Sunrise, Sunset

I know I haven't blogged much since we've been back from vacation; or really at all. But honestly, nobody's been missing much. Apparently, three weeks on vacation plus all the summer madness before that, equals a very low key August.

However, August is my birthday month. I'm the last in the six month string of birthdays. It'll be nice to have the next six months off from birthday-ing. Last year when I made my 32 things to do before I turn 32 list (which I did terrible on this year, so terrible in fact I'm considering making a 'things to do before I turn 40 list) someone suggested I see the sunrise over the Atlantic and sunset over the Gulf on the same day. I thought it was such a cool idea, I decided I really wanted to do it for my birthday.

My Birthday Weekend Extravaganza started early on Thursday with a Bucs game. Yes, it's only preseason, but I wanted to make an appearance. Plus with our season tickets and parking all paid for and a $75 food gift card, it's a no-cost activity.

It did end up raining, POURING actually. But, we were there for about the first half of the game. And nobody was that upset about missing the second half of a preseason game.

Friday the 9th we all piled in the car and headed out. We stopped at Disney Quest for a break-up of the trip, and arrived in Daytona Beach around dinner time.

We had booked a river view hotel room at the Hilton on the beach, so that Asa and I could walk down to the beach and the kids could still sleep if they wanted. But, when we got there Asa used his charm to get us upgraded to a ocean view room!

We went up to the room and checked it out. I was now more convinced than ever that I had been to this hotel before. The only other time in recent memory I'd been to Daytona was on my senior class trip. It was totally the same hotel.

We had packed everything for dinner, and lunch the next day to avoid the cost of eating out. Asa happily made everyone Quesadillas, and then we went for a walk along the beach.

I know I live in Florida, I know it's 3 hours tops from one side to the other, yet somehow my kids have only been to the Atlantic Ocean once in their lifetime. They've been the the Pacific more than that! And so they happily played in the water and on the beach while the sunset behind them.

We went back up to the hotel room to get the stuff for the pool. They had an indoor outdoor pool and the boys were itching to try it out. We made a quick stop to get our free appetizer (with your resort fee, not a bad deal considering most places your resort fee gets you nothing), and then out to the pool.

After getting back up to the hotel room we watched Big Brother we had missed the night before, which the kids are totally hooked on now, and went to bed.

I got up at 6:40 the next morning in time to see the sunrise. The awesome part about the upgrade on the hotel room was that I didn't even have to leave the room to see the sunrise. The boys woke up for a minute when the alarm went off, and claimed to see the sunrise (but really, it was just light out- no sun yet); and Asa watched it with me.

It wasn't the perfect sunrise. There were a few clouds. But it was still really pretty and super awesome. after it came up over the clouds, Asa and I went back to bed for a little while.

Later that morning we checked out of the hotel and found our way to the beach. You know, where for a reasonable $5 fee you can drive on the beach. We all thought this was super cool, as we've never done it before.

We parked, had a picnic lunch right out of the back of the fit- and played in the water some more.

And then we headed to the sprayground to get all the salt water off of us. Asa drove over to it, so we both got to do a little beach driving!

Around mid-day we piled in the car and headed back. Our plan had been to stop at Blizzard Beach for an afternoon cool down. Originally, they had said our passes were expired. And through a weird series of events, I think they technically had. But since we had just made a payment on the monthly program the nice guy at the gate fixed them all up for us and gave me a birthday button. Thanks random Disney employee!

The park was SUPER crowded. But we managed to have a good time; lazy river floating, water slide riding, and ice cream bucket eating. Nearing dinner time, we left and headed back to Tampa.

I'd always wanted to have dinner at Lee Roy Selmons in Tampa, and since it was right on the way to the beach from Disney, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. And boy, was I sad we'd never eaten there before. The focus is southern food, grits and corn casserole included. I'm not normally a fan but they bring out this little sampler of their side dishes, and I was totally enamored.

I had an awesome pulled pork sandwich with corn casserole and loved it. Everyone really enjoyed their food, and the waiter was totally awesome. He kept telling the boys to ask him for anything they needed instead of me. And, he brought me some chocolate cake with a candle in it, after asking Asa was dessert I'd like. It was a good choice for a birthday dinner.

After dinner we headed over to Clearwater. Unfortunately with a Saturday Birthday, it was crowded everywhere. But, we managed to find a parking spot and a secluded spot on the beach.

We dipped our toes in, threw the frisbee around and played in the sand while we waited for the sun to set.

 Again, it was kind of cloudy. But, still a pretty good sunset. It was such an awesome thing to do; I think a new tradition has been born. Living in Florida where I do, there's so many combinations of sunrise/sunset locations, and tons of stuff to do on the way. Such a fun day.

We got home around 9:30 and had some angel food cake with strawberries and watched some Newsroom, which we were behind on. (SUCH a good show, check it out).

The next day the boys kept the birthday party going for me. They dug out all the games that we don't play anymore thanks to my winning streaks. I ,actually, only won some of them.


Asa made an awesome low country boil for lunch, and then we went to the pool. Hayden even helped apply his brothers sunscreen because, as he said 'It's your birthday weekend, you shouldn't have to do work'.

Then Asa and I went out for date night. We headed to the Melting Pot for some cheese and chocolate fondue, and it was awesome as always.

Such a good Birthday Weekend Extravaganza. It'll be a hard one to top.

The rest of the month has just been lots of getting stuff in order for school, trips to the pool, Fresh Markets, and Disney trips. Nothing too crazy.

We did get Disney Infinity, which is an amazing game. Even I like to play it. A total family purchase. And between a gift card, and trade-in we haven't paid anything for the game yet. I know a lot of people complain it gets expensive fast. So much fun.

Calib did start 7th grade. It's been a hard adjustment back to school schedules for him. We've still been on summer mode for home school. We're planning on starting after Labor Day. Time to get back into the swing of things!

Next Up: Football comes back!! And the Disney crowd calendar is at a THREE!