Evenings at the Beach

We spent an evening last week doing one of my most favorite things- having a picnic dinner on the beach. I love going to the beach in the late evening because the weather is cooler and the crowds are gone.  Landon has also found a love for the water. He still won't go near a pool, but he could spend hours playing in the waves.

I am looking forward to many more of these days this summer. I'm also considering signing him up for swim lessons because he's becoming a little too confident in the water for a boy who has no idea how to hold his breath under water, let alone swim. I just don't know how I'll be able to get him into the pool for the swim lessons. The fact that Landon will run straight for the ocean as the waves come splashing over him and yet not want anything to do with the calm pool still baffles me. At least that means more beach days for us!

Our Visit to Tarpon Springs

Landon and I recently took a little trip to Tarpon Springs. Tarpon is the quintessential beach town. It is located by Tampa and Clearwater. You can't help but fall in love with a town that has purple pipes running through it!

I fell in love with Tarpon, especially all of the activities that the town has to offer. Beaches are everywhere and that is how we spent several of our days there. Not only are the beaches nice, but the drive to the beaches is amazing. The ocean was right off of the road.

Landon preferred to swim in his daily attire....his underwear! I think we all wish we could be as carefree as a three year old at times!

The rest of the time at the beach Landon remained clothed. He showed a lot of restraint and always wanted to remove his bathing suit because he considered it to be dirty once it became wet. He really does prefer to swim au naturel. I think he hates the feeling of having sand in his bathing suit so he just prefers to do without it.

Aunt Keyko (or "Coco" as Landon calls her!) surprised Landon with two dogs one afternoon. Landon was able to look after them for a little while. I think it helped with his sadness over not being around Tink. He seriously asked for Tink several times while we were there. He even went as far as yelling to her on the phone to walk to Coco's house. He really thought she was on her way to us. The poor kid! Aunt Keyko saved the day and had two little dogs for Landon to play with. I thought this was a cute picture of them at the beach.

The boy knows how to dress for the pool!

We did many things while we were visiting. Landon is still talking about the dolphin boat cruise. We took a boat out to see dolphins. We saw a couple of them, but they never emerged from the water long enough for a picture. Landon still enjoyed it and is still talking about the dolphins. We were then able to walk an island along the beach for half an hour to find shells. We were on a missing to find a sand dollar. I had never found a sand dollar in its entirety before, just bits and pieces of one. We found one. Actually we found three, but only one survived the trip back home. The sand dollar that made the trip back lost some pieces around the edges in the suitcase, but it has still held up fairly well.

I kept telling Landon that we were on a mission to find a sand dollar. He kept searching the beach for "clues". Every couple of seconds he would run up to me with a new shell and say that he found a clue. It was really cute! We may or may have not been late returning back to the boat causing them to have to wait for us....I refused to leave without a sand dollar and we took as long as we needed to find one. We knew the boat couldn't leave without us!

 Landon and Keyko before departing on the dolphin boat tour.

 Landon and Mommy in the Gulf of Mexico!

Landon strolling along looking for clues!

Another favorite part of our trip was a splash park that we came across. It was located at a regular park and was by far one of the best things that I have ever seen for children. We made several visits to the splash park during our stay.

We also had a great time at the Primate Sanctuary and the Lowry Park Zoo, but I think I'll make those into another post. I don't have the zoo pictures so once I get those, then I will be sure to post those. The Tampa Zoo is really something that everyone should experience at least once. We had a great visit and I can't wait to do it again. Thanks for everything Aunt Keyko!

Escargo

Escargo anyone?

We went to the beach yesterday for a little while. The beach was covered in snails. They were all along the shoreline. I had never seen anything like it before. Landon enjoyed holding them and putting them back into the water. It was a little gross, but since boys are made of snakes, snails, and puppy dog tails I saw it fitting to allow him to hold the snails. The beach was cut short because of a thunderstorm, but I did manage to take a few pictures.

Landon passed the time by pouring water over his head.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today was my twentysomethingish birthday! I realized today that simple birthdays are just as great as celebrated ones. Last year was one of my best birthdays filled with the Cheesecake Factory and homemade videos. This year was a lot more low key and simple, but it definitely gave last year's birthday a run for its money.

Landon and I hit the beach today with my Mom. The beach is also how I spent Mother's Day. It's my favorite place to go with Landon when I am needing to relax and get a way for a few. There is something about the ocean and the salt water filled air that always has a way of de-stressing me.

Landon's footprint next to Mommy's

Landon had so much fun building sand castles

Landon picked out a special present for me- seashells!

After the beach we went to the grocery store where my Mom picked up the ingredients needed to make dinner- rotisserie chicken! She also made me my favorite cake- red velvet! My mom also took Landon out to pick out a card for me and he picked out the most perfect card along with the most perfect balloon. I love my Landon so much!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy belated Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there. Yesterday was very low key, but definitely one of the best days that I have had in a long time. I took Landon to the beach and him and I enjoyed the relaxation that only the ocean can provide. It took Landon almost an hour to venture off of the beach towel and onto the sand. He was scared to death to touch the sand, but after an hour he became brave enough to go onto the sand. He would slowly creep to the edge of the towel and put his toes onto the sand. Once he realized that it was ok to touch the sand and no harm came his way off to the ocean we ran without looking back. Landon had so much fun splashing around in the water. That too took him a little while to open up to, but once he did there was no turning back. We spent hours at the beach, six to be exact. Landon had so much fun. He made several friends throughout the day and somehow he was the one designated to filling up the water bucket to make sand castles whenever the water ran out. Once the water bucket would become empty Landon would run over to me and grab my hand so that we could run down to the water together and refill the water bucket. It really was a great day and Landon and I made some new friends while there. The only downside to going to the beach by ourselves is me getting really bad sun burn on the back of my arms, neck, and back. I had no one to completely get the back of me with sunscreen so I got completely fried by the sun. Seeing Landon's smile all day long was completely worth the pain of sunburn though.  

This Mother's Day was spent doing what I love most. Watching over Landon while he is having fun. It's not about the eating out or the presents. Maybe I am just saying that because I had to make my own Mother's Day card and gift this year, but none the less I loved the time that Landon and I spent together. I spent Mother's Day doing what I love best....mothering Landon. Every time Landon said "Momma" I took a second to appreciate that one little word. With every "Momma" that I heard my heart melted a little bit more. I was over the moon with every kiss and hug that Landon gave me. After all, without Landon I wouldn't have a reason to celebrate Mother's Day. Being a Mom is by far my greatest accomplishment in life. He is my reason for living and the push that I need to strive for success. Without Landon I would be no one. I would just be Amanda...and Momma sounds a whole lot better to my ears than Amanda.

Beach Bums

We were all a bunch of beach bums today. We went to the beach for the afternoon and stayed for several hours. It was the longest that we have ever stayed at the beach. I hate being in the heat so the beach is usually not my idea of a fun time, but I had so much fun watching Landon enjoy himself that time just flew by. Landon was scared of the waves so I had to hold him while walking along the shoreline. The last time that we went to the beach he loved going into the water, but this time he didn't want anything to do with it. He did, however, want everything to do with the sand! He loved playing with his sand buckets and shoveling the sand into his mouth! Apparently sand and sea shells are a new delicacy!

Eating the sand!

For some reason there were jelly fish everywhere. Alex and Kevin swam amongst the jellyfish. They were the only brave ones. The rest of us weren't daring enough to get into the water. Alex even caught some jellyfish in a bucket and brought them back to show to us.

We found a little "lake" that some kids must have dug earlier that day in the sand while we went for a walk along the beach. Landon had a blast playing in the water and then tearing down the sand castle that was there.

I saved a collection of leaves that Landon gave to me yesterday at the park for his scrapbook. Crazy, I know, but they were the first leaves that Landon ever collected into a pile. Since I saved his leaves, I had to save the seashells that he brought back to me today. Let's just hope that Landon never picks up a habit of bug collecting!

Landon picking up sea shells.

Landon bringing his sea shells back to me.