Memorial Day

A day off???? Then we're going to the beach! We had seen online that there was a beach here in Florida that was voted the #1 beach in the U.S. So we decided to check it out. ACTUALLY we never made it to that beach, instead we ended up at a beach we know and love...Clearwater Beach! It was just so crowded on the way that we knew the #1 beach was bound to be even busier and you had to take a ferry to get to that one and you could only stay for 4 hours. But it was fine because we had a blast at Clearwater. It is a little bit longer of a drive then it is to go to the beach we usually go to (Coco Beach) because it is on the gulf side of Florida, but it is well worth it with the white sand (so it doesn't burn your feet off), it is cleaner, and the waves are smaller so Gavin could actually sit in the waves. Sure he would get knocked down every once in a while, but he was laughing his head off every time a wave hit him! There was a bounce house water slide set up there and so Luke and Emma got to go down that a few times. The highlight for Luke and Emma was when they made some friends and they were digging in the sand. They made these 3 holes that they filled with water and acted like they were their lakes that were connected by rivers. Gavin sat in the middle of the lakes and splashed and laughed as they dug around him. I have decided that sand is Heavenly Father's play dough for the kids so the adults can sit and relax at the beach. :) While they were digging Luke says to me "Mom this is so much harder then it looks!" (Drama :)

As we were getting packed up for the day to leave we noticed everyone on the beach was pointing and looking out into the water. We looked out and there was a dolphin out there that would kind of jump out of the water so you could see him pretty well! It was amazing! At first I think it freaked everyone out because his back fin looked like a shark fin and so everyone was out of the water in no time! I was excited though because I have always wanted to see a dolphin in it's natural habitat!

After leaving the beach we found a restaurant called Columbia that was overlooking the water! It was wonderful food and I ate WAY TOO MUCH! But what a wonderful day!

At one point Matt buried Gavin's legs and he couldn't budge!

Here they are in one of their homemade lakes

Here's the little girl that helped them.

This little boy on the right of the picture helped too and it was so funny because when he would bring the water to dump in he would just throw it in there and Gavin was constantly getting splashed in the face! But he never even whined about it!

When the kids went to ride the bounce house slide Gavin and I stayed back where we were camped out and he laid in our little tent and I laid out next to him. He was so relaxed as he laid there and drank his bottle and then his little feet were playing in the sand letting it go between his toes. I love baby feet!

Emma wrote her name in the sand!