The Noehren's

While we were gone we had our wood floors re-sanded, stained and polyurethaned.  They really needed it and so we locked Dusty in the sunroom for the week and had some wonderful friends check in on him, feed him etc.  Here is Dusty finally set free from his sunroom cage on our new floors.  They look wonderful!!  Worth every penny.   

On our last day, Brian and I took the kids on a ferry boat to Egmont Key Island.  It has ruins from the Spanish American war and WWI.  It was so beautiful to explore the beach, check out the ruins and ride the ferry.  We even saw dolphins on the ferry ride.   One of the old WWI gun arsenal ruins. Haley and Grant dancing on the ruins.  Haha.  I love them.   We packed in a lunch and had fun swimming, exploring and pretending like it was our own private island.   We ended the day with another visit to Tastee Treat with the kids.  It may have blown my diet, but man, it was good, and a perfect way to end a great spring break!  Thanks Mimi and Papa for having us! 

One night Brian's parents and sisters were kind enough to watch the kids while Brian and I had a nice seafood dinner on the beach and walked on the Pass-a-grill and Treasure Island beaches.  It was so beautiful to watch the sun set over the gulf!   We saw this place - Tastee Treat - and stopped to check it out.  It was super yum and their tip jar cracked us up.  It reads - Every time you don't tip a unicorn dies.  Haha!   The only bad thing about our date night was that while were were gone - Papa tripped on his shoe while throwing tennis balls around with the kids and fell hard on his face and hand.  His glasses broke and cut his eyebrow and his hand swelled up twice it's size and was black and blue.  For the first time in his life - yes his entire life - he went to the ER and got his eye wound glued up and his hand x-rayed.  It wasn't broken, but very badly sprained.  We felt horrible.  Last time we visite...

Here are some nice family shots from the trip on Mimi and Papa's back sun porch.  

We ventured out to Siesta Key - the number one beach in America.  Apparently, the rest of the Florida spring breakers wanted to check it out too.  It was packed and parking took a while, but the beautiful white sand and blue water were mesmerizing.  The sand feels like baby powder! Brian dug a big hole with seats and the kids spent hours playing in it. All that sitting in the sand must have rubbed off Haley's sunscreen on the backs of her legs because they were beet red the next day.  Poor thing.  She got so burnt last summer on our trip that I was super diligent in applying and reapplying sunscreen this time, so I'm blaming it on the sand :)  After some googling, I tried one suggested method of applying an apple cider vinegar/water mix with a wash cloth to the burn and it actually helped speed up the healing.  Who knew.   My poor fair skinned beauty.  As for me - I gained another 75 freckles.  Some people just aren't ...

We gave the kids their choice of either Disney World or Legoland and to our surprise they chose Legoland, which FAR exceeded our expectations.  It was a beautiful day with perfect weather, light crowds and amazing lego creations everywhere you turned.  I seriously can't say enough good things about our day here. The whole park is tailored to the 12 and under crowd and they were the perfect ages.   Seriously there were soooooo many cool things made out of legos.   A full size car made out of legos.  Crazy. Brian and his dad. We talked Jenny and Mimi into a few roller coasters.  Here is one of my bootleg pictures of our picture. Jenny with the stars of the lego movie (which we loved, by the way.) I love this picture of Jenny and me.   The Legoland employees had very unique name tags - but this guy's was the best! We spent a good long while in here building lego cars and racing them.  Ima...

This year for spring break, Brian's parents were kind enough to fly us down to their place in the Tampa, Florida area.  It was Brian's first trip to see their new place.  It was so nice to escape the crazy winter!   Our first stop off the plane was a very busy Italian market where Brian and his parents loaded up on fresh bakery goodies and homemade pasta.  Yum!  Brian was in bakery heaven and felt right at home.  I love this picture because Brian and his mom have made many happy memories in bakeries all over and I love watching the two of them in their element.  As a West Virginia girl with western parents I will always remember my first trip to their favorite place - The Cake Box in Queens - when we were first married.  I had never seen anything like it in my whole life, nor had I ever seen anyone spend so much money on bakery items.  It was awesome, and still is!   Brian's Uncle Steven (his mom's only brother) drove all the wa...