The Bangerts

Fun Filled Florida – Day 3

If you missed Days 1 & 2 in Florida, click here!
It was a good thing we hit the hay early Friday night because Kyle set his alarm to get up early Saturday morning to watch the sunrise!

So we ran the quick mile to the beach to see it!

And it was beautiful!

It was the perfect way to start another day in paradise with the one I love most!

And then we ran home!! It was perfect running weather. Cool and 65 degrees!
Wendi and Grandpa were still sleeping when we got back to his place! Boy they don’t know what they missed out on!
When they finally up we went to one of Grampo’s favorite local places for breakfast, Sammy J’s!

We decided to eat outside since it was such a nice morning!

Kyle and I both ordered chocolate chip pancakes…they are a favorite of ours we like to make at home once in a while!

I just LOVE all the palm trees!! And we had plenty to enjoy while eating!!

The breakfast place was right next to a Dunkin Donuts! Look at what their drive thru sign says:

Don’t know that I agree, but we wanted to test it out!

Just cause we hadn’t had them before and Kyle & I said we wanted to try new things on this trip!

After our breakfast we hit the beach! It was 78 degrees, clear, & sunny….perfect day at the beach!
We laid out for quite a while and then Kyle decided he wanted to test out the water…bbbbrrrr it was cold!!

He begged, begged, and begged!! And I finally decided to take 20 minutes and SLOWLY get in! Silly me, I should have just jumped in! (photographs courtesy of lil sis, wendi!)

Kyle having a blast in the waves!

After our afternoon of fun at the beach we came home and celebrated my Grandpa’s 76th birthday!

Mmmm birthday cake!!!

After birthday cake & a little resting we got ready to go out for the night! I love being able to wear dresses again after the long winter we had in Iowa!

We hit up a sports bar/grill just down the road from my Grandpa’s because University of Northern Iowa was playing against Kansas in the March Madness basketball tournament.

We had our supper and enjoyed the game, but my Grandpa isn’t much of a sports fan so we took him back home and then raced to the nearest bar to watch the rest of the game….which ended up being “Harry & the Natives”! I just like the name! :)

And if you hadn’t heard yet, UNI beat Kansas and are headed to the “Sweet 16”!!! It was pretty exciting! We aren’t huge UNI fans, but hey they are from the state of Iowa so we gotta cheer for them!

After the game was over we decided to go mini golfing!

None of us were, that good, but we did have a lot of fun! :) Look Wendi got a hole in one!!

Not so much for Kyle though, he kept hitting his ball off the green! lol

It’s always fun to take pictures along the way!

Look, Kyle and I danced in the gazebo just like in Twilight! ;)

And we rode some rides at the end!

And our last stop before leaving the “Family Fun Center” was the driving range. Kyle was pretty good!

But I was horrible! Notice I had already swung and COMPLETELY missed! Oh well, we had fun anyway! :)

When we got back to my Grandpa’s place Kyle and Wendi noticed that the sun hadn’t been so nice to their skin!

Check out the burn lines on my poor baby’s legs! Ouch! I on the other hand didn’t get red…just tan!

And that concludes our 3rd day in Florida!

Days 1 & 2 in Florida!

Thursday we made it to Florida by 3pm local time! Can you see the excitement in our faces?!?!?

My little sister, Wendi, picked us up from the airport and we headed to Clearwater Beach!

This place holds a special place in our hearts, Kyle and I spent our first 6 days of married life here…AKA our honeymoon!

It was windy and only about 60 degrees, which is quite nice compared to Iowa..but I think on the water it makes it much colder!

We still wanted to at least get our toes wet!

Kyle says it’s a “little” cold! ;)

Defiantly brought back LOTS of memories being in our honeymoon spot…it’s been almost 5 years! I sure do love this guy!

After getting out feet wet we walked around for a little bit. This guy was doing some street entertainment…he was actually really quite good!

We walked down Pier 60!

Live statue! He was funny…a kid walked up to him and then he moved and it scared the kid! I’m sure I would have jumped too!!

After Clearwater we drove through Tampa and stopped at a Fro-Yo place…berryism!

Happiness in a cup is right!! :)

I got peanut butter chocolate fro-yo and topped it with green M&Ms , mini chocolate chips, Oreo pieces, and green & white sprinkles! MMMMmmm good!!!

Wendi loved it too!!

After our Fro-Yo stop Wendi drove us around Tampa. We say the Bay and LOTS of SUPER nice houses.
Then she remembered her friend of hers told her about Derek Jeter building a house on Davis Island in Tampa. So I looked it up on my phone and we drove by it….all 30,800 sq ft!! Sheesh!!

It was so big I couldn’t get it all in the shot! Kyle made it though! ;)

Here is a picture I found on the internet…this place is HUGE!!

Wendi drove us through downtown and we saw where Kyle and I will be boarding our cruise ship for our November “Thanksgiving cruise”!!!

We headed back to Lakeland and went out to eat at Olive Garden.

It was extra fun because this is where Wendi spends about 30+ hours/week…AKA her job! ;)

Everything was SUPER good and it was fun that Wendi had the “DL” on everything!! And the other bonus is that we got a discount too!!

After our late supper we went back to Wendi’s apartment, chatted a bit, and hit the hay! It was a long, but fun first day in Florida!
Day 2 in Florida was a little less beach than day 1, but a little more of something else I love…shopping! :)
We headed to Orlando to hit the shops! Kyle was especially excited because they had an Under Armour Outlet! Pretty much everything he wears for running is Under Armour. We hit up Kyle’s choice first and got a TON of stuff!! He is stocked up for running season in Iowa now!
We stopped at a few other places and then wanted to get on the road to my Granpa’s house.

On the way Kyle and I had two new “trys’!! The first was Chick-Fil-A! I ordered the original chicken sandwich with the waffle fries and Kyle got the chicken strips…both were great!

After Chick-Fil-A, I knew right where we were headed next. I had read abut it many times on Meghann’s blog and knew the next time I was down here I wanted to try it! Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt!

To say that this place is great is a HUGE understatement!! You take a cup and and pick a flavor of fro-yo you want, there are 12+ choices!

Then you add on whatever toppings you want!!

Just look at all these choices! I was like a kid in a candy store! ;)

We all went for the chocolate! And added pretty much any topping that went well with chocolate….cookie dough bites, mini pb cups, brownies, mini caramel cups, crushed Oreos, cheesecake bites, gummy bears, crushed Reeses PB cups, mini chocolate chips…….

AAAAHHH-MAZING

Then you put your creation on the scale and pay by weight! The 3 of ours came to $19….I think we all had a tad too much! ;) And we couldn’t finish them! But it was still SUPER good and SO fun!!
Next time we all want to try a more fruity kind and definitely get less!!
After our fro-yo experience we headed south to my Grandpa’s house near West Palm Beach. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive straight down the Florida Turnpike.
And of course, what was the first thing he wanted to do when we got there….eat! Ugh….the three of us will still STUFFED from our two new “trys”!
But we went along with him and he was excited to go to this new place he said that had just opened….Golden Corral. I think all old/retired people like buffets! It ended up being ok though. Kyle, Wendi, & I just ate pretty light after our afternoon filled with food!
It was a pretty low key night and we hit the hay early, but that was ok with us! We don’t want to be tired on vaca!

St. Patrick’s Day

Well I know this is a little late, but I wanted to post about our St Patty’s Day anyway! ;)

Kyle and I both had a short day at work, but I made sure to wear my green!

We kept our evening low-key and we were perfecting OK with that…because we were flying out for Florida the next morning! We went down the street to our neighbor/friend Mel’s house.

We ordered Casey’s pizza! Mateo loved it! He is 19 months old and just super smiley!