Manatees on Memorial Day.......

We just returned home from our adventure 

to Crystal River.

This was another Groupon Christmas gift purchase-

(I was loving these bad boys this past year wasn't I??)

This was for a half day Manatee Tour and Dive -

the price was right and I thought it sounded like fun.

I have been bringing it up to do since December,

finally we were able to squeeze it in.

Kev was never very thrilled with the  idea....

so I coupled it with my birthday as one of my gifts,

it was go time.

On Saturday I booked our hotel on Expedia,

for two nights at the Holiday Inn Express.

At the time of booking it asked for the number of 

adults and children,  

I put in 2 adults and 4 children, 

along with their ages.  

I always cringe a bit at this point of the reservation, 

because I am sure that it will boot us

out of the one room and force us to get two....

which I then do.

But no, it just made the reservation and showed 

2 adults no kids.

I did it over again......it did the same thing so I didn't worry about

it and just printed the receipt and moved on.

When we got to the hotel I went in to check us in.

The gentleman at the desk was super nice,

at the end of the check in process he said

so it is just 2 adults?

I was like, um, no, we have kids.....

oh, ok, it is no big deal, we just ask for fire code, etc.

He gave me a little shpill and at the end I said,

we have four children.

He said ok, is it ok if I send some cookies for them?

We usually only provide one welcome bag per room,

but I am going to hook you up with three, and throw

in a few extra cookies for the kids if that is ok with you.

Yes Please!!

Phew.  

I am always a little nervous checking in/out of hotels if 

we do not have two rooms.  

We are upfront about our kids,

but I remember a few incidents growing up with

my dad sneaking the SIX of us kids in w/ sleeping bags and 

pillows.  It seems like he made us go in by twos or

something.  I was scared half out of my mind 

we would get caught....

it kinda took a little of the fun out of the 

"vacation" because I was so nervous.

I thought our little trip was great. 

The tour itself was pretty decent.

The water was on the murky side, 

that was really the only downside, and that it took some time 

to actually find any manatees. 

It was jam packed when we went to the springs to swim

due to the holiday weekend,

but...

What did we expect??

This is the best shot I got w/ the manatees....

(sorry, it is pretty bad)

the kids got to pet them and follow them around a bit.

Some people look dang cute in a wet suit!!

 Other highlights included a lot of this.....

Eating out.

Movies in our room with popcorn and treats.....

The buffet breakfast and the pancake machine! 

those pancakes were so delish!!

and surprisingly enough this little purple set of stacking cups

were a big hit.

McCauley got them in her kids meal from Wendy's .

We had a major competition of cup stacking.

We all got pretty dang fast....I think 11 seconds was the record.

Are these good times or what?!!!

Jealous of our steller high class vacationing??

Last night Lawson decided he needed another blanket for 

his floor bed, understandable, then Ryker and Ethan

piped up wanting additional pillows...why not?

So we had Ryker call down to the front dest and order

them up.

We were all right there listening.

He calls up and asks for four more pillows and one more blanket.

Then there is silence and a kind of long pause.....

the Ryker says -

6

 OH my Gosh!!!

We are dead!

He says,do you want to talk to my mom?

 hello....?

Would you like to get a rollaway bed?

oh, no, no...we are good, just a few more pillows for fun.

Thank you!

Yikes...

You know what....

after reading over my post I told Tina I kind of didn't want to 

publish it.

I feel like I should be sporting a few less teeth,

and Kev should be traipsing around in wife beater tees.

Well, gosh dang it, 

if the shoe fits wear it.

I guess we are on the white trash side at times.

Many times.  That is ok.

I could have just said we swam w/ manatees 

this past weekend;  that seems pretty classy.

But if that is all I said then you miss the 

meat and potatoes of our fun little family.

The ridiculous details are where all the memories are hidden.

Yep, this is us.