Spring Break

My brother Jason and his cute family came down our way to spend their spring break and Easter with us here in sunny Florida.

So, we spent a lot of time at the BEACH soaking up some sun. The beaches are starting to get crowded with tourists. I miss our quiet beaches.

Look at his cute hat! He has to wear a hat to protect his fair little head from the sun. Kaden loved playing in the sand and water.

We collected lots of neat seashells.

This was their hot find of the day.

Soaking up some sun.

We constructed an awesome sand castle.

Note: if you want more privacy while at a crowded beach, just build a sand castle in front of where you're sitting and no one will bother you. It worked out well for us. :)

After dinner at the Friendly Fisherman, Jason, Robert, and Kayla got to experience hurricane force winds.

We also climbed some trees at the park.

Robert and I hosted an egg hunt.

Alas, we lost one egg! It happened to be the $2 egg too, maybe it will turn up one of these days. Although, I think one of the many lizards running around ran off with it.

We went out to eat a few times and grabbed dinner at home a few nights eating a couple of the Tolsma standards like sloppy joes with cottage cheese and chips, Texas sheet cake, Oreos and milk, cereal, and many other goodies.
I also cooked my first ham! It turned out pretty well, so I will have to venture out to a Turkey this year for Thanksgiving.

This photo is for Jason, Lori, and the kids - this is our almost steak dinner. Being naturally indecisive, at the last minute, we switched dinner plans and instead enjoyed a nice dinner at Checkers/Subway.
After our "nice" dinner out, we stopped at Congo River for a round of mini golf.

It was a close game, but I snuck out the win on the last hole from Robert.

We had a blast having them here to visit us and can't wait until they come again! I am sure they will enjoy getting back to their bigger/more spacious home where the kids can run around freely, so they don't get cabin fever.

Trip Highlights:

Snow Cones - Need I say more? It was probably Lori's favorite highlight, as she loves snow cones.

Sickness - Well like all Tolsma family vacations, someone has to get sick. Poor Kaden, and Kayla came down with a stomach bug. Which made for some eventful nights for Jason and Lori who didn't get a whole lot of sleep.

Ping Pong (aka pool as Keaton calls it). We played a lot of ping pong and pool in our game room.

The POOL - The boys loved to go to the pool and swim.

Texas Sheet Cake - Okay so maybe this is just my highlight, but I LOVE Texas sheet cake.

Pushing the elevator buttons/opening the doors with the keypad - This was the cause of some sibling rivalry of who was going to open the door/push the button. I love that such a little thing to us is such a big deal to kids. It was so funny to watch them race to the elevator or door ahead. They loved it.

Shelly - This is the name of Kaden's stuffed kitty cat, which he carried around everywhere in the house. He also had two other stuffed animals that accompanied him (a dog and bear). Keaton also had his own kitty as well.

Horton Hears a Who - We watched this movie twice. The kids love it.

FIFA Soccer and Spain - Robert and Jason played some PS3, where Jason beat Robert using the best team Spain. Robert thinks he should still be able to beat Jason, but so far hasn't.

Dyeing Easter Eggs - We dyed Easter Eggs out by the park. They all turned out beautiful!

Tennis - Jason and I (& Kayla) were able to get out and enjoy some great tennis weather.

Piano - The kids loved playing the piano. It was a hard toy for them to resist touching even late at night. Luckily, we never recieved any complaints of noise from the neighbors.

Well, that's all folks. Y'all come back now...