The Tampa Vacation

Our first big family vacation was awesome! The kids were great on the plane. On both the flight there and the flight back Abby snoozed and Ryan watched his favorite movie. They loved the hotel room. Bedtime was kind of a challenge every night, but we all got our sleep.



After we scheduled the trip, we took a look at the Tampa Bay Rays schedule and whaddaya know, the Red Sox were in town! It was RJ and Abby's first Red Sox game. We were able to distract Abby with a bucket of popcorn bigger than her head, so she sat in the stands for about 5 innings.


Ryan, on the other hand, was more interested in the kiddie play area under the bleachers. Even though I don't think he saw one pitch, he had fun anyway.




The reason for going to Tampa was to visit Great Grandma and Aunt Joanne. We spent countless hours at the playground right by Great Grandma's house, and she even took the kids for a ride on her golf cart. Ryan loved it so much he made her drive around the block a second time. Great Grandma and Aunt Joanne also went with us to Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo.




Ryan's favorite thing by far was the stingray pool, where you can reach in and touch the stingrays as they swim by.

Abby's favorite thing at the zoo was the snack bar, but since I don't have a picture of that, here's a shot of her playing on the jungle gym near the kiddie rides.

Both kids took turns riding with Great Grandma on her scooter, but Abby preferred to walk alongside, holding her hand.

Stuff that we don't have pictures of: The aquarium, the pool at the hotel, and Aunt Joanne's killer chicken wings. I ate them way too fast to get any photo evidence.

All in all a fantastic trip, and we can't wait to go on another one. Who knows? Maybe I'll even get talked into DisneyWorld one of these days!