A Florida Thanksgiving

After Laura and Brandon's wedding in Florida, we stayed the following week to enjoy some family time in the sun and spend Thanksgiving with the Dickson bunch. We enjoyed...

A trip to Busch Gardens on Monday

Checking out the American Alligators


The Safari Train ride

Caden and Tyler were so proud of themselves for going on their first upside-down roller coaster. After the "Scorpion", Tyler called it quits for the big rides for the day, but Caden hit all the ones he was tall enough to ride. He learned he was 54 inches, which was one of the highlights for him of the whole day

Bo could have spent ALL day on the old-fashioned carousel

gotta love this picture of Bo on the airplane ride - he's seriously thought he was a fighter pilot

Cole just loved any time he could get out of the stroller and crawl around

Bo and cousin Hannah

Bo gets up close and personal with the flamingos

You can never see to many alligators! (Bo with cousins Hannah on left and Charlotte on right)

Hanging out at Gramma Debbie's and Grandpa John's on Tuesday

Bo found this toy net which became his helmet and he always had at least 2 swords in hand. All of his girl cousins were so kind and willing to join in his "ninja turtle" version of playing.

Swimming at the hotel and trip to Tarpan Springs on Wednesday

Outside of Tampa is a small Greek seaboard town called Tarpan Springs. We love to go walk along the store fronts and eat wonderfully authentic greek cuisine. This time we also ventured out on a boat ride - wich ended up being a great experience and worth enduring the cold temperature for.

Lucky for all of us the boat supplied fleece blankets. While it was sunny and warm along the board walk, once the boat picked up speed were a teeth-chattering bunch!

Captain Tyler got turn at the wheel.

We not only saw the dolpins they promised we would spot, but these playful dolphins swam with us for 5 minutes jumping right in the wake of our boat. Great fun!

The sunset was breathtaking.

Great fun and good food make for a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday...the other part is the family and friends. We haven't been together with Bart's whole family in 4 years and it was beyond wonderful to spend this time together. We also got the friends part in when a high school friend of Bart's and his wife and 3 boys who are now living in Florida joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. It was great to see them and spend time catching up. Thanks Craguns.

All together equals one Happy Thanksgiving and trip!