Over the weekend we were able to travel to St. Pete Beach to spend some time with my Uncle Mark and Aunt Debbie. Unfortunately, Aunt Debbie has a sore back and was unable to join us outside of their home, but we did our best to keep her company and she even helped out by feeding Lucy.



The rest of us enjoyed their pool, which is mere steps from their back door. Benjamin had a blast shooting his Great Uncle Mark with squirt guns and swimming with the pool noodles.



In the evening Uncle Mark gave us a tour of his boat slip that is across the street from their house. While we were checking things out we got a glimpse of two dolphins swimming together just a few feet from where we were standing. I wasn't able to get any pictures of them surfacing, but Great Grandma took some time to point them out to Benjamin:



We walked over to the beach side of things and on our way we stopped to make friends with this fella:


At the beach we played on the shore


and watched a beautiful sunset


The next day we returned to St. Pete Beach and dragged what seemed like a million bags to a cabana for shade. Lucy stayed under the shade with Uncle Mark while we all took to the water and Benjamin and Great Grandma made sand castles.



For our last day we had planned to visit Clearwater Beach, but during our lunch at Frenchy's Rockaway Grill, we realized that Lucy was not feeling well and maybe the beach wasn't the best idea. So we went back to Great Grandma's where Lucy and I hug out inside and everyone else went to the pool. Up until this day Benjamin was too afraid to swim around in the water by himself, but with the help of a friendly lady who lives in Grandma's complex, he finally took the chance and began to swim unassisted (although he was still wearing his water wings). Grandma Chris caught it on video:


The day we left Florida was rainy and cold, so we were happy that we had a bunch of very nice days of sunshine while we were there. We had an awesome trip and now Benjamin has a new place he'd like to live when he grows up! Hopefully Uncle Mark has an extra room... ;-)