Florida, Day 2

On Saturday morning we woke up and hung out in the condo for a while.  We asked the kids what they wanted to do, swim or play on the beach - they picked the beach.  We headed down there armed with lots and lots of sand toys.

We were worried that we wouldn't be able to play on the beach at all while we were in Florida because the beach had red tide.  Well, I guess there was red tide in the ocean and that caused the fish to die.  All of those dead fish washed up on the beach and littered the shore.  It was GROSS - a 10 foot wide stretch of dead fish running the entire 3 mile length of Siesta Key beach.  Ewww!!

We were happy to walk down to the beach and see that most of the fish had been cleaned up.  There were a few here or there, but overall it wasn't too bad.

Hooray for a fish-free beach!

Cameron was very excited to get digging

Cutie #1

Cutie #2

Going down to the ocean to get some water

Cam was playing a funny game where he was making lines he had to jump over and past.  He jumped and jumped and jumped.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any very good pictures of it.

On their way back, Leah did not want to carry a bucket anymore.

She was also getting very annoyed that her hat kept flying off.

With buckets full of water, they were all set and ready to go.

Cam was so, so happy to be playing on the beach.

Leah had fun burying Mama and Daddy's feet

After the kids played for a while, Tim decided to dig a big hole.  I think he looks forward to doing that every year as much as the kids look forward to playing on the beach!

Cameron testing out the hole - not even close to deep enough!

Cameron tried squatting down but Tim still didn't think it was deep enough.

Cam and Leah making "soup" - they dumped sand into the bucket of water.  It was really, really difficult to get the soup out of the bucket when we were done playing!

The hole is now deeper than Leah is tall.

Cam thought it was pretty cool this deep.  Also, check out the wall he was building around the hole to protect it.

Yep, pretty darn deep.

Two kiddos in a hole

Daddy tries it out - not quite as high on him.

Cameron buried Daddy and then helped pull him out!

Then it was Cam's turn to get buried

He was even able to get out of the hole all by himself, which he hasn't been to do in the past.

After playing at the beach for a few hours, we headed to the pool.  We didn't actually have the camera with us, so there aren't any pool pictures from today.  But we swam and swam and swam some more.  We spent a lot of time in the pool this trip!

We decided to go out for our annual trip to St. Armand's Circle for ice cream.  As usual, we walked around the circle first.  The kids liked looking in the stores.

What a cutie pie!

There was a very cool new store that had all kinds of neat hammocks and swings.  We all liked this swing.

This one was soooo comfortable!

We made it around the circle and went to Kilwin's for ice cream.  Cameron picked his usual, Superman.  It is quite colorful.

Leah wanted her own bowl this year and she picked the Superman ice cream too.

She was pretty happy to have her very own.

Superman goatee and mustache

Yummy, yum, yum - a delicious tradition!

Labor Day at the Cottage - Part 2

The big plan for the Saturday afternoon was to have a Water War.  There were not a ton of us there to have one, but we figured it would be fun anyways.  Cameron was beyond excited about it, after hearing Poppa's epic stories.  He couldn't wait to pick out his outfit and get down to the old cottage to get started.

Cam's outfit: some weird long underwear pants and a terry bathrobe thing

My outfit - footie pajamas (tied at waist since they were a kids size 12 - couldn't quite fit!), a bathrobe and pig tails

Poppa's outfit - a lovely purple house coat

Leah's outfit: a pink shiny Barbie coat

Perfectly every day normal: a man in a purple housecoat and wellies buckling a kid into a car seat.

The Water War crew (we tried to get everyone else to dress up a bit more but they didn't want to look as silly as us, I think): Aunt Jen, Bridget, Patrick, Poppa, Maggie, Uncle Chris, Tim, me, Leah and Cameron

Our bunch in our fantastic looks.  Tim's outfit is a lovely matching terry cloth set.

Leah, ready to start, tiny bucket full of water in her hands

The starting configuration

The war in progress - Dad going after Patrick

Just like always, pretty much everyone ended up in the lake

It is much easier to just scoop water out of the lake instead of getting it from the buckets!

The water war crew, slightly wetter than at the start

The war was followed by the traditional swim out to to the raft.  We ditched our outfits though cause they were way too heavy to swim in.

Heading out to the raft

Leah didn't want to go out to the raft so she ditched her outfit and played in the water

And watered every flower she could find in the yard

Cameron jumping off the raft

Leah found a real watering can and that was it - all she wanted after that was to have the watering cam filled over and over again.  She watered every flower, piece of grass, random rock, everything that she could find in the yard.

On Sunday morning was the annual raft bringing in party.  This was the bunch who rowed the raft in: Uncle Chris, Patrick, Poppa, Cameron and Joe.  Cam was really proud to be the one to row everyone out to the raft.

Rowing out to the raft

This is the only picture I have of the raft coming in.  Once it actually got into shore, everyone was too busy bringing it in to take any pictures.

Bridget helped keep Leah occupied so she would stay out of the way.

This was Cam and Leah's little table for our stay at the cottage.  They loved having their own place.

This wasn't really on the job list, more of a spur of the moment task.  Tim and Dad decided to take apart the super uncomfortable and very rickety bench.

One, two, three.... go!

It came apart pretty quickly

Okay Tim, I think it's dead.

Cam wanted to have a turn.  He needed a little help from Poppa, the sledgehammer was heavy.

Back in the water for one last kayak ride.

Leah playing on the sand

Poppa and Leah catching a frog

 Leah giving Cam a push off of the beach.  What a good sister!

It's starting to look a little bit like fall....

Poppa and Leah being silly

Cameron getting fancy on the swingset

Leah wants to try too, but even hanging is a bit tricky for her.

More Poppa and Leah silliness

On Sunday night we made our last trip into Dairy Queen.  Cam was very excited at the prospect of his chocolate dipped cone.

Apparently, Poppa was also very excited for his cone!

Leah had a few bites of Mama's Blizzard and then wanted to go on the "balance beam"

The DQ trip was the perfect way to end the weekend.  Good bye summer!