Beach Day!

Before we headed over to Tavares for the funeral last week, we took a few days to make the most of our trip to Florida. We’d had some hotel rewards points that were getting ready to expire, so it was the perfect time to put them to use. Busch Gardens in Tampa gives free tickets to military families so they can attend free once a year. Our kids LOVED it when we went a few years ago and were so excited when we told them we might get to go again this time. I wish I had pictures from our day at Busch Gardens, but I was too busy riding roller coasters and just enjoying being there. All of the kids tried at least one roller coaster that they hadn’t ridden before, and by the end of the day, Rhett was riding some of the adult roller coasters and loved it! If you’re military and interested in getting free tickets, just head to Waves of Honor.

The day after we went to Busch Gardens, we had a few hours to spare so we headed West so we could hit the nearest beach we could find. We headed onto Clearwater and drove past all the hotels and expensive parking in hopes of finding somewhere less crowded and happened upon a cute little state park beach that wasn’t busy at all. I wish I knew the name so I could tell you, but all I was paying attention to was getting my feet in the sand. The kids had a blast playing for a few hours and we all got a little more sun than we realized!

Sawyer and Rhett were brave enough that they actually went in the chilly water with Brandon (it was wayyyy too cold for me) and Ford was completely occupied with having unlimited amounts of sand to dig in. He grabbed a shovel, stole my sunglasses, and played for hours.

Sawyer spent most of his time looking for “special shells” and had a big collection gathered by the time we left. Last time we went to the beach he snuck some dead crabs as souvenirs so this time he only got to take a few shells that I pre-approved of.

And Rhett spent his whole day being happy and running in the water’s edge like the sweet boy he is. He was completely content running away from waves and laughing when he got hit by a big one.