Sooo behind.... (again).

A lot has happened in the month since I quit blogging. I don't know what the deal is, I have just had no motivation to update this silly thing (sorry). But I am once again back on the wagon, and will desparately try to get updated and current within a reasonable amount of time.

To continue where I left off, my mom came for a visit. We had a great time. This is going to be a long post but I want to include all the stuff we did while she was here.

One of the things we managed to do while she was here was to go to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. None of us had ever been so it was something new to see, and hopefully keep the kids entertained for a few hours.

Here are my mom and the kids posing with a sea turtle.There was a touch tank where the kids could pet the sting rays. It was a big hit and we spent lots of time there. Here is Aidan trying to touch a sting ray. Here are Nolan and Zoie trying to touch the stingrays. It was actually kind of hard because the kids would always just miss them as they swam by, but before we left they were all able to successfully pet one or two.

This is kind of gross but cool too. There was a sea turtle that had some tumors on it so the doctors at the aquarium were operating on it and you could watch it through a window.

We also were able to make it to a Rays game. Here is my mom and I. My rays shirt doesn't fit anymore... so sad.

Zoie with cotton candy

Jim and the boys chowing down on cotton candy,

We also decided to drive up to Tarpon Springs to visit the sponge docks. After we got there we watched a film on sponges which sounds really boring I know, but it wasn't too bad. And Nolan still likes to try to name all the different kinds of sponges he learned about so I guess it was educational. After that is when things got a little crazy. Zoie's shoes were hurting her feet so I had to go in like 3 different stores to find a pair of flip flops to buy her, then several minutes after that, the kids all started whining that they were hungry. Needless to say our excursion was cut a little short and we probably didn't see as much as we normally would have. Yup, good times.

Here are the kids when we first got there, before all the fun began.

This is the restaurant where we ate. Tarpon is a huge greek community, so there were lots of cute little greek restaurants and bakeries. We didn't get a chance to go in any of the bakeries, but its on the list for next time. The restaurant was good and it was right on the river so we could see the water while we ate.

And of course, no trip to Florida is complete without several trips to the beach.

So fun! It was great to have my mom visiting and we can't wait til she can come again. Thanks Mom!