Shae Goes To Florida, Part III

In her two relatively short years of life, Shae has now been to Florida a whopping three times -- twice to Naples and now once to Tampa. Lucky kid!

Waiting patiently at DIA for our flight.
All buckled in and ready to go! (Note: we had intended to be safety-conscious and have her in her carseat on the plane. We actually hauled it all the way through the airport and to the gate. Then the lady at the gate told us that the carseat would have to be in the window seat for safety reasons and we scrapped the plan -- better to have little missy flanked on both sides by parental units than to put only one person in charge of her entertainment.)

At long last, we arrived at the Ring home. Shae and Carson took mere moments to get reacquainted (to be fair they haven't seen each other in 18 months) and quickly become BFFs. For the moment.

Breaking bread together.

Baby Connor joins the party.

After a good night's sleep, it was time to do some serious playing outside.

Carson demonstrates is driving skills in the sweet truck he got for Christmas.

Shae saying "hi" as she dashes by, trying to catch up to (or perhaps keep away from -- can't remember) Carson in the truck.

Shae decides to take a spin.

I know! Let's go boating! (Note: the blotch in the middle of the next few photos? Yeah, I discovered a speck of green crayon INSIDE the lens of the camera. I'm open to suggestions on how to get rid of that one.)

Shae's pretty fired up about the boating.

All vested up and ready to roll.

Jody and Matt discussing manly boating things.

This is how the kids spent the majority of the time on the boat. The wake is riveting.

Matt grants Jody the privilege of driving the Miss Eau Claire.

Still lookin'...

Jody shares his privilege with Shae.

We docked the boat at Clearwater Beach and went to dinner. After ordering some chow, the kids ventured out to check out the sand. Shae hasn't seen sand since before she could walk, so it was a pretty cool experience to have it between her toes -- except she was pretty confused and kept asking if she needed her shoes to walk in the snow.

Stupid crayon splotch. Sigh.

I love this picture.

Playing on the sand dune with Carson and Aunt Dee.

Pretty sunset!

Better than climbing up the sand dune? Running down the sand dune!

No green flash with this sunset -- it was too cloudy -- but lovely nonetheless.

Time to head back towards home. Boating after dark in January means very chilly temperatures. The kiddos snuggled up together under a blanket.

Tampa area at night.

Moving on... After another good night's rest, Aunt Dee asked Shae if she wanted to hold baby Connor. Shae was tickled pink! She was very gentle with him and pretty curious. Then after about 90 seconds the novelty wore off and she was ready to play again. Haha.

Jody, Shae and I decided to give the Rings a little break and headed out by ourselves for a few hours. We went back to Clearwater to see what we could see. Unfortunately we couldn't see much -- cloudy, rainy and chilly today. But that's okay; we had some fun!

We walked out on the pier for a little while. Shae thought it was pretty rad.

Time to get inside and warm up. At Crabby Bill's, Shae had fun chasing the pigeons. Yep, pigeons inside. Don't get me started on that.

Shae is starting to show signs of mama's curly hair in humid conditions. I also discovered a few very light-colored freckles on her cheeks and nose!

Dad picked out some very cool shades for Shae. So cool, in fact, that they need to be worn indoors! Mmmkay, Bono...

Jody gets in on the playing action with the kiddos -- he could only hold himself back from Carson's train table for so long.

Shae and Carson listen to a book-on-CD in Carson's room.

Next up? Horse track! The Rings live very close to the Tampa Bay Downs horse track, and that sounded like a nice way to spend the afternoon. The only problem is that it was a pretty chilly day. Yeah the sun was shining, but the wind was also howling! Dee dressed appropriately for the weather.

Carson and Shae had a blast running up and down the stairs for a while.

We decided to relocate to get ourselves into the sun with the intention of hopefully warming up. Plus the kids could peek over the fence as the horses ran past!

Just proving that not everything with Shae is sunshine-and-roses all the time. Ha.

We arrive at the Pour House in downtown Tampa to watch the Packers game. Baby Connor is really fired up about the game! Such a little angel.

Kid-friendly bar is not an oxymoron! Everyone had a blast.

Go Pack, go!

Jody's humoring me.

The scene. Happy birthday, Prakash!

Connor is still pretty fired up about the Packers' stomping of the Bears. He can barely contain his excitement.

All good things must come to an end. The Tampa airport has a play area for kids -- brilliant!

Pilot Shae with her co-pilot, Piglet.

A fantastic trip to Tampa! A million thanks to Dee, Matt, Carson and Connor Ring for being such gracious hosts. We look forward to returning the favor by hosting you this summer!