groundspeed

An Opportunity to Poke Fun at My Husband

Opportunities to make fun of Kevin don't come often, people. 

I'm taking advantage.

You know those marriages where the wife is always right? And the husband expects this? And then everyone is happy?

I didn't end up in one of those marriages.

We are both opinionated, stubborn, head-strong people, well-educated, as well as smart within our particular areas of expertise. With Kevin, if you are playing an updated version of Trivial Pursuit with pop culture questions you will totally need him on your team to answer anything that comes up about hip hop or rap. Meanwhile if you need a Gilmore Girls or Jane Austen novel expert, I'm the one to come to.

In those areas, we bow to the other's authority.

In many, many others we butt beads.

I knew I was in trouble when, while we were engaged and picking out our first set of bedding, Kevin had an opinion! And, like, vetoed stuff I wanted. Um, as the female don't all the decorating and design choices automatically fall to me? Apparently not. (Although, in this house I did get him to agree to a lavender-walled master bedroom and that's something, I think.)

He disagrees with how I cut tomatoes and loves to make fun of how I eat corn on the cob.

I'm a little hen-pecked, I tell ya. Or in this case I guess it would be rooster-pecked?

But I'm a strong woman and I use my middle finger a lot, so it's all good.

(Gasp. A missionary wife did NOT just write that.)

Ok, so on with my little window of opportunity to make fun of Mr. Always Right.

Last night we went to our First St. Lucie Mets game as a family of five. Kevin has taken Kaden and Blue many times, but it was mine and Toby's first go. Of course Toby fell asleep on the way there. Of course he did.

So... I pulled up and let out the biggest three boys. Kevin, upon getting out, instructed me to, "Look for them at third base around the second level." No problem. I've been in this stadium many times dropping off and picking up Kaden from baseball camp. I know where third base is. I proceed to park, wake up Toby, deal with his I've-been-woken-up grumpiness, feed him a little dinner (we ate Tropical Smoothie wraps while he was asleep), and get him going.  

We walked up and skipped the entrance that would have dropped us over first base, gave our three extra tickets away and continued to pacify the growing anxiety of my three-year-old. After a stop at the potty we headed over to third base and started looking. And we kept looking. And kept looking. 

I told Toby we are looking for Daddy and Kaden and Blue and he wanted to find them and I can tell, I can feel, that his anxiety is growing because we haven't found the. Plus noise and people and smells and... we need to hurry up and find them. He's getting too big for it, but I held Toby on one hip (because at this point if I let him walk he'd be throwing himself to the ground) and manage to fish out my phone from my Rhode-Island-sized purse.

Me: We're at third base. Where are you?

He: We're here. Just look around.

Me: We have been looking around. Toby's getting anxious. WHERE ARE YOU?

He: (With that you-are-being-stupid edge to his voice) Do you even know where third base is?

Me: YES I KNOW WHERE THIRD BASE IS!

He... He who played t-ball and then baseball for... forever. He who played intermural softball at UF on a team that won National Champs. He who is currently assisting his oldest son's baseball team. He said (After a moment of silence where he inevitably mourned his own stupid mistake.): I meant first base.

Me: I am SO making fun of you for this.

And because I also know where first base is, we walked right over to them, but luckily, on the way, I passed someone Kevin works with and got my very first chance to tell the story.

Justice.

And then we were together.

To watch baseball. (And see... SEE where this picture was taken. Above FIRST base.)

No, we weren't really there to watch baseball. Apparently we were there to let the boys run around at the top of the stadium and stress this mama out that they might be hit by a foul ball.

I felt better when they sat under here:

We also met Klutch.

Danced to the music:

And stayed to the very end, a first for Kevin, Kaden and Blue, but good because then the kids got to get on the field and run the bases.

The final score ended up with the Mets falling to the Palm Beach Cardinals. Booooooo!

But, it ended up being a successful night. New experience for Toby. Fun for Kaden and Blue and ammo in my arsenal for when Kevin critiques my tomato cutting. No fingers will be raised. I'll just smile and say, "At least I know where third base is."

Marriage. Fun stuff.

Beach Discovery: Lightning Whelk Egg Cases

Thursday was my nieces last full day with us so we declared it "skip day" and headed to the beach. (No, Kevin didn't just not show up for work. He'd already arranged for the day off.)

We went to Bathtub Beach in Stuart/Hutchinson Island which is newly open again after more sand drudging and other construction. The beach looks great and the boys had a blast on the new sand walls (not sure if those are going to stay - especially doubt is as they are taking away over half the parking.) 

Mostly the boys just ran up and down the sand, but we also attempted some boogie board sledding.

Didn't work.

"Too much friction," said my engineer-brained husband.

But he tried again pulling just Toby.

"Bye-eye. Seeyalater."

This worked decently, but when I asked Toby if he wanted to do it again he said, "No. All done board." And that was the end of that.

Later, when we were already discussing leaving, this washed up on the beach right in front of our stuff.

It's an octopus arm! (Blue)

It's a sea snake! (Kaden)

It's a... (we were out of guesses)

So... we decided to pack up and take this guy/gal/thing over to the Florida Oceanographic Society and ask them. In the bucket it went.

Apparently it's a Lightning Whelk Egg Casing

(I went ahead and signed Blue up for a week of summer camp while we were there. Next time he'll just be our marine science expert.)

And it needed to be returned to the ocean so those suckers could hatch and fill the ocean with new baby lightning whelks.

Over to Stuart Beach we went where I first told everyone I saw what it was and told them to leave it alone should it wash ashore again...

Whew. Beach discoveries are a lot of work. (Well, when you're as naturally curious as our group tends to be.)

This morning we said goodbye to the nieces as they headed back to Tennessee.

The boys loved the attention and I loved the girl time.

Miss them already!

Fragile X Families in South Florida

March 2nd was the Families for Fragile X "5k and Circus Walk" in Key Biscayne/Miami. My dad came too and we turned it into a weekend heading down Friday evening and coming back Sunday after spending most of the day at Zoo Miami.

For us this event was a priority, so much so that Kevin even got special permission to miss MFI's annual Family Day which was held on the same Saturday. 

The only FX clinic for Florida is in Miami. This is also the location of the only offical group in Florida for Fragile X families. It's a two-hour drive for us, but we're trying to stay connected as best we can. 

I'd love to see FX families in the Treasure Coast organized. I put something together in November and it ended up being us and two other families. I meant to do something in January but... it didn't happen and wow, is it March already? Oops. Will pick that ball back up soon. (I will!) And if something could get started in Tampa (we managed a park day with a Tampa FX family last November too) we'd be up for connecting with them (we're over there enough!) but for now, Miami's what we got.

Toby came over and had this to add: jh=poiii.f

The group did an amazing job generating publicity and raising FX awareness before the event. (Go here, here, and here for some of that coverage. Or better yet, "like" Families for Fragile X" on facebook and srcoll through recent postings.) And yes, this is also the organization that hosted the International Fragile X Conference last July. They have some serious energy down there. Maybe it's the salsa. 

As for our participation. We had fun. We ran, we walked, and we raised some money.

I did the 5k without Kaden because he was getting over a cold. I learned the hard way that my flat, paved neighborhood runs were not good prep for that rocky, hilly (yes, in Florida, so not like big hills, more like small bumps designed for mountain bikers which I think is the primary function of that trail) terrain. But hey, I finished and my scrapes and bruises are pretty much healed now. Then the rest of our crew showed up and we all walked the 1 mile "Circus Walk" together.

Toby's Team:

Toby liked his "walk in the woods." (That's what he always says if we go for a walk anywhere that's not paved.)

And before and after the walk there were bounce houses and clowns and other circusy things!

Great work, Families for Fragile X. 

The Oldest is Older

Dear Kaden,

It's here. Your ninth birthday. Last year of the single digit, so you must be feeling old and mature. 

But you're not. You're a nine year old boy. Fart jokes are the pinnacle of humor in your world.

A few weekends ago Gran and Papa were visiting and they brought with them the movie Hotel Transylvania. I elected not to watch but from my bedroom I could hear your loud, uninhibited laughter. I knew I'd made the right choice. If you find a movie hysterical - I hate it. (And generally, if I love a kid's film (Wall-E, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Hugo), then you think it's terribly boring.) It's ok though, your father still enjoys fart humor, so there's a very strong possibility that even if your comedic tastes never improve, I will go on loving you.

Saturday, March 2nd wearing the free sunglasses that came in our FX 5k bags. Kinda channeling your inner Justin Bieber here. 

Just before turning nine you went on your first date. A date. In 3rd grade. Holy moly. You spent $50 of your Wildcat Cash to "have lunch on the stage with a friend" one day at school, but that "friend" was a girl you have a crush on, a girl we've talked about before because you started asking me what a "crush" was and about my boyfriends. When I found out this girl was not in your class, I asked you how you knew her. You said you saw her at lunch at that sometimes your classes joined for "resource." (Um, what is resource?") So I'm thinking she must be pretty cute in order to have attracted your attention when she's not even in your class, but when I asked you what you liked about her you said, "She has nice penmenship like me and she's from Ohio." Uh. Ok.....

But you're not too grown up for a good playground - Sunday, March 3rd at Zoo Miami

The way to your heart is still through your stomach. Planning your birthday this year pretty much just meant planning the day's menu. For breakfast you requested pancakes, hashbrowns and eggs. For lunch you wanted me to bring you pizza and chocolate cupcakes for your class* and for dinner you want to go to Chili's. It's a good thing we're goingto Legoland tomorrow (instead of a party this year), we'll need to walk off all your birthday calories!

*Which I was happy to do especially because I was ready to check out this crush but dang it! She was absent today!

So you're still all about food (especially with Hot Sauce, your favorite condiment) but you're starting to get grumpy about Mom's Picture Taking Addiction. I get this face more often than not these days:

I even ASKED you if you WANTED to come over this pic. You could have said no!

Dork.

Meanwhile this picture you were all about having me take:

At the end of our zoo day.

Total dork.

Oh and those sunglasses were your quick upgrade from the orange ones above. Before we left the zoo on Sunday, Poppy took you into the gift shop so you could pick out anything you wanted for your birthday present from him. I knew you were well past the stuffed animal phase but I noticed a safari jeep I wondered if you might get. Nope. My grown up boy picked out sunglasses.

Oh sure. You'll smile for a picture with Poppy.

You are considerate but... not always so clued in to how you should show that consideration. I have long said, in order to get through to you one must, "pop bubble, then speak," but sadly I am still not good enough at following my own advice. Recently, on a trash day, I asked you to "take the trash to the street" but apparently all you heard was "trash" because you emptied the kitchen trash into the big trash can (considerate!) but left that trash can right there in the garage (grrrrr). More recently, as in Friday, I told you we needed to stop at the store for trip snacks. Every single thing I bought was for our weekend in Miami so when we pulled up to the house I very intentionally left that bag in the van. 15 minutes later when I'm run around all frantic busy with last minute trip to-dos and dealing with an over-tired and fussy Toby, you come up all proud of yourself and announce you put the groceries away. Again, grrrrrr. I reminded you what those groceries were for (our trip). I reminded you when we were leaving (as soon as Dad got home). I handed you a sack and told you to gather up everything you'd put away and put it back in the van. 

Sorry, kid. If you want brownie points you are going to have to START LISTENING.

Third grade has come with much weeping and gnashing of teeth for both of us because well, it's hard for you and it's hard for me because I'm not sure where it's truly too difficult versus when you're not trying. So all things homework and grades are... stretching us right now. BUT! You've happily finished up another basketball season with Upward and are in the middle of another baseball season so life's not too terrible for you. Plus I tend to keep the rest of our schedule fun-filled. (It's nice to have a mom who's addicted to the beach, huh? Not to mention those other fun, recent plans like the fair, Miami weekend and now Legoland all back to back - nope you're not hurting in the entertainment department.)

You're still very much a little kid but also very much trying to figure out what it means to not be a little kid anymore. You're on the cusp of those tween interests, saying things like you want your own iPhone. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. (Maybe when you're twelve.)

I love you. As your Mom, I'm going to fret and fuss and possibly even bark and growl when you don't listen or you do things I don't like, but I love you. As you keep getting older things will keep getting more complicated, but remember, no matter what, I got your back. We're in it together, so bring on all things NINE!

5k! Circus Walk! (And some March birthday gift ideas.)

Um, what is a circus walk? 

If your answer is any walk in which my family participates, then you are probably right, but I don't think that's what they mean.

On March 2nd our clan of five plus Poppy (my dad) will be participating in the Families for Fragile X Trail Run and Circus Walk. Their website describes the circus walk part of things as having "challenges along the trail to engage kids of all ages."

What do you think? Should we dress Blue up as a clown?

I'll take it under consideration, but if you get us a clown wig then it will be SO done. After all you did raise $165 in honor of Blue back when it was his birthday. He owes you all some good pictures.

Remember that? In lieu of gifts? 

Well, we have have more birthdays coming up. Kevin and Kaden are my March birthday boys.

Wanna get Kaden a birthday gift? 

How about Kevin?

Kaden is not having a party this year (incidentally neither is Kevin). He chose instead to have a Lego-land day. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't love an "in lieu of" present. 

Whatdoyasay $9 in honor of Kaden turning nine?

OR (and?) in honor of Kevin you could give $36. (Although that's just an arbitrary number.)

Birthday magic in the form of donations can happen here.

To read more about the walk (or to register and JOIN US!!!!) go here.

Celebrating birthdays and helping advance awareness and research for Fragile X to benefit Toby.

Win - win!

Florida Seminole Diorama

There's an easy way to help your child with his diorama assignment. You throw a shoe box at him and some crayons or markers and say, go to it.

OR...

Step One:
Think about how you can teach the kid about local Native American history. And ya know. Do that.

Take him to The House of Refuge because they have a time line of local history that includes local Native American information.

Realize in the car on the way home that the only thing that seemed to sink in with your kid was A: The pirate for whom this part of the beach is named and the fact that he was hanged and thousands attended. And B: The house of refuge keepers had problems with black bears.

Um. Not helpful.

A few days later happily discover a Native American section while on a trail walk at the Florida Oceanographic Society.

Ays, are not one of the tribes up for choosing in the assignment.

Of course not.

Actually walking through this structure still proved memorable.

A little helpful.

Next up: See what the library has to offer. 

Check out She Sang Promise: The Story of Betty Mae Jumper Seminole Tribal Leader

Turns out our book of choice is beautifully illustrated and lyrically written. It not only taught the experience of this Seminole women born in south Florida, but also nicely touches on the themes of women empowerment (Never mind that she became a tribal leader - she friggin' wrestled alligators!), the importance of education, and how to improve upon ones culture while still respecting it. Ok, so my kid probably didn't pick up on much in terms of these themes, but they're there. Promise. Good little book.

After reading the book we got on the internet for a little follow-up research. Spent some time clicking around here and reading here.

We read about "chickees" and knew we'd need to include one. We discussed how the chickee was different from the Ays structure we saw (no floor vs raised floor). We saved a picture to use as a reference for our model:

Step Two:
Hand kid a sheet of paper and a pencil and tell him to design the plan.

Compliment his idea to have a large tree in the middle dividing up the scene.

Agree with his layout and offer zero corrections.

But...

Decide you will make fun of him for-ever because he wrote, "flying animals" on the sky part instead of just, ya know, "birds." (Hey - the school system makes building their self-esteem a huge priority. We feel that at home we can keep it real.)

Step Three:
The actual making of the diorama. 

Tag team husband to take over from here.

Watch husband disregard traditional shoebox plan and break out the power tools. Watch 8-year-old's eyes light up.

Getting in on the drill action.

In the same day paint the base and glue on sand.

Next day paint the back and draw on some "flying animals" (all of which happen to be birds - not a bat or a flying squirrel in the bunch).

Collect foliage.

Glue foliage.

Watch Dad get started on the Chickee.

I'm not sure of the actual breakdown of the assemblage at this point and I slacked at taking pictures. All I know is that one night at almost 10pm during "project time" I heard a basketball bouncing in the garage so I went in to check "progress." Dad was sitting there in front of the Chickee while Kid was playing.

Dad, "This floor is taking forever."

Mom, (eye roll) "If he's not helping he could at least go to bed."

Kid did work on the roof and sweep the garage of all the scraps. So there's that.

Last step: Kid glues store-bought figurines to project, poses for pic, and brings to school one whole day before it's due!

So there's your Florida Seminole Diorama How-to.

Looking at this picture it is clear that Kaden's hair is the project we need to tackle next.

And after all this talk about Seminoles there is only one way I can, in good conscience, end this post:

Go, Gators!

Florida Snow Day Play Date

There was a day over Christmas break where we were on a bike ride/walk, and Blue asked, "Mom, is it winter?" I could see how being outside in shorts, tees and flip flops and sweating under the blaring sun in December could confuse a kindergartner who is learning about the seasons and has homework assignments such as, "Write three words that rhyme with snow."

I preceded to teach him the Florida seasons: Summer, Hurricane Season and Love bug Season. 

That is all.

But this conversation got in my head that we should still have a snow day this year. I even considered surprising the boys one morning with snowflakes all over the house and announcing it was a snow day and they could skip school. Except they're off so dang much as it is... and when I realized that they were getting off both Friday and Monday for MLK we picked today for our snow day and made it our play date theme.

We had four friends join us for snowman picture making, snowman snack making, and a Florida snowball fight. (Shaving cream)

But back up to last night. First we tried a little Borax snowflake experiment. You mix borax with boiling water and leave a snowflake shaped pipe cleaner dipped in. Let it sit over night, and...

We made four and hung them on cabinet knobs.

Then I tried to rope Kaden and Blue into helping me make some snowflakes. Blue made 0. Kaden made about 8. I proceeded to stay up and watched a movie and managed to make 60. 68 snowflakes wasn't quite the winter wonderland I'd hoped for, but I needed to go to bed. My archways still looked pretty.



And then after we made our snowmen, they added to the decor.

For the snowmen, we just used a circle punch and then I threw paper scraps, markers, and glue sticks on the table and they went at it.

Oh, and while they created, I had these powdered donut snowman faces for a snack.

Disclaimer: I took the time to cut nice pointy cantaloupe noses this morning, but then when I went to make the faces my noses were gone, presumably stolen and consumed by a certain three or six year old. So... these noses were much more quickly done and not as nice as the first batch.

Then we cleared the table and readied for the next mess: marshmallows, chocolate chips, and pretzel sticks which we gave to the kids and told 'em to put together and make a snowman. I demonstrated how to use the preztles as rods to hold the marshmallows together and then just let 'em play with their food.

Hey look - that's Daddy's head. (Kevin took the day off to finish the landscaping on our other house which will go on the market next week. He was gone all morning by once the snack came out he showed up. Nice, suspicious timing there, Dad.)

And then... for the grand finale the "Snow Ball" Fight.

Here were the only ones game:


Ready... Set... GO!

Toby decided to join in too! As for Gus... well, it wasn't his decision.

Is that shaving cream yummy, Gus?

I guess Blue was the funnest target, because after their cans were emptied, it was Blue who was the biggest mess!

So that's how we do snow days here in sunny south Florida. The weather even complied. We woke up to a 50 degree morning and it was probably only in the mid-60's as we played. Brrrrr! 

Plan C (The Hurricane Plan)

This past weekend I was already thinking about what we would do today because I knew the boys didn't have school. We haven't been to the beach in awhile though it's certainly been hot enough, so I figured if it was hot (over 85) then we'd head there, but if it was cooler we'd finally go to the local farm's pumpkin patch, something I've been putting off because of the heat.

Plan A: Beach

Plan B: Pumpkin Patch

Ah "fall" in Florida...

Which is why I should have realized we'd end up with Plan C.

The Hurricane Plan.

Thank you, Sandy. 

Thursday night I redboxed Madagascar 3 for the kids and re-stocked my baking supplies.

We started our day reading some poems from Shel Silverstein's Light In the Attic. (Toby's favorite book right now because he's cool like that.) And then, after reading Day After Halloween, they were given the instructions to draw a mask so scary no one dared buy it so it was still in the store the day after Halloween.

They watched a movie, they played, they probably got a little bored...

So we made pumpkin shaped sugar cookies and orange icing.

Mmmmm.

Finally we decided to work on our real pumpkins. We're having friends over for the FL/GA game tomorrow so I wanted to Gator them up. We got to painting them but then noticed that our biggest pumpkin was already starting to rot around the stem, so I decided we should carve it. Usually, we have a strict, we only carve our pumpkins the night before Halloween policy, but I broke it. It's ok, we'll get another pumpkin.

I'm still not quite ready to let my boys have a go at carving, but they completely gutted it for me. Kaden got that thing clean!

Meanwhile, Blue pretty much just watched and made faces.

And after I got a hold of it, here's what we had:

All lit up!

Go, Gators!

Happy Halloween!

And Adios, Sandy!

Meeting Winter

My kids are fans of the movie Dolphin Tale. I finally watched it with them earlier this summer and as soon as the movie ended I got online to find out where Winter, the dolphin the movie was about, lived. I was happily surprised to learn that she lived in Clearwater, near enough to where my in-laws live in Tampa. 

This weekend we traveled to Tampa for our belated anniversary date, but the kids didn't have school today so Kevin took a day off work to make it a long weekend and we visited the Clearwater Marine Aquarium  before driving home this afternoon.

Hi, Winter!

This is Winter, swimming in her tank without her prosthetic tale. Apparently she only wears it about 4 hours a day. She can do more with it on, and it reinforces how she's supposed to swim, but it's heavy and gives her a workout. I never saw her with it on while we were there, but she got around just fine. What a fighter!

CMA also houses sea turtles, rays, sharks, otters, and more. For the most part it's a rescue site that works to rehabilitate sea animals to return them to the wild or become their new home if they can't be returned to the wild (as in Winter's case).

The boys in front of the shark tank.

It looks like Toby is trying to give the sting rays a high five.

Playing around.



Toby in the turtle crawl.

Nicholas playing around.

After spending time at the aquarium we took the ferry shuttle (included in the price but doesn't run as often as the trolley) to the Dolphin Tale Museum (also part of the entry fee).

Blue. Oh Blue. When we got on the ferry we let the boys have a snack. Blue asked if he could eat his lunch (we'd packed pb and j's) and I said, "No, I'm not even sure if we're supposed to be eating on the ferry." So before we take off the captain gives his spiel and then asks if there's any questions. One hand shoots up. Yes, Blue's. What's his question? "Can we eat on the ferry?" The captain answers yes, just don't make a mess, so guess who then turned to me... THAT KID.

The museum is filled with movie props, a hurricane simulation, screens showing clips from the movie, and movie stills.

Then we took the trolley back to the aquarium.

Toby looked very confused. I wondered if he wondered why he wasn't in a car seat, but he got over it and started singing The Wheels on the Bus.

THAT kid. Too cute.

Back at the CMA.

Toby had moments of high maintenence, but overall it was a fun way to spend the day and the boys loved seeing the site they'd seen in the movie so many times and now Kevin even wants to watch the movie, so I guess our next movie night is planned.

Belated Anniversary Date

I graduated from the University of Florida in May 2000 and I was going off to grad school the following fall, so no plans to actually get a job or anything boring like that. Oh no, that summer Kevin and I planned to do a 6 week cross country road trip stopping mostly at National Parks. (It was incredible.) But... the weeks before that trip we were apart. He was home in Tampa working with his uncle doing AC installations. Meanwhile I was off for two weeks in Greece with my Mom and then back home in West Palm doing... who knows. I probably went to the beach a lot. I grew up spoiled. Don't hate.

I'm not sure how many times Kevin made it over to West Palm or I to Tampa before our road trip but I do know we planned two big let's-be-tourists-in-our-own-backyards dates. In my part of the world we spent a day at the Miami Metro Zoo. Not the most romantic of dates as my best friend, Michelle and her younger cousin came with. Also, this will forever be remembered as the day we watched a giraffe drink another giraffe's pee. AS IT WAS PEEING. True story.

Don't get me wrong, we had a lot of fun, but our Tampa date was bit more of a traditional, romantic date. We spent the day at the Dali museum in St. Pete and that evening we had dinner and dessert at Bern's, a landmark restaurant in Tampa founded in 1956. According to Wikipedia George W. Bush ate there twice during his presidency and Rachel Ray dubbed it the best restaurant period in 2009. So yeah, it's got a good reputation.

I got it in my head recently that we should we recreate this date. A dozen years later... we were overdue, huh?

We were supposed to have this date in August for our anniversary, but then our church scheduled VBS and we decided to help out with that. It took till now for our reschedule.

But today! We had our date! Yay culture! Yay good food! Yay kid-free anything!

The Dali Museum moved last year. The collection now has a beautiful new home built and designed just for it.

Me on the spiral staircase.

On the staircase, looking up at the dome.



Maybe you've got cooler fall temps, but it's so hot in Florida clocks and park benches are melting away. Also, my legs are very shiny.

A little wind blown.


Nice 'stache, Kevin.

First we did a one hour tour with a docent, then we went back through with our little audio devices, then we played around outside. I think we were inside looking at the art for almost three hours and then oustide playing and walking around for at least another half hour.

Such an amazing place.

Then we walked on Central (downtown St. Pete's main drag), grabbed a snack, and bought some vinegar at Kalamazoo Olive Company iInfused with ginger and honey - so yummy, can't wait to cook with it! (Which is so not a thought I would have had 12 years ago.)

We came back to Kevin's parents till dinner time. We ended up not going to Bern's for dinner, just dessert. Instead we went to Ceviches', a tapas place I'd been to in downtown Orlando and loved, so we gave the Tampa location a try. Afterwards it was off to the Bern's dessert room (upstairs from where dinner is served).

Before dinner. No worries, Kevin did put on shoes. (Real shoes too, not flip flops.)

12 years later and the same things make us happy - art, food, and, believe it or not, each other.