. We should have set up some kind of group photo of all of us by Pete's Pub, or in front of the house. Sorry.

One side done... Now flip...

Chillin...

Happy frog :)

Relaxing @ pool

... now how does this thing go on? 

Poolside @ tippecanoe...

"Hey you two in the pool... over here right NOW!"

Princess...

... and the flying duck.

Quick dip in the pool. 

Like my bathing suit?

Breakfast @ Siesta key...saturday morning.. Obviously still waking up!