Happy Easter!

I know it's been about three weeks since Easter, but this month has just been flying by!  Okay, so after SeaWorld, we headed home for two days because we had a birthday party to go to and then we headed back down to Jacksonville to celebrate Easter with my aunt and uncle.

The night before Easter, we ate at one of the cutest little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurants called Tequilas, and I introduced my aunt and uncle to the glorious slice of heaven some call, Margaronas.  The fabulous company, frosty drink, and bacon-wrapped, shrimp soft tacos lead to possibly one of favorite Mexican restaurant experiences ever.  Tequila's is definitely located on the strip in my happy place.

Easter was fun and also happened to fall on Brent's birthday too.  I tried to be a precious wife by giving him a chocolate Easter bunny just like his mom had done for him every year since he was born.  However, the bunny didn't handle the car ride too well.

Poor Eggbert.

Despite the frigidly cold water, the kids were in and out of the pool at the crack of dawn, pausing briefly to hunt for eggs and ingest yummies.  We eluded the traditional Easter fare in favor of Mojo pork, plantains, and pigeon peas.  As typical per their backyard, Bob Marley serenaded the feast on their super comfy porch.  It was a great Easter.

 

Photos!

Visiting friends in Atlanta.

My old swim team pool.  So many hours.  Great memories.

Daffodil picking.

Wyatt's favorite restaurant ever, Crazy Crab!  Shrimp is his favorite.

Callie's swim lessons.  Just being around chlorine makes me feel whole.

After a birthday party and covered in tattoos that lasted two weeks.
The worst was the giant grim reaper with red eyes on Wyatt's arm. 

At the pool.  Tattoos still going strong.

Wyatt's goalie action shot.  The kid is awesome!  He loves every second of it!

SeaWorld

Yay!  SeaWorld was so fun and the day we went happened to be my birthday.  I wanted to be a dolphin trainer ever since I was little and although I knew we were there for the kids, part of me felt like it was an unexpected birthday present for me too.  I'm so ridiculous that I kept choking back tears during the dolphin and killer whale shows.  Ha!  They overwhelm me with their cuteness.

We all had such a good time and all get completely enthralled over the animals.  Wyatt wants to take care of sharks when he grows up now.  The cutest part of the day was during the Shamu show when a baby whale named "Nick" tried doing his own trick off to the side and popped his little whale tail out of the water.  He was trying so hard to perform like the adults.  It was hilarious!  We had hoped to stay at the park all day, but our legs were so tired of walking parks that we just couldn't make it.  Hopefully, we'll get to go back again soon. 

Family resemblance much?

Petting the stingrays.

Cookie noticed Callie's Justin Bieber shirt and broke out in dance for her.
Callie talked about it for the rest of the day.

 

Clearwater to Orlando

The next morning we woke up and headed over to Clearwater to see what the beach looked like. Brent and I were shocked. It was absolutely gorgeous! You wouldn't know it based upon area in Clearwater you have to drive through to get to the beach. In fact, we even debated on turning around just because the traffic was heavy and it didn't look like there was much hope for the beach at the end of it.  But, when we finally crossed the bridge over to Clearwater Beach, our jaws dropped. The water was turquoise and the hotels were tall and gorgeous.

The only sad little picture I took that doesn't do the water justice. 

It's definitely worth vacationing at in the future! We had hoped to stay and play at the beach for awhile but since the kids were already asleep in the car, we felt like it was a better option to let them nap and push on through to Orlando instead. We did get to drive by the aquarium where Winter the dolphin with the prosthetic tail lives (although I'm way too big of a wuss to ever watch the movie).

Half way to Orlando, there is a little roadside stand called Parkesdale Farms which President Obama deemed as having the best strawberry milkshakes in the entire country. While I don't necessarily agree with him politically, he might be right about the milkshakes. As far as strawberry milkshakes go, it was in fact the best strawberry milkshake I've ever tasted. We tried the strawberry shortcake too, but it wasn't half as good as the shake. It's probably worth the stop if you're a huge strawberry milkshake fan. Callie loved it!

When we got to Orlando, we headed to downtown Disney to get a taste of Mickey.  It really made us miss the Magic Kingdom.  We wandered around for awhile and had fun poking around in shops we had never been in before.  We finally got to our hotel after dinner and we were all so tired.  The kids kinda whimpered off to sleep missing their own beds at home, and we kinda were too.

Jenny boat from Forrest Gump.

Vinylmania!

 

Busch Gardens

Busch Gardens was so freaking cute! When I lived in Virginia, we were lucky enough to be able to go to the one in Williamsburg on the regular. I loved it so much. When we moved to Georgia, all we had was dumpy Six Flags, so we hardly ever went. Not that it didn't have cool rides too, but it was covered in gum, very dirty, and lacked shade-giving trees. I wasn't expecting much, knowing that nothing has ever compared to the Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, but the one in Tampa Bay did not disappoint. It was lush and gorgeous just like the one in Virginia. The animal theme was pretty cool too.

We had so much fun! While it didn't touch the perfection of the Magic Kingdom at Disney, we did enjoy it leaps and bounds more than the Animal Kingdom. The gardens in the park were just beautiful. There was tons of shade and the breeze off the bay kept the park cool. Also, because we were there on a Monday, the crowds were low and we barely waited in any lines until early afternoon.

The twinks got to go on their first upside-down roller coaster too which was a monumental event. Callie screamed, "Get this thing off me!" as soon as the ride ended, while Wyatt belted out, "LET'S GO AGAIN!" We also saw a chimp eat it's own poop and a gorilla dig for snacks in his nose. Educational. The kids thought it was great. Our favorite ride was called Wild Surge which was kind of a free-fall thing. We rode it at least half a dozen times. Don't miss that one if you ever go!

Spring Break in Tampa!

Woot!  It's our first day back home after a very long and busy spring break.  I'm so pumped though because I finally made it out to Tampa, FL after years and years of having that city taunt me to visit it.  I can finally cross it off the list.  It was a long drive but once we got there, we had such a great time.  My expectations for both Tampa and for Busch Gardens weren't too high since we always have such a great time at Disney.  However, the city and the park far exceeded even what we were hoping for.

Yay!  We finally made it out to Tampa!

We hit the road early in order to make the most of our time in Tampa. We got there shortly after lunch which was great since we were able to stop by a supposedly awesome fish taco stand on the north side of the city called California Tacos. It was fairly good; definitely not impressive enough to want to go back. The fish tacos were good and nicely drenched in a spicy ranch sauce, yet teetered on being soggy and overloaded with raw, chopped onion. I was so impressed by both the kiddos as they dove knuckles-deep in the jalapeno-laced ceviche complete with dangly octopus tentacles. They were champs!

Awesome view of the bay from our hotel room

Afterwards, we checked into our hotel and dumped our things before quickly turning back around and crossing the bridges over to St. Pete.  It was really cute with tons of really trendy restaurants and shops leading up to the pier.  We got a bunch of great pictures with the pelicans.

A real Zoltar machine like from the movie 'Big'.

What happens to poor dad when both twinks are too tired to walk.