We had a pretty awesome 4th of July weekend this year.  Unfortunately, we forgot the camera so we have no pictures to show for it!  I think Suzanne got a few that I can get from her.  Anyway, we started our drive down to Key West on Thursday morning.  We were able to get out and on the road about 9:15.  We made it down to Sugarloaf Key by 4:15.  The drive wasn’t too bad, Ty was great, it’s just a long drive.  We unpacked our stuff and settled in.  I made us a quick pasta dinner and then we all pretty much went to bed.

Friday we woke up and had breakfast and played around outside while we waited for the Tow’s to arrive.  They had left Thursday night and were suppose to stop in Miami for the night and should have been to the keys by lunchtime.  Well, they had a bit of car trouble and ended up stopping in Naples, slept there, got a rental car and drove all the way from Naples.  To top it off, 10 miles from being at Brad’s house, Matt got a speeding ticket!  We felt so bad for them!  What a way to start your vacation!  The Tow’s arrived around 3pm instead of lunch but the relaxing Key West atmosphere made them forget all about their “adventure” they had just been on.  We started their vacation off with some excellent Mojitos and some really good sandwiches.  Basically, more relaxing went on and we ate a late dinner of New York Strips. Yum!

Saturday, after breakfast we headed into Key West.  We walked Duval Street, took cover from a short thunderstorm in a coffee/internet cafe (paid 8.00 for a freaking coffee!), Dave got a new pair of sunglasses, we went to the southern most point, had a late lunch at Margaritaville and saw Mallory Square (it was too early so none of the performers were out there yet).  It took us a bit of doing to figure out where we were parked, but Suzanne with her keen sense of direction led us back just in time before our meters ran out!  Ty was definitely ready to go.  They need to have big kid strollers for trips like this.  He would have been much better if he didn’t have to walk so much, we did do a lot of walking.  We got home and had some refreshing drinks and took a dip in the canal.  The water was quite refreshing but it did have a pretty decent current so we didn’t last long in the canal.  After our dip, Suzanne, Ty and I went out on the kayaks.  We had a fun little journey looking at all the beautiful water homes.

Sunday we had more relaxing in the morning.  Jamie did not sleep well the night before so neither did Suzanne.  They both took a nap and after they woke up we headed to Bahia Honda State Park.  Now we finally got to swim and enjoy it.  Ty was having so much fun in the water.  He definitely got to practice his swimming skills.  He didn’t want to get out.  I think we must have been in the water for a good 2 hours!  After we were all done the guys took the kids home and Suzanne and I hit the grocery store to get stuff for dinner.  To our dismay, they were out of fresh mint!!!!  We wanted to make our delicious Mojitos again, we were desperate.  We searched the whole store for some kind of alternative.  We ended up getting peppermint extract.  So, the Mockitos were decent, drinkable and refreshing, but nothing like the ones we had on our first night.  We have to remember to stock up on mint for our next trip to Key West because Publix and Winn Dixie were both out of it!  We even stopped at a scary grocery store on the way back and they had none either!  When we got home Suzanne cooked Dave’s favorite dish of hers.  A pasta dish with olives, tomatoes, chicken and sausage.  She also made his favorite dessert of hers, so Dave really enjoyed his meal.  We all did, it was delicious!

Monday was the 4th and we just decided to stay home and relax for the day.  It was going to be too much trouble to try to bring a 5 year old and a 9 month old into the craziness that is Key West for the 4th of July.  I can only imagine how that would have gone down.  We all did some napping, some reading, some playing of video games, enjoyed the views and the cocktails.  We had hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner.  I actually tried a cheese dog, and as I expected, it was disgusting.  Dave insisted I try one of his favorite kinds of hot dogs.  Yucko!  From our view on Brad’s seawall we could see the Key West fireworks, but they were pretty far away.  Sugarloaf has their own fireworks and we could see those pretty good, but we had some damn trees that were blocking parts of them.  Another enjoyable day.  We all turned in fairly early since we were heading home in the a.m.

Tuesday morning we packed up, cleaned up and headed out.  We got on the road by 9:20 and got home by 4:40.  Not too shabby since we hit some traffic in Key Largo and had to stop for lunch and gas.  We missed having mom and Brad there, Ty really wanted to go fast on the little boat, but they were having a blast on their Alaskan cruise.  Maybe we can sneak in one more trip down before we go back to school!

I can’t believe it’s been a week already.  How come work weeks seem to drag on so much longer than vacation weeks????  Let’s see, we managed to accomplish some fun stuff this week.  We got a trip in to Clearwater Beach.  The water is perfect!  Ty had a blast swimming in the salt water, much easier for him than in the pool.  We enjoyed lunch at the Palm Pavilion and then headed back to our spot for more swimming.  It is definitely fun to people watch at the beach.  One of mom and I’s favorite pastimes!  We also had our fertility appointment at USF.   A lunch out with mom and Amanda that should have been less stressful.  A trip to the pool, some bike riding, shopping at Publix and car shopping with Dave’s grandma.  Believe me, I was tempted!!  I love new cars!!

Up for today we need to get to Target, we have mom’s retirement party and then a celebratory dinner on the beach.  Playing in the sand and water after dinner to follow.  I am also looking forward to the all the summer movies coming out.  Ty loves going to the movies.  So, this is a great indoor activity for us to do.  It has been just miserably hot out lately!

Yesterday was my first official day off from work for the summer.  It also happened to be my 11th anniversary as well!  Dave got me some beautiful flowers and we are having a delicious steak dinner tonight.  We didn’t really celebrate last night because I had a little dinner party for some teacher friends at school.  Partly to celebrate the end of the school year and partly to celebrate one of my assistant’s retirement.  Great for Sherryl to retire but bad for us as she was an excellent assistant!  We had a wonderful dinner and also made some yummy Prosecco sangria, very, very tasty!

So, my first day off was spent cleaning the house in the morning to prep for the dinner party.  Then Ty and I went over to Angelle’s house for a lunchtime swim date.  Leshayne was there with Tori and Tristan.  All the kids swam and had a great time and us ladies got to have some girl talk time.

Some things I would like to do this summer: 4th of July in Key West with the Tow’s, paint my bedroom and bathroom,  replace 2 toilets (Dave or a plummer will be doing this, not me!), go to the beach, go to the pool, get Busch Garden passes, go to Busch Gardens, a trip to Seaworld (I get in free), shopping in Ellenton, hopefully another round of IVF and possibly a trip to Vermont!  That seems like enough to keep me busy until August!

I can’t believe this is my last day of Spring Break.  Actually, for once, this vacation seemed pretty long and relaxing.  We didn’t do a whole lot but it was nice just chillin at home.  We took a day trip down to Ellenton to buy Dave some Converse.  I also got a little Coach purse, it is super cute!  Monday I had an eye doctor appt.  I picked out some new glasses and she gave me a trial pair of contacts.  My eyes are super dry and these contacts still did not work for me.  Tuesday we had the fertility appt and I have been getting shots ever since!  Wednesday we took a trip to the Florida Aquarium with Suzanne and Jamie and her friend Ellen (who was really nice).  Thursday we had to pick mom up from the airport.  Friday we took a trip up to St. Augustine to visit Austin.  He broke/sprained his right arm pretty bad (still waiting on the MRI results to figure out the real problem).  He was pretty miserable and getting really behind on his work (it’s his writing arm).  So we all went up to cheer him up. The drive was terrible!  It took forever to get there because of all the traffic we hit. We stayed at the Hilton in downtown St. Augustine.  It was a beautiful hotel.  Ty was even crazy enough to go swimming in the frigid pool water!  After the swimming we walked down the downtown streets.  It’s pretty much just like Duval Street in Key West. Tons of tourists and tons of little shops.  This place does have ghost tours and things like that that I am pretty sure Key West does not have!  We got some homemade fudge and Ty needed a sweatshirt, it got a little chilly.  Then we had a late dinner and all slept in the hotel room.  Saturday we ate breakfast and then checked out of the hotel.  We headed to Publix to get the starving college boy some food and drinks so he could make it through to the end of the semester.  He only has until the end of April.  After Publix we went to lunch at Caps.  It is this really cool restaurant on the water with it’s own little beach.  Ty had fun playing in the sand.  After our leisurely lunch and a long drive back to Flagler (spring break traffic from the beach was crap!) we said our goodbyes to Aut and headed home.  The drive back was not as bad as the drive there.  We only hit traffic in Tampa.  We got home around 6.  Today will be laundry and grocery shopping and then back to school tomorrow.

Spring break officially starts for me and Ty today.  We don’t really have any plans.  Just hanging out and relaxing is on our agenda.  Ty wants to see a couple of movies.  I want to go to IKEA.  Maybe a trip to the park, aquarium (teachers get in free) and the new children’s museum.  I don’t know if the pool is quite warm enough for my standards but I am sure Ty would love it.  I also made some doctor appointments.  I have the eye doctor on Monday, the fertility doctor on Tuesday (finally get to start IVF!!!) and the dentist on Friday.  I also need to get to the dmv to renew my license, I really want a new picture, I hate my current one!