Let's go somewhere warm

      We are determined to travel with the kids as much as we can, and it is sometimes hard to find a place the kids love and Mom and Dad can tolerate. I have been wanting to get the kids to the beach for a year or so now, so I told Joel we were headed to Florida. I did a little research on good beaches for kids, and Clearwater Beach came up as a nice one. So tickets books, did a little more research to see what sights we needed to get in and we headed East. I will note this is the first time I have been across the Mississippi River since I was about 23, I am still not sure if this is a good or bad thing.

                      Lauren sharing her movie with Little Cow and fox

     We landed, and to keep it interesting, Lauren left her backpack on the airport train. After trying to get it back, we had to leave our information with the airport lost and found. Thankful it was finally located and we were able to pick it up on the way back out of town. After a quick early dinner, we headed to check into the hotel and hit the beach. We were able to spend an hour at the beach, and hotel pool before bedtime.

My little cuddle bugs, plus Darth Vader

   The next morning we head over to Busch Gardens in Tampa.  It was a lot of fun, with kids rides, water rides, some animals, shows and roller coasters. Cooper and I rode a few rides, but mostly kept with the kiddy rides.

One of my fav.. Cooper not happy to sit thru Sesame Street show, and how really hot it was 

Lauren really enjoyed the show

Photo Op with Turtle

We were a little wet after the Rapids ride... it was very fun

Lauren AKA Red Baron

We purchase a refillable cup, and after a while we had to change to water since it was just so hot... this photo may be while hopped up on sugar :)

They had several big tree house type playgrounds that were very fun to run around in

Their was a roller coaster, that I was not able to convince anyone to ride with me, that threw water over the crowd. Lauren takes it like a Champ, Cooper runs away.

We got very lucky with crowds, many rides we were able to walk right up and ride. Cooper rode this ride over and over again. He would ride it, get off and run back to get on. He rode it by himself about 20 times. His laugh is awesome on this...

It was a great time, and only day one of our trip. Up next beach and boat trips.