Tampa

I meant to write this quite a bit sooner but I have actually been pretty busy with my Etsy shop! It's been nice, I've been getting at least one or two orders every day, including one from Barcelona, Spain where the customer had me translate my Star Wars invitation into Spanish, that was fun to do.
So anyways, I am finally finding time now to write about our Tampa experience. We spent a week and a half there, before moving to Orlando, which is where we are now. But I'll write about Orlando next week...

The highlight of Tampa was definitely "A Day Out with Thomas". Lennon really loves trains so much right now, so when we saw the commercial for this on TV we knew we had to take him. The event was at a train museum about 30 minutes outside of Tampa. Thomas was there and took us on a 4 mile train ride and then we got to take our picture with him. It was so cute, he talked and his mouth moved and everything, Lennon was so excited. The train car we rode in was from the 1920's, it was really neat. The conductor showed us a divider in the back that used to separate the black section of the train from the white section. It was crazy to imagine that things really used to be like that. After the train ride they had a ton of train sets and lego sets that we got to play with. They had a little carnival type train that we went for a ride on, free temporary tattoos, a magic show, live music, bounce houses, and a hay ride. I think Kyle and I enjoyed it just as much as Lennon did.

Diesel and Percy. Percy is Lennon's favorite train.

Only ones on the ride! Perks of getting there early.

There wasn't as much within walking distance of our hotel like there was in Jacksonville, so that made our days while Kyle was out working seem a little longer. There was a mall down the road that we would walk to that had an indoor play area. That was one of our favorite things to do, it was nice and air conditioned. It's been in the mid to upper 80's and pretty humid lately so walking around outside isn't my favorite thing anymore. We also spent a lot of time at the pool. Lennon still refuses to get in the big pool. He just wants to sit on the top step of the hot tub with his bulldozer the whole time. 

Another fun thing we got to do was go to Bass Pro Shop, they were right down the street from our hotel and they had a pretty cool aquarium. They also had the Easter Bunny there to take pictures with the kids, let's just say Lennon is probably still having nightmares about it...

Kyle tried to help this guy across the road and almost got his fingers bit off.

Poolside BBQ

We went to the Manatee Viewing Center on St. Patrick's day. Didn't see any Manatees :(

We went to Siesta Key beach a couple times, that beach is so nice! They have a really cute playground that looks like a sand castle that Lennon is still talking about. It was a little more crowded than the other beaches but it's also spring break right now so everything is starting to get a little more crowded. We played in the sand and built sand castles and roads for Lennon's trucks. Kyle found some shark teeth on the beach and the last time we went we actually saw a dolphin swimming! That was really cool and exciting to get to show Lennon.

That was pretty much our Tampa experience. We are now in Orlando, which should be our last location before heading home in just over a week.

Jacksonville

We spent the past week in Jacksonville, in the San Marco neighborhood. Our hotel was really nice and within walking distance to a lot of great places for me and Lennon. Kyle worked Monday through Saturday so we spent the week exploring. We went to the library a couple times, it was just around the corner from our hotel. One day we just went and read books and played with some of their toys, the next time we went to story time. It was a lot smaller than story time at the Orem library but it was really good. The librarian taught them about St. Patrick's day, leprechauns, and rainbows with pots of gold at the end. Lennon really liked all the songs and the flannel board lesson they did. I'm pretty sure the library is his favorite place in the world, he talks about it all day everyday. Whenever people at the hotel would talk to him or say hi, he would just say "yeah! The library!"  

Our hotel had a pool, so we went down there a couple times. Lennon sat in the hot tub for the first time ever and I couldn't get him out. I kept trying to get him to swim in the big pool with me but he just wanted to stay in the "warm pool".

There was also a really cute downtown area and a playground close to our hotel.

It looked like all of the buildings were built in the 40's or 50's but were kept up really nice. We stopped one day and bought a cookie and just hung out on the sidewalk, Lennon could watch cars and trucks drive by all day. 

Jacksonville also has a free monorail in the downtown area and one of the stations was right next to our hotel. Lennon and I rode that across the St.John's River to the Jacksonville Landing. They have a bunch of shops and a splash pad there so we played for a while and got some ice cream, then Lennon  threw rocks in the river for a while (of course). He had to ride the monorail home with no pants on because he got soaked at the splash pad but he didn't care. He thought it was so fun to ride it, he kept telling everyone he rode on the little train. 

One of the nights (none of these events are in order because I can't remember which we we did things) we went out to Kyle's manager's in-laws house for dinner. They live in St. Augustine, which is right by Jacksonville. They live in a really pretty area, near a river. There were a couple of kids there for Lennon to play with, it was so nice, he's really been missing his cousins and friends. It was also nice to have a good home cooked meal. Our hotel had free breakfast and dinner every night so we haven't really cooked since we've been out here. 

This morning (Sunday) we packed up our hotel and then went to Jacksonville beach for a little bit. It was a really nice beach but we didn't stay long, Lennon was ready for a nap. Now we are headed to Tampa! We will be there for the next two weeks, and from there I don't know where we'll go :) 

A couple days in Pensacola

We were planning on spending a couple of weeks to a month in Pensacola, but shortly after we arrived we found out that Kyle's sales team was moving on to Jacksonville. So we spent Saturday and Sunday in Pensacola before heading out to meet up with the team.

Saturday morning we went to the Pensacola Naval Air Station Cemetery to see my dad's dad's grave. I guess technically my grandpa but I never met him and my dad hadn't seen him since he was young. It was pretty neat to go see a military cemetery like that. There were thousands of matching headstones all in perfect rows. We found my grandpa's grave and took a picture of the headstone to send to my dad. 

After the cemetery we headed back to the beach, we spent most of the day there. Lennon wanted me to go into the water and find shells to fill his bucket with so he could throw them back into the ocean, so that's pretty much what we did the whole time. Sunday morning we spent another couple hours at the beach. It was such perfect weather and hardly any people, it was just a really nice weekend. It was so fun to see how much Lennon enjoyed it. 

We left Pensacola just after lunch time and drove another five hours out to Jacksonville. We checked into a hotel for the week, it's nice and has a separate bedroom, living room, and kitchen. So it's like a little apartment. When we first walked in Lennon said "This is amazing!!" haha he was really impressed with it. 

Life guard in training

Road trip to Florida Day 3

Friday morning we packed up and went exploring in New Orleans. Neither of us really new where to go or what to see, I'd heard about the French Quarter and Kyle had heard of Bourbon street so we figured that's what we would see. The French quarter was really cool and just what you would expect to see in New Orleans, all of the old buildings with ornate balconies covered in hanging ferns, it was really pretty and really exciting. There were a ton of artists, fortune tellers, spiritual advisers, and street performers on the streets. We saw a jazz band that was really good and gave them some money then sat by them for a picture. I actually wish we would've bought their cd because they really were good and I liked listening to them. Lennon danced and clapped and loved it too. After we left the French quarter we headed for Bourbon Street. Barf. It smelled like pee and alcohol, Kyle said just like South America. It was nothing but bars so we turned around and headed back to the cool part of town. We ate lunch right next to the Mississippi River out on the patio of the restaurant so Lennon got to see the riverboats while we ate and he thought that was so neat. We spent the last part of our afternoon watching the trolleys and riverboats (oh and pressing pennies for our collection). 

We left New Orleans and drove three hours to Pensacola. We checked into our hotel and then went straight to the beach. It was a lot colder than we expected but the sun was just setting when we got there. So we played in the sand for a few minutes and then went across the street to a little beach cafe called Shaggy's. By far the best food I've ever eaten in my life, I seriously can't stop thinking about it. Me and Kyle shared fish tacos and a Caesar salad and Lennon had a grilled cheese. I know that sounds like your every day average food but it was amazing. I would make another trip to Pensacola sometime just for that food :)

Road Trip to Florida Day 2

Today we drove into Louisiana we stopped for lunch at Cane River Creole National Historical Park. I've read a couple books about slave live in the south and I recently watched Gone With the Wind so I was REALLY excited to visit this place, it's an old cotton plantation that was built by a family before Louisiana was even a part the U.S. It stayed running strong and producing cotton clear until the 1970's. Even just driving through the town to get out there was awesome, it reminded me of Fried Green Tomatoes, another one of my favorite movies. Lennon and Kyle weren't as impressed but there was plenty of space for Lennon to run around and Kyle chased him while I looked. 

We left there just after lunch time and finished our drive to New Orleans. We got in late so we just went to IHOP then went to bed. The last part of our drive seemed sooo long. Tomorrow should be a nice short day on the road.

Road trip to Florida Day 1

8:37 pm

Here we are again on another cross country road trip, this time headed to Pensacola, Florida. We're going to be driving through a part of the country I've never seen before, I'm pretty excited. We left the house at 7pm and Lennon fell asleep about 20 minutes into the drive. I'm hoping he sleeps through the night. We're planning on driving straight to Dallas, Texas before stopping. If that works out as planned we should be there in the early evening and be able to get checked into a hotel and relax. 

10:47am (Texas time) 

We made it to Amarillo around 7:30 this morning, and of course we listened to Amarillo Sky and Amarillo by Morning on our way in. There's nothing like some good old country music in Texas. We ate breakfast at a truck stop (yummy...) Lennon was really excited to see all the trucks and get out and stretch his legs after 12 hours in the car. I guess we were all excited to stretch our legs even if it was at a truck stop, driving through the night can be rough. After breakfast we went to Cadillac Ranch, it's a bunch of cars that are sticking out of the ground. People spray paint their names and stuff all over them, it was really cool to see. There were a ton of half empty cans of spray paint on the ground so we wrote our name on a car. After that we stopped at the second amendment cowboy, pretty much just a giant cowboy statue with some Cadillacs behind him and a plaque with the second amendment on it. We've been following along Route 66 a lot of the way so there have been a lot of pretty cool old things to see. 

Lindale Texas (an hour past Dallas)

We got to our hotel at 5pm, after 21 hours in the car.  We showered and then went to dinner. It was so nice to be able to get out of the car and freshen up. We ate at a Mexican restaurant right in front of our hotel, it was really good. Lennon got his own bowl of salsa and ate it before either of us ate ours. I can't believe how good and happy has been on the trip so far. He hasn't cried, complained, thrown fits or anything. He plays good in the car, just talks to us, and of course sings to us. Three blind mice turned into "three blind mice ROCKET! Three blind mice ROCKET!" He sang that on repeat for quite a while haha. 

Earlier, we ate lunch at a park with a big pond. Kyle and Lennon were throwing bits of their pizza crust to the ducks and geese, when the crust was all gone the ducks and geese (like 30 of them) started following Lennon around the park, of course I panicked. I ran to the top of the playground and yelled at Kyle to get Lennon out of there but he though it was funny. Luckily no one got hurt.