Ft. Vandy Version 2.0!

As you know, we've been roughing it without a playset for 7 months.  Mom declared Memorial Day weekend to be Swing Set weekend NO MATTER WHAT!  So, Dad and I got out there bright and early and got to work.

It didn't take us long to have it up and functional.  I did a lot of testing for him.

It has a climbing wall and a rope ladder!

Mom let me title it before Dad put the last two pieces up on the roof.  THANK YOU DAD!!  WE LOVE IT!

Home!

We had the best time in Sarasota, but we were all ready to go home.  Who knew there was one more BIG treat waiting for us?!  The Delta pilots let us not only come in and say hello, one of them got up and let us sit in his chair and wear his hat!

How cool is that?!

I was less enthusiastic about the hat than Cole was.

And of course, I kept my window UP, shook hands with everyone on the plane and chattered the entire way to Atlanta.

When we got there, we had a 4 hr. layover.  Mom came prepared with headphones and movies and books and snacks.

But that got old fast and I decided it'd be much more entertaining to terrorize the terminal and lick every window in the airport.

Even better!  Vandy wrestling match!

Things improved unbelievably when Mom once again recruited a new friend for us.  This is Bennett and he loves Blues Clues too!  We made it home in one piece.  What an awesome vacation!

Best Buds

You know I have the coolest Daddy ever.  We had an AWESOME time doing moves in the pool all week.

Dad can throw me SO far!

I like to add a few special things for the fans.

Funny how the pool was always so empty when we were in there.

I got some serious hang time!

And my splashes were EPIC!

Lookout below!

We're best buds, you know.  I love you Dad!

Mote Aquarium

Mom noticed signs for an aquarium on her morning runs in Florida so we did a little research and she ran back one day to get us hooked up with tickets and a tour!

The Aquarium is actually primarily a research lab. so it's even cooler!  We got to see Seahorses in all stages of life, jellyfish, giant lobsters, octopus (who happened to LOVE cole), all kinds of fish and frogs and crabs etc!

We started with our boat tour.  We met a friend from Evansville, IN named Jacob.  Sometimes it's kind of cool to have a Mom who talks to EVERYONE.

Cole was not at all scared.  He was super excited to see all there was to see.

There are about 160 wild dolphins living in and around the aquarium.  One very special dolphin travels solo, is a notorious ladies man and has a fin that got cut up in a boat propeller.  He is usually very antisocial, but for us he swam right up to the boat and hung around for a bit!  His name is Rip Torn and this is a great shot of his poor dorsal fin.

Here fishy fishy fishy!

We passed the bird breeding islands and got to stop on a remote island to talk about the trees and boring stuff there.

Of course you know where we wound up!  straight into the muddy water.  I got particularly soaked and Mom wouldn't let me sit on her lap in the boat.

Note Daddy is stuck holding my muddy butt :) 

Mom got a few good shots of the bird breeding islands.  They smelled disgusting.  Here's a Mother Pelican barfing up food for her baby.  GROSS!

Who knows what this is.  Mom is just proud to have taken such a nice picture!  What a fluke!

We may have gotten into a little trouble for being late back to the boat, but we got there!

The Marine Biologist Keeli threw a net in the water and pulled up all kinds of cool stuff.  One of the highlights of my trip was seeing this cowfish poop in the tank.

The crabs were really fiesty.

Okay back on land!  We had a ton of fun looking around!  Guess how many takes it took to get THIS shot!

The best thing about Mote Aquarium is that you can touch everything!

Okay, not everything.  This guy was off limits.

We decided to test out these turtle nets.

Ha!  If we were turtles, we'd be un-catchable!

We got to see the manatees and turtles eat.  They're messier than I am! *Note we did see a wild manatee on the coast just outside our hotel!  Everyone was having a great time watching him/her until a hillbilly ran into the water to try to touch it.  

Crush was there!

We got to see a dolphin training session to wrap up our visit.  What a fantastic day!  Thanks Mote Aquarium!

This is How we Roll

Just a few shots for the ladies... 

As usual, our hotel was filled with mostly foreigners.  I gave them a pretty good idea of how we young American boys play.

Thanks Mama Werner for the sun tent.  We didn't need it much since our room was only about 10 steps off the pool, but B thought he was pretty cool laying in it anyway.

Me, I preferred to just doze by the pool.

This is B post nap.  What a grump!

He cheers up easily though.  Happy again walking the beach only a short time later.

It was B's mission to destroy all beach castles.  We had no idea, but this is vital to the successful migration of newborn sea turtles.  Who knew B was so environmentally conscious?!

He did do his fair share of yelling at the Ocean, the sand, the birds, fellow beach-goers and anything/one else within earshot.

Nobody messes with my little brother.

He did finally achieve his zen though.  A little beach yoga and he's right as rain.