Tradewinds Resort: Quick Vacation Recap

Hello everyone! As predicted, I've been totally absent from the blog this summer. Having the kids around 24/7 totally consumes any "free time" I would usually have to blog.

For example, I started this post yesterday afternoon when Parker was napping and Payton was playing at a friend's house - a rare quiet moment. It took about eight more visits to my computer throughout the evening to complete the video montage posted below, only to find out the web site that I typically use for video posting (Vimeo) wouldn't allow me to post my video because I had used a copyrighted song. Huh?? I thought if I owned the song on itunes, I could use it for my own personal use. I guess not.

Anyhow... point being, it's now the next morning and I'm sitting in front of my laptop once again - this time with my morning coffee - trying to wrap up this post before another busy day begins. SO... this may be the last post of the summer, or maybe I'll pop in a couple more times with some random updates. For now, I wanted to share some photos from our vacation last week. Enjoy!
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Every year, my family rents a beach house somewhere in Florida and my parents, my brother's family and ours go for a full week to bask in the sand and sun.

However, my brother and his family moved to FL last year so now that we see each other so much more often, we thought we would skip a full-week beach house this year and go for a much lower-key option of staying at a beach resort for a few days.

We chose Tradewinds Resort, Island Grand, located on St. Petersburg Beach after many, many people said it was the most kid-friendly resort around. And after staying there, I would totally agree.

There are endless activities available for the kids - some free, some cost money - but there's something for them to do all day long.

Here's a little video of our time at the Tradewinds (click on the play button).

 I hope you all are enjoying a safe & happy summer. Till next time...

Vegas...Mommy Style

Phew, this month has flown by! Between birthday celebrations and school getting back into full swing, I feel like I've barely had time to breath, much less blog!

However, somehow, I was able to fit in a little trip to Las Vegas with Brian last weekend. (Thank God for Grandparents who are willing to babysit all weekend!)

When people ask me how our trip was, I usually say, "It was awesome, but definitely not your typical 'Vegas' vacation."

We didn't gamble.

We didn't see any shows. (Well, at least none that you have to pay for.)

Instead, it was just a weekend to unplug, relax, and enjoy total and utter freedom from schedules, work and kiddos.

I arrived late Thursday evening to our resort, the "Tuscany Suites & Casino." I barely changed my clothes and we were back out the door to have dinner with Brian's conference peeps. After dinner, it was midnight Florida time, so I went straight to bed (exciting first night in Vegas, eh??).

Here's a couple pics of our huge room:

The king-sized bed had 6 luxurious pillows on it. It was so comfortable!

This was opposite the bed. The flat screen TV was on the dresser to the left and the kitchette was on the right along with a spacious bathroom.

Friday, Brian headed back into his conference, so I went exploring with one of the other wives, Maria. We started off in older "downtown" Vegas. This is where a lot of the older movies in Vegas were filmed. Sadly, now it's mostly t-shirt and souvenir shops along with some much older casinos... except for... the outlet mall!!

Fortunately, Maria enjoys shopping just like me, so we spent the day wandering the outlet mall popping in and out of interesting stores. I got some really great deals and was very pleased with my day's loot. Then we visited a local farmer's market and ate from a food truck. It was one of the best salads I've ever had.

After all that walking, we headed back to the resort and out to the pool for some R&R.

That evening, we went out for a friend's birthday party at a popular resort called the "Stratosphere." The bar is inside the resort's "Space Needle" which is 117 stories up and overlooks all of Las Vegas. It was one of my favorite places we visited. You can also base jump off the space needle in case you were wondering. YIKES!

 

 (Photo courtesy: Hotels.com)

Inside the bar, overlooking Vegas.

After the birthday party that was filled with little appetizers and fancy drinks, this girl was ready for a big ol Vegas dinner! We headed to the Mirage and went to their famous burger restaurants, BLT Burgers.

 

Dad...aren't you proud of your little girl?? She found an awesome burger joint in the heart of the Vegas strip!

After that humungous meal (there may have been fries and onion rings involved) we headed back to our resort for a long night's sleep. 

Since the conference was now over, Saturday was the first day I actually got to spend some daytime hours with Brian. We decided to start at the Venetian and work our way down the strip popping in and out of some of the most popular resorts.

The Venetian was by far our favorite!

The lobby itself was breathtaking with the ceilings painted like the Sistine Chapel.

And then in a little further past the casino and up an escalator, we arrived on St. Mark's Square. It didn't quite compare to the real thing, but it was quite stunning!

 

 

The entire ceiling is painted to look like the sky, so whether you're there day or night, rain or shine, the ceiling always looks the same. There are shops and lovely restaurants all along the sides and then on the other end is the canal, where you can take gondola rides.

Little Vegas tip for ya...we got there early - around 10 a.m. - and it was very quiet, so we were able to get a private gondola ride ($20 per person) instead of the paying for the price of a private ride ($75 per person!!!). I guess Vegas doesn't really get hoppin' until after noon time.

Some pics from our ride:

Not the best "selfie" but I wanted to get our sweet Gondalier in the photo. She was from a small village in North Italy and had the most amazing operatic voice, which she used to serenade us in the coves of the canal. Very romantic!

After our boat ride, we took full advantage of not having small children with us and went to eat a leisurely lunch at the most fantastic restaurant in the heart of "St. Mark's Square" called "Postrio." It is owned by Wolfgang Puck and the food was out of this world!

Caramelized onions, olives, fresh sage, goat and mozzarella cheese. I'm drooling just thinking about it!

After lunch, we enjoyed the free "street shows" that occur on the Square. It's always nice to find free entertainment in Vegas. Because it seems everyone is both beautiful and amazingly talented!

From the Venetian we went down to New York, New York. Personally, I thought the outside architecture was more interesting than the inside, but again, we weren't gambling, so who am I to say? And then we stopped at Paris for a quick peek of the Eiffel tower.

After our looooooooong day of walking, we headed back to the resort to soak our tired muscles poolside for a few hours. Then it was off for our final night in Vegas!

This is the fountain in the front of the Tuscany where we stayed.

We took a cab to the Bellagio and walked in to the massive lobby where there are multiple escalators taking you up and down to different levels (a bit overwhelming to me). We decided to eat at Todd English's restaurant, Olives.

Photo courtesy: Trip Advisor

 Since there were over 600 reservations for just that night, we decided to sit at the bar, which offered the full menu and lots of entertainment. I highly recommend the beef carpacio - AH-mazing!

The olives and olive tapenade were so good with the flatbread crisps.

 

And of course, since we were at the Bellagio, we had to stay for a few rounds of their amazing water display. I've wanted to see this ever since the movie Oceans 11 came out. It was even better than I expected!

 

Pictures just don't do it justice.

We retired fairly early (in Vegas terms at least) again Saturday night since we had a very early flight the next morning.

I don't know if I'm a real "Vegas kinda gal" but I sure did enjoy a couple days of sleeping in, lounging by the pool and eating incredible food. It was a great vacation for this mama!

Thanks to my sweet hubby for arranging the entire trip (including scheduling his parents to babysit) and allowing us to have such a special getaway together. I love you babe!

 

Spring Break Whiplash

Sorry for the silence on the blog.

Last week was Spring Break.

Enough said.

In fact, we went speeding along so fast; had so much fun; did so many things; that when it all came screeching to a halt on Monday morning...I felt like I was suffering from Spring Break Whiplash. I'm sure it's a real medical condition. If not, it should be.

It's like somebody played a cruel joke and combined Day Light Savings time, a week off of school, and two exhausted children and said, "Here ya go...good luck getting them up and ready and off to school on time" (with an evil laugh to follow).

Fortunately, the first day back was a rainy one spent inside, doing very low-key things, which helped me readjust my body to this whole "be-there-on-time" thing.

But looking back, our Spring Break was truly amazing.

Nothing too lavish or crazy. But just the right mix of excitement paired with relaxation.

Here's a recap in pictures...

Monday morning we hit the ground running by meeting my parents at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Notice how it's still dark out? We got to the park at 8 a.m.

I love how the sun is just starting to come up in this picture. Although photos cannot do justice to just how amazing this "Tree of Life" really is. It's one of the most incredible things I've seen at a Disney park. Hundreds and hundreds of animals carved into the tree at every angle.

I had done plenty of research ahead of time and it seemed like everything I read said to get there right when the park opened and head straight to the Safari ride. The earlier you can do that ride, the better your chances are at seeing the animals.

I'm so glad I listened, because even our tour guide was surprised by some of the animal sightings. It was really amazing to be up close in the open air with no glass wall separating us from these majestic creatures.

Here you can see the two types of giraffes on the property: Reticulated (L) & Masai (R)

Again, this picture doesn't do justice to actually seeing these animals in person. But we got to hear this lion roar from far away on the property and then got to see him up close. He was MASSIVE!

 

The boys were very happy with all the rides and play areas available for kids. Parker talked both grandparents into riding this pseudo Dumbo ride.

And Payton talked Brian into riding "Expedition Everest" twice! It was more than this mama could handle so I was glad Brian was so willing to go on it (along with other rollercoasters) alone.

My favorites were the shows. The Nemo show and the "It's Tough To Be a Bug" show were both fantastic!

Payton & me waiting for the Nemo show to start

We also went on the Kali River Rapids ride, but of course I brought my own poncho. And boy am I glad I did! Everyone else was SOAKED by the end of the ride!

I had to include this photo because it makes me laugh every time I see it. I took the boys to the bathroom while the rest of the adults stood in line for ice cream. We finished up several minutes before them so we waited outside the bathrooms. The boys played with this pay phone the entire time. They thought it was so fantastic! (I wonder if you can buy an old pay phone on Ebay?!?)

And of course, no Disney trip would be complete without a one-on-one photo with Mickey & Minnie. Parker was really excited and beamed ear-to-ear. Payton was less impressed but did a great job staying animated for Parker's sake. What a good big brother he is.

By the time the parade rolled around at 3:30, Parker couldn't hang on any longer and he crashed in his stroller. And I mean, crashed! He did not wake up with all the parade commotion, noise and our attempts to shake him awake. He was wiped out!

There were some really neat "floats" in the parade that were controlled by people walking in front of the structures.

And of course Mickey was at the end!

 It was a wonderful way to kick-off the week and I'm so glad we had that time with my parents. It was a memory-making day.

On Tuesday, Brian went back to work, but our fun didn't stop. We headed out to the beach the next morning to join some friends.

We were there so early Payton had the whole place to himself!

We took Wednesday to relax and pack and then on Thursday we headed up to our friend's house in Welaka, FL on the St. John's River. 

It is so peaceful there and so full of wildlife and nature. It's one of my favorite ways to really, truly disconnect. 

This is what my mornings look like up there. Coffee in hand, nothing but water & conservation out front.

We did some boating the first day.

The boys played on the tube.

Payton climbed this tree about 100 times a day.

We were so excited when we spotted some manatees!

The first day we saw a few of them swimming in a cove near a natural spring.

I could not believe how close they came to the boat!

The next day, we took out the little fishing boat which is much smaller and our friend paddled us into the same cove. Everyone got to actually "pet" the manatees! They would swim right up to the boat and let us touch them! It was incredible.

We headed back late Saturday and didn't miss a beat by jumping right back into things on Sunday with another trip to the beach, followed by a community St. Patrick's Day party. The kids had a ball running around with their friends, jumping in bounce houses and getting their face painted. It was a great way to end an incredible week.

Sorry, Parker. It was a bit windy that day.

My Superhero.

Late that evening after the kids were in bed and I had finished what felt like the 39th load of laundry, I whipped up a batch of green pancakes...because I knew I wouldn't feel like getting up early the next morning to make them.

I decorated the breakfast table with gold coins and enough rainbows to make it look like a Leprechaun had thrown up everywhere. But the kids loved it. Nothing like sugar overload on the first day back to school!

And just in case there's any confusion...that's syrup in the bottle, not alcohol. :)

Phew.

Just typing up that post makes me tired.

We sure did fit in a lot of fun in 7 days.

So now, as I sit at my desk and review the week with my virtual whiplash neck brace on, I realize...it was all worth it. Even if it does take me another week (or two) to get back into the groove of things. :)