Vacation Day 20: Arrivals and Departures

We slept in really late today because of our late night last night. But when we got up, the boys were fed and in the family room watching Peter Pan with Vavu (thanks, Vavu!). It was Laura and Jake’s morning to pack, because their flight back to CA left in the afternoon. They got their stuff together, grabbed some breakfast and had time to hang out for a bit before they had to take off.

While Laura and Jake were packing, Uncle Renny (Vavo’s brother) and Aunt Tracy (his wife) arrived with Vavo’s mom (Aiden and Jeremy’s Great Grandmother) to visit. They brought the boys presents, which was really nice. Great Grandma brought some “friends” to add to the boys collections (that’s what they call stuffed animals – their friends). Aunt Tracy and Uncle Renny brought Jeremy a talking Shrek Donkey and Aiden a set of Spiderman golf clubs. They had a lot of fun playing with their new toys!

Aiden and his Great Grandmother

Playing Golf with Uncle Rennie

While the kids played, the adults played their own game – Pirate’s Dice (also known as Perudo). This is the game played by the pirates in the Disney film “Pirates of the Caribbean”. Andrew bought a skull full of dice at the Polynesian resort a few days ago, and we were happy to break them in! Andrew, Maria, Laura, Jake, Vavo, Vavu, Uncle Renny and Aunt Tracy all played. It was fun! Vavu was the final champion. :-)

After Perudo, it was time for the Masons to go. We were sad to see them leave. We all had such a good time while they were here. Looking forward to seeing them back in CA. See you soon Masons!

The boys were so sad when it was time to take their naps. They didn’t want to leave all of the action. But off they went, and the rest of us hung out, relaxed, share photos and did blogs (well, only one of us did blogs, and I bet you know who that was). Then we started getting ready to go, because it was time for Church.

We tried a new church this week – St. Anne’s in Haines City. It was pretty small, but it was also nice. It had a crying room, which was good, cuz the church was packed and there wasn’t really many other places to sit.

St. Anne's Catholic Church

After Mass, we went out to dinner at a seafood restaurant in Winter Haven called “Shells”. http://www.shellsseafood.com/ It’s a group of restaurants local to Florida. It was soooo good. Andrew ordered clams as an appetizer – and Aiden really liked them! He not only ate the clams, but had fun playing with the shells after he was done. He was making them talk, saying “hey, how ya doin”? Jeremy was joining in the fun, making leftover shells talk, too. One time, when we looked over, Aiden had stuffed one of the clam shells with bread crumbs. Maria said, “what are you doing”? Aiden said, “I’m feeding him because he was hungry”. Thank goodness for those clam shells! The kids had fun with them for ages.








Shells Restaurant

When we got home, we kicked around for a bit, Uncle Renny helped Aiden play at the pool table in the game room, and the boys golfed with the Spiderman golf clubs a little more into plastic cups. Later in the evening, Uncle Howie arrived! He drove from Arkansas over the last few days to come to Florida and stay with us for the next couple weeks. So look forward to seeing Uncle Howie in our coming travels!

Playing Pool in the Game Room

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The best part of day 20 was Shells Seafood Restaurant, friends and family, relaxing.
The worst part of day 20 was being tired from the night before.
What we learned on day 20 was clam shells are good entertainment for children, Aiden may be a future golfer (he was good), Shells is a great restaurant!
The weather on day 20 was average.
Our character sightings on day 20 included none.
The crowd level on day 20 was light – since we weren’t in a park!