In St. Pete we stayed at the Vinoy- a charming old hotel on the bay. We spent one night there before Mom and John joined us. We had adjoining rooms, which pleased Grant and Walter greatly. Grant called Nana a few times while we were there, even though they were staying right next door to us.
Our first day there, we went to the beach. In the past, Walter and Grant have hated the feeling of sand on their feet, and have been terrified of the water. But this time was different. They wouldn't even wait for us to unload the car before taking off to the beach- without us! They spent a couple of hours running around, playing with the sand, and chasing seagulls. The water was pretty chilly, so we didn't go in past our knees, but they still enjoyed standing in the water and letting us lift them up when the waves came in. It was pretty windy our first day, so we had great success flying our Thomas the Train kite.
There was a lot of vegetation around the hotel, so we started calling it the jungle, and every time we'd walk through the jungle (basically a sidewalk surrounded by plants in the middle of the valet parking at the hotel), we'd look for bears-yes, bears do live in jungles in Walter and Grant's world- and alligators and tigers.
Here are a bunch of pictures from our week-
at the gelateria on our first night
G
W
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Day 2- at the beach
On Friday we went to Lakeland to see John, Rachel, and Claire-Ann, and we also had a birthday party for Walter and Grant. They loved the playground where we went- it has underground tunnels and different areas for different ages. We camped out under a pavilion and ate cake and opened gifts. Walter and Grant are really into getting presents. Their birthday falls at the end of a long line of kid-related holidays- Christmas, then Valentine's Day, then Easter, then their birthday. So they have grown accustomed to being given things. They may be disappointed when they don't get anymore presents for several months! (but what a relief for me!) This birthday they received remote control cars, some cute outfits, dinosaur coloring books, trains, and books. They love their gifts.
After spending all day in Lakeland, and having dinner on the veranda at The Terrace Hotel (where we spent about 2 hours chasing after W and G), we headed up to Orlando for the night. We arrived late, around 10:00, and were pleased to find that John and Alexandra were still up! The next morning we got to visit briefly with Laura, John, Alexandra and Will before taking off for Disney World, where we joined the hordes of people doing exactly what we were doing- trying to give our children a memorable day, while reliving our own childhood. It was great.
Our first ride was Dumbo... Walter rode with Brian and Grant with me.
Grant really liked It's a Small World (so many waterfalls!)...
but Walter was a little bit scared...
G just had to have this lollipop (Walter was asleep on Daddy during this time or he would have gotten one, too)
and after the lollipop a Mickey Mouse ice cream-
this was our lunch
the sugar high...
and the crash...
After 6 long hours at Disney, we headed back to Laura's house. What a fun night we had! Aunt Ann came over for a visit, and Walter and Grant thoroughly enjoyed all the attention. They got some more birthday gifts and they got to play in the pool and run around with Jack, Will and Alexandra. Oh, and Fritz, the very cool Shubert dog.
this was probably my favorite part of the day- relaxing at Laura's house after Disney (yes, that's another popsicle- it was their birthday, after all!), Walter and Grant sat on the steps and chatted while Brian and I watched from inside.
playing in the pool and watering plants at Laura's house
we love this place!
Grant and John
Alexandra, Jack, Walter
Walter actually sat in Laura's lap and let her get sugar- this was really cute.
sacked out at the end of the night, after a very long, very exciting, week.
One of the greatest parts of the trip, for me and Brian, was how outgoing Walter and Grant were. They are usually pretty shy when we're in a new place, but they really took off on this trip. Brian pointed it out to me at the end of the trip- usually we are trying to get them to climb down from our laps or out of our arms, but this time the opposite was true- we were chasing after them all over the place. So we were all exhausted by the end of the week.
