We had the BEST time in Clearwater, Florida for Spring Break this year! We left Sunday night and got back late last night- here are allllll the pictures!
Love traveling with our kids. They are so easy and fun. Kylee called across the aisle for me to take a picture of the sunset since I had a better view on my side of the plane.
It may have been dark when we arrived at our hotel but we loved our room- in fact when we checked in, the guy at the front desk told Kent it's his favorite room in the hotel with the best view!
Everyone got all settled in- Kylee had a room to herself and the boys slept in the living room area. Kase wanted his own little cave to sleep in so Kent made him a cool spot with all the cushions.
Everyone slept in thanks to Daylight Savings Time adjustment as well as the time change. Kent and I enjoyed coffee on our balcony until everyone got up!
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| That view! |
We had breakfast at our hotel. Kase decided he wanted to try coffee. Spoiler alert- he hated it!
After breakfast we took off on a little walk to explore. Pier 60 was very close to our hotel so we headed there!
Back to our hotel to change (insert funny but mildly embarassing Kase story here- ask me about it in person if you want) then we explored the rest of the area on a golf cart!
Kase loved this turtle mailbox that has his own Instagram account!
We found a fun mini golf place and decided to play before it got too hot. The kids had fun talking to the parrot there!
All the boys got a hole in one!
We headed back to our hotel and beach!! It was seriously so pretty.
Kase always loves to dig on the beach and I love still seeing the little kid side of him every once in awhile.
Kael follows the Instagram account Iowa Chill and wanted to take this picture.
After awhile we headed up to the pool where Kase and Kylee were winners of the day for the poolside games! We had fun with Jenga, Connect 4 and bags. They won a free milkshake!
Cheesburger in paradise and poolside chips and guac are a Patterson staple when on a beach vacay.
We cleaned up and headed back to the beach after relaxing for a bit.
We saw some really fun street performers!
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| And she says we don't look alike! |
We had seen this inflatable from afar and told the kids they could do it but when we got there we hadn't realized it was a water slide. So, the boys just went in their shorts!
The walk back was so pretty. Love seeing the kids have fun together as siblings- just throwing the football around, playing tag, splashing each other.
We had a late dinner at a cute pizza place nearby and enjoyed people watching since it was right on the Beach Walk.
Kase, of course, challenged everyone to a plank contest between palm trees on our walk back.
Then, a night swim!
The next morning we walked to the cutest little breakfast spot.
We all loved our food!
Had a fun walk back to our hotel and a great photo opp with The Hulk.
Then we went to Sand Key! So pretty!
Kase found a crab! We also spotted dolphins!
We had a little time to kill before our scheduled boat ride so we drove by where the Phillies would have been playing if there hadn't been a lockout. We had planned to go to a spring training game but oh well!
We had a private pontoon ride for about four hours including a stop at Caladesi Island.
We had fun walking the nature trails there and finding shells on the beach!
We also saw TONS of dolphins this day and some really close up to our boat. Our boat captain was a really nice guy and we enjoyed talking with him about fun things to do in Clearwater and he also took us to see Honeymoon Island. This guy also runs a fishing charter so the kids enjoyed hearing about all the things he catches.
We stopped for ice cream on our way up to our hotel room.
Later we walked to the marina for dinner at a rooftop cantina. So fun!
A few more photo opps at the marina on our walk back to the hotel. We made it back to our hotel room literally JUST as it started downpouring.
We LOVED waking up to this view each day! And we lucked out with great weather all trip- even though it had rained the night before we woke up to beautiful day.
We walked to the Salty Crab for breakfast where we saw the Ohio State head football coach there with his family! The boys thought that was pretty cool.
While it was a great trip, we did lose a couple things including a football and Kael's sunglasses. Pictured here is the new football we got and later Kael found some sunglasses he chose as a souvenir so it was all good.
We had seen these things the day before and all of us had been dying to give them a try. They are called Scoot Coupes and we had the BEST time cruising around in it! Kent took turns giving each one of us a ride over the bridge and back. How funny is this?!
Another day at the beach!
The sky looks ominous but it never did do anything. Made for cool photos though!
We took another long beach walk and landed up at the inflatable again, this time with Kylee in her swimsuit she was able to join the fun.
And back to the pool for a little wrestling- ha!
We had been debating all day how we wanted to spend our afternoon and when the weather cleared off for sure we decided to go parasailing!
Kase looked a little unsure at first.
Then he was all smiles!
Up, up and away!
So high!!! Kase loved it. We spotted 5 dolphins right away. It was really fun.
Our captain was awesome. We did a little toe dip before heading in to swap out for Kael and Kylee's turn!
Kael had parasailed before but Kylee hadn't. She was really excited.
The captain could tell Kael and Kylee were pretty chill and asked if he could mess with them a bit and give them "a little more than just a toe dip". We said sure and they laughed so hard being dipped in all the way to their waists!
My people.
We thought parasailing alone was going to be the highlight of the trip but our boat ride coming back into the marina made it even more awesome! Because of the chance of dicey weather earlier in the day, not many boats were out so when we came into the marina our captain spotted a few dolphins playing and said, "Watch this". He blasted his music and the dolphins came literally RIGHT up to our boat and played in our wake the whole way back in! It was amazing- they were so close and it was like they were giving us our own little dolphin show! The kids thought it was so cool.
Then we had our clearest evening of all for sunset views off our balcony. Stunning.
We watched for awhile then headed to put our name in at a restaurant nearby Pier 60. Kent and Kael held our spot at the restaurant while Kylee, Kase and I ran over to snap a few pictures.
We had another really cool view from this restaurant!
Our last morning there we walked to have breakfast right on the water. This bird walked all around and the waitresses told us she comes every day and they have named her Georgina.
Usually it's Kylee wanting to take pictures but Kael was happy to be my photo subject with that view right from our breakfast spot!
Kase had been asking to play beach volleyball all week but we kept having something else planned or the nets were full so I was happy we finally made time for it on the last day!
Kael actually was having the most fun of all of us and he even stuck around to play with a group for awhile after the rest of us were done.
One last dip in the water.
Then a quick cook down at the pool with snow cones!
We cleaned up, packed up, and headed to Top Golf in Tampa to eat, play, and watch the Hawkeyes. We all had a blast. Bummer about the Hawkeyes but we were having too much fun to worry about it too much!
Came home to the sweetest Welcome Home St. Patrick's Day treats from my family!
I'm spending today unpacking and such...meanwhile Kent and Kael were barely home 12 hours before they packed up and headed off to Omaha for a Slipknot concert!
Kase is off bowling with a friend, Kylee is hanging out with her boyfriend and I'm enjoying a nice rainy day in getting organized after our trip. Truly, I love our time spent together on vacation and I'm so thankful for these memories!!!
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