The plane dropped on two separate occassions,and my stomach dropped with it. Tess, on the other hand, has having a blast like it was the coolest roller coaster ever! Pilot later told me it was an air pocket they couldn’t avoid. We arrived into Tampa, picked up rental and headed towards AMI. We stopped at Walmart for soccer and volleyballs and some groceries, and then got to the house. Coconut Cottage #2 We all made some popcorn, and then watched the Chicago Cubs come back from a 3-1 deficit in the World Series to beat the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in 10 innings. The irony is that earlier this year the Cavs were down 3-1 to Golden State and won the NBA Championship, but the Indians were leading 3-1 in the World Series, and let the Cubbies come back.

Thursday (11/3)

Heather and I were awaken by Tess fairly early, so the 3 of us decided to walk across the street to the beach while the older kids slept. We came back and mom made breakfast for everyone – eggs, sausage, bacon, toast… all the good stuff. Then we all went over to the beach and played football, volleyball, soccer, the girls tanned a bit, and then we all hung out in the ocean. Mid-day we walked back to the house and Taylor made grilled cheese for everyone. Dad and Tess played UNO, while the others just hung out in the pool.

We then all boarded the trolley and headed to the City Pier. We did a little gift shopping, had some ice cream at 2 scoops, and then walked around the area a bit. We then left and went to the Fish Hole to play putt-putt. Heather reminded me that the house right down from the Fish Hole was where we first stayed in AMI well over a decade ago. My mother had gone with us and the kids. At putt-putt, Zoe goes on and on about how she is not good at putt putt and never plays it. On the very first one, she wacked the ball really hard and it bounced about 15 times and then ended up in the hole. We were all cracking up. She went on to make another hole-in-one along with Dad, Mom, and Tess.

We then got back on the trolley and went to Oma’s Italian for dinner. They have great pizza. After a full meal, we headed back to the house and turned in.

Friday (11/4)

We all slept in a bit today and then headed to the Donut Experiment down from the City Pier for breakfast. We all got an assortment of donuts. We then headed back to the beach and Trevor and I walked down the beach to the Anna Maria TreeHouse. There are rumblings in the local papers that it will be destroyed soon, so we wanted to take a look. It is on private property so you can’t go in, but it looks cool from the beach.

After the beach, we went to Skinny’s for dinner. One of our favority burger joints that is literally right next to our house. Went back to the beach to watch the beautiful sunset and then played some more volleyball. We came back and mom made home-made cookies for everyone. I did some work, kids did some homework, and we turned in.

Saturday (11/5)

We got up and walked over to the beach. We walked the beach a bit and then had breakfast at the Beach Cafe. After breakfast, we walked the beach some more and ended up at Shawn Kaleta’s party house. I was showing the kids the tiki hut and Shawn showed up with another guy. We spoke a bit and then headed on down the beach We then ended up at the Sun and Surf shop to visit with the parrots and buy some souvenirs. We walked across the street and had smoothies at the Island Coffee Haus. Relaxed with our smoothies and then got back on the trolley to head home. We were all too tired to go back down the beach. Zoe and Taylor took a nap, mom and Tess went to the beach, and Trevor and I watched Miss State upset #4 Texas A&M, moving the Buckeyes up to #5.

Sunday (11/6)

Mom made us breakfast again. We tried to begin to eat up all the remaining food. We then all headed towards end of island to left of Rod n Reel Pier (down from City Pier) We walked around the beach for a few hours and then headed back to the house. On the way we stopped at the Art and Craft Festival and mom bought a few things. Mom and Tess wanted to go right back to the beach, so the older kids and I dropped them off and then drove down to Joe’s Eats and Treats for some ice cream. After enjoying our ice cream, we then joined mom and Tess at the beach. We spent most of the day at the beach and then mom picked up dinner at the Feast Restaurant (near Sand and Surf) for a late-night dinner.

Monday (11/7)

We had breakfast and ate all the remaining food. We then walked the beach a bit and headed back to pack up the house. We then drove to St. Armand’s Square just south of Longboat Key. We walked around and shopped there most of the day. We had lunch at an italian restaurant – Venezia. Food was pricey, but quality of food didn’t match the price tag. We then headed to the Tampa Airport, dropped off the car, and waited for our flight back to Cincy. The kids got caught up on homework and Heather and I got caught up on some work stuff. The flight was smooth and we arrived back to CVG around 10p.
The radio statio is FM 101.5.

The below paragragh is using vocabulary I learned this week from Zoe, who lives in Australia.

One morning I woke up crook (not feeling well), so I went to get my tracky dacks (sweatpants) from the laundry room. It was pretty warm in the house so I grabbed an icey pole (popsicle) from the refrigerator. I still didn’t cool off so I put on my togs (swimsuit) and jumped in the pool. I then got a shower, grabbed my lunchbag that had my rock mellon(cantalope) and my plastic eski (thermos) and went to work. At work I misspelled something on my timesheet so I asked my female colleague if I could borrow a rubber (eraser), and she looked at me alarmed. My mouth was a little dry so I went to the bubbler (drinking fountain) That night I went to the office cookout and had some snags (hotdogs on the barbq) and some fairy floss (cotton candy).