Life as a Yowler

Let me just start out by saying, we have seen some of the craziest things at Florida Walmart’s. I don’t know if it’s because we’ve been in the state so long, or if crazier things go down here than anywhere else. I won’t go into great detail, but let me just tell you…..think Jerry Springer episodes. We have gotten shook up more than once.

We had a five day stay in Tarpon Springs. It was so nice not having to travel to a different campground. I love when we can stay put for awhile.

We have done tons of swimming. This guy learned how to swim without his life jacket. Just last Summer, he refused to get into the water at all. He would say, “it’s way too dangerous.” He is our timid child. He has come a long ways. We try to encourage him to try things. Sometimes it works out well and sometimes it doesn’t. I feel like it’s a necessity to learn how to swim, so I’m thankful for how far he’s come.

Isla still has a ways to go.

We drove to Venice, Florida last Sunday. Usually Brandon has store trainings on Sundays. He had this week off. We were able to attend a church service with one of my college friends. It was so refreshing catching up with her. We thought it was so cute how our daughters held hands on the walk out of church. My friend and her family were gracious enough to host us for lunch after church. It was awesome catching up. I love friendships that can pick up where they left off.

I love all the produce that’s in season right now. We’ve been picking some up whenever we can. I wasn’t thrilled to have the kids husk corn indoors. But I couldn’t go outside with them to supervise(I was making the rest of the meal). Our campground told us they have regular gator appearances, along with panther appearances. Yikes! As tempting as it was to send the little fireballs of energy outside anyways, I was very careful not to send them out without an adult at all times. We actually saw a gator a couple campgrounds ago, so I knew they  weren’t messing around.

We walked around Tarpon Springs two afternoons, when Brandon was done with his trainings. Tarpon Springs is famous for their natural sponges. One of the afternoons, some(shall we call them) spongermans had just returned with a huge load of natural sea sponges. We got to see them clean the sponges. They put them in this huge tumbler and sprayed water all over them while spinning them.

The kids each picked out a sponge from a souvenir shop.

All the kids love the sponges so much, especially Joah. It’s actually hilarious. He’s been sleeping with his sponge every night. I have plans to make an ocean sensory bin when we get home, to remind us of our long stay in florida and all of our beach trips.

Joah has even voluntarily taken a shower two nights in a row with his natural sponge and homemade soap. He has gone to bed smelling like honeysuckle.

One afternoon, we took a little cruise ride to an island.

We found some of the biggest and most unique sea shells we’ve ever found. We filled two entire plastic bags with shells. Joah found a hermit crab. We found some crazy loosing seaweed, that at first we thought was a jellyfish.

Joah found some poop looking coral. 🤦‍♀️

We all listened to the ocean inside our seashells.

We made the mistake of walking into a bakery. Isla kept saying “I want this. I want this.”

I really don’t know what we did for entertainment before kids.