Busch Gardens Tampa Bay

                      Thursday afternoon, we took the girls to Busch Gardens Amusement Park.
We decided to start off with the newest ride at the park, The Cobra's Curse-- a rollercoaster. Rebecca was tall enough to ride so we all went.

I am not a big fan of rollercoasters. I tend to get motion sickness pretty easily. I sat with Rebecca on the ride. I had my eyes open for about the first minute, then shut them for the rest of the ride.

I took this picture of the rollercoaster from our table at lunch. It was crazy! We went backwards and

I prayed for it to stay on the tracks. Rebecca loved it!

After the rollercoaster, we went to lunch. We sat by a window and had a great view to the

safari exhibit. The giraffes were so pretty to watch.

After lunch, we went to a show that was kind of Cirqu de Soleil combined with ice skating.

It was good, but I was falling asleep from the Dramamine I had taken earlier.

We divided up for awhile. Rebecca and I went to find some rides that were

 more her size, while Rachel and Raphael rode more rollercoasters.

The Cheetah

I love the flamingos!

Rebecca and I slowly made our way through the park. We spent a lot of time looking at

different animal exhibits and in the children's area.

We stopped for pizza and there were the most beautiful all white peacocks.

I had never seen that before. Raphael and Rachel met up with us and we

wander over for the closing show and fireworks. We had a great day at the

amusement park!

Caladesi Island and Evan

On our trip to Florida we spent one day at Caladesi Island. I had read a lot of wonderful things about the Island when I was researching for our trip and it did not disappoint. Caladesi Island was my favorite beach we visited.

And sadly, I don't know what I did, but I lost all my pictures I took that day, except for two. So most of these pictures are from Google.

We drove to Honeymoon Beach Park and took the Caladesi Ferry to the Island.

Caladesi Island was the complete opposite of Clearwater Beach.

Caladesi had just a few families. I walked the beach and found a lot of

shells. There were so many of shells on the beach.

I was out in the water with the family and a couple of dolphins

were swimming not too far from us. Every time we went to the

beach in Florida we saw dolphins.

It was a great day at the beach. I would go back to Caladesi Beach

again and again.

We headed back home and got all cleaned up. Raphael and the

girls spent the evening at home and I went to visit my coach, Evan.

from Evan's Instagram page

In January, I applied to an on-line program, called Alpha Female.

Evan is the creator and coach of the program. She lives in Florida.

I had met her back in April when we were in Tampa for our cruise.

From my April visit.

It happened that our Florida house was about 20 minutes from

Evan's gym , so I was able to go visit her for awhile.

The woman is strong!

There were two other Alpha girls there that night too. We

sat and talked, traded stories, I learned about SnapChat.

It was a fun night and I was happy to get to see Evan again.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will get around to our visit to Busch Gardens.

First Day of School 2016

The girls headed back to school this morning. I have mixed emotions about it all. I just love summertime so much and this summer went by way too fast. But back to school is good.. more of a routine.

Last Thursday, both of the girls had open house at the schools. Rachel was up first.

I took a few pictures at school, but she was not happy about it. We met all her teachers and

saw many of her friends from 6th grade. I think it will be a good year for Rachel!

Rebecca meeting one of her teachers, Mrs. Cannon.

I haven't blogged about it, but we made a decision to switch Rebecca to a

different school for 2nd grade. Way back in kindergarten, Rebecca was

really struggling.... it turns out that Rebecca has dyslexia.

We found a wonderful school that is specifically for students with

dyslexia and made the choice to send Rebecca. I am so proud

of her. She has handled it all with lots of grace and confidence.

2nd grader

So today, Rebecca was the first one to go to school. We took a few

"first day of school pictures".

The new school is about 15 minutes from our house. We got there

a little early today and just waited our turn in the car rider line.

She jumped out of the car and marched right in.

I made it back in time to see Rachel off to school at the bus stop.

7th grader

I made Rachel wake up early, so I could get pictures of

her and Rebecca together :).

BFFs.

Daniella and Rachel.

All the kids socializing and waiting for the bus.

Off they went!

I prayed for the girls, neighbor kids, and teachers. I believe it

will be a good school year.

Visiting Winter and Hope

On Tuesday we drove back to Clearwater and headed over to the

Clearwater Marine Aquarium. We took this fun water ferry

 for a quick ride to the Aquarium

So many bridges connecting towns to each other in this part of Florida.

At the Aquarium are Winter and Hope. They are two dolphins that were

the "stars" of the movies Dolphin Tale and Dolphin Tale 2.

We started with a tour of an area to learn what the Aquarium does.

Their goal is to Rescue hurt animals, Rehab, and the Release back into

the wild if possible.

They do a lot of sea turtle rescues. There was this big huge

board listing the turtles' names and when they went back to the ocean.

We were able to see Winter from far away. Hope was hanging out in

the back and I never did see her.

We were able to see a dolphin named Nicholas.

His trainer told us how dolphins learn and demonstrated what he can do.

Dolphins are smart!!

We took a trolley back into Clearwater and went to visit

a building that had lots of exhibits and props that were used

in the Dolphin Tale movies.

One of the mechanical dolphins that were used in the movies.

It was an interesting day and we learned a lot about marine life.

The girls looking for lizards back at the house.

We relaxed a little and then decided to go to a baseball game.

I had been running in Dunedin and ran past the baseball stadium.

I thought it would be fun to go to a small town game. We were just a couple

of blocks away, so we walked and it was a fun night.

Not too many fans. But I liked that way. We had our space, we could talk. The

girls could move around and not bother anyone. There was good people

watching and good snacks. The Dunedin Blue Jays won the game!!

Clearwater and Pier 60

On Monday, we went to  Clearwater Beach. I had gone running that morning and

ran past this sign. I have noticed that a lot of towns in FL claim to have the best

beach :).

Clearwater is a very popular town with lots to do. There were

so many people at the beach that day.

The girls love to float the waves.

Usually when at the beach, I venture out for a few minutes and

then Raphael and the girls stay in the water.

I was sitting in my beach chair with a book and people watching.

There are several beautiful beach front hotels.

We had a fun day at Clearwater Beach. It was the busiest beach we

went to during our trip.

This sign was near the road as we were leaving and I had

to take a picture because of Panama.

We went home to clean up and eat and then headed back to Clearwater to

visit Pier 60. Each night at the Pier they have arts and crafts vendors,

entertainers, food, and stuff for kids to do.

These dolphins were everywhere in Florida.

We walked around and then out to the end of the Pier.

I took this shot of Clearwater Beach from the Pier.

We wander around, went in a few stores and had some ice cream.

As we walked back to the car, the sun was setting.

Nothing beats seeing a sunset at the beach.