Family Time....Happy 4th of July....

Every summer my sister Kelley and her family come for vacation...we have a blast. I've been bringing the kids to FL with me since they were 4 and 5 yrs old....lots of good memories. This years vacation started a bit different...the kids got to come early with Mom and Shea...so, as they were making their way down I75 we met them in Clearwater and we went to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium...was time for the kids to meet Winter and Hope...the dolphins from the movie Dolphin Tale........Shea and the kids check out one of Winter's prosthetic tales...she's grown since she got here, so she's had to have new tales made....it's very cool.

We saw the turtles, shark....all the neat stuff and then headed to Crabby Bill's for lunch. They headed to Ft. Myers for a week of vacation and we headed home.

They had a good time in Ft. Myers but drove up to our house July 3rd in time to see the parade....

We're a small place...but our parades aren't too bad.......here come the flags to kick it off.

Wells Fargo........pretty cool

July 4th is always the big offshore boat races...so it was all about the boats...

And cool cars........

Now you knew Bud would have a boat......

On the 4th we all had a great BBQ lunch at the house then we headed to our fav beach to hang and see the fireworks.....it was a great show too.

After the fireworks and some folks had left, I had bought some Chinese Lanterns...they are really cool but a little delicate...Shea finally got this one to go... 

Shea and Chad got this one to go finally.......the wind made it a bit challenging

UP...UP and away....we did 3 of them and it was amazing how high and far they would go before burning out....well, that was fun, but now we still had some time to hang since we didn't really want to sit in traffic......so we went on scavenger hunts....

You'd be surprised what folks leave on the beach....I'm sure lots was left by accident cause they couldn't see their stuff anymore....Chad found this kiddy chair...what a hoot.

We found 1/2 case of water, noodles, 2 other floats, scooping net, flip flops, headband, shoulder bag..it was crazy.........but it was fun.

We headed home tired and ready for bed but it had been a fun day.

Happy 4th everyone...hope you had a fun day!!