Trip to Tampa, Florida

We got some pretty cheap tickets on Frontier, and the kids ACTUALLY had two weeks off of school this year (due to the holidays falling on Wednesdays) so we went to Largo for the week after Christmas! Of course, my mom wasn't even there... she was on a cruise with her sister!  

Here I am, at the bad drop, ready to fly to Florida.

When they were little, the kids always loved riding on the people mover that takes you to and from the airside gates at Tampa International Airport. Some things never change!

Cory came to pick us up- and he literally had just bought this new car! Only the best for us!

Cory dropped us off at Mom's house where we were staying for the week (even though she wasn't there). While we were there, we noticed this finally happened! Cory seems very displeased.

The evening that we arrived, we met up with my brother's family and went to the Holiday Lights in Largo Central Park. Of course, everyone just wanted to play on the workout equipment! Natalie and Greta are getting a workout in before we see the lights!

Grant and James are getting stronger too!

The whole display was so pretty. I spy with my little eye both of my kiddos!

The next day, we met up with three of my dearest friends from high school - Heather, Brian and Bethany - and we had a mini little Largo High School reunion at Crooked Thumb Brewery. It was rainy out, so they had the garage door down but we had a great time catching up and playing Jenga.  Heather, Jack and Reagan flew all the way in from Geneva, Switzerland (remember?) and just happened to be here when we were also here! (Brian and Bethany live here).

Bethany is pretty sure this is going to fall at ANY. SECOND. Jack seems pretty confident it won't.

Had to send this one to our friends Kern and Dorothy.

Oh, there I am! OF COURSE I AM. I'm always here.

The fearless LHS foursome! Heather, Brian, Bethany and me!

Then we had to send this one to Mikey. We got 3/4 of the gang back together!

It's the whole gang! Reagan, Heather, Natalie, me and Grant, with Brian, Jack, Todd and Bethany behind us!  A good time was had by the entire gang!

The following day, we went to Busch Gardens! The day started out ok but eh. It wasn't the most fun we ever had, unfortunately.

They did have all of the Christmas stuff still up- which was really pretty!  We got there very early so we could hop on some coasters VERY quickly.

Oh so pretty!

We basically ran over to Iron Gwazi after we got our wristbands for jump-the-line, although it didn't apply to Iron Gwazi of course!  And then we waited, because the ride broke down and they had to run an empty car through like, 5 times before anyone could get back on. Annoying.

We took this picture before we knew how insane this ride was going to be. I absolutely LOVE roller coasters, but this roller coaster was the craziest thing I have ever been on. That first drop is WILD. It took my breath away, and the whole ride was so crazy, that I thought I wouldn't be able to get my breath back! 

But we survived and then went to see the gorillas!

This was pretty much what our whole day was. A 240 minute wait for Cheetah Hunt. Yes. That's a 4 hour wait. To say the least, we did NOT ride Cheetah Hunt. We actually had been in line for it for about 30 minutes when yes... it broke down. We waited another 15 minutes or so before we just called it quits.

I don't do heights very well- I can roller coaster all day, but this kind of thing was an absolute NO for me. But these three rode the Serengeti Flyer together!

That thing is really tall. No thanks! They loved it! (My favorite ride of the day was Montu, of course!)

But no one loved waiting an hour and a half in line for dinner. Ugh. At one point, I think they napped over here!

Our last ride of the day (they only rode 5 but I only rode 4!) was Tigris, which was pretty awesome - and a bit terrifying since it goes forward AND backwards. We also rode Cobra's Curse earlier in the day, but I didn't get any pictures of that. The lines were SO long and everything kept breaking down.

The holiday decorations WERE really pretty at night though. Ugh, Busch Gardens, we expected so much more from you! It was so disappointing.

The next day, on New Year's Eve, we drove over to Tampa so Natalie, Brie, Greta and I could do a little shopping at Sephora with gift cards the girls got for Christmas. We met up with Cory at his office (and got to meet his nice coworkers) and then the boys went out for lunch. Notice all the food on the table. This has become a joke in our family now... "How about we order 100 boneless chicken wings?" HA!

On our way home, we snapped a pic of this hilarious billboard on Ulmerton Road. That they are, Largo. That they are.

Maybe my favorite night of the week (well, other than when we saw someone get hit by a car on 66th Street North and had to call 911 on our way home!) was New Year's Eve, where we all met up with my brother's family on Pass-A-Grille Beach to watch the last sunset of 2024. Good riddance!  The boys played a little football before the sunset.

The girls enjoyed our sub sandwiches!

The foggy sunshine made for a great photo of Hattie and Brie!

I LOVE that there is a beer called Florida Man! 

Ahhh, now that's a beautiful sunset!

Todd, Natalie and Greta waiting for the sun to set on Pass-A-Grille Beach.

And as the sun finally set, the gang was (mostly!) together with their feet in the water, wishing 2024 a good riddance!

Me and James and Hattie wanted to take a sunset selfie!

Hail, hail, the gang's all here! I love that we were able to join in on this great tradition that my brother and his family do every year!

The Bailey family was definitely ok saying goodbye to 2024 - here's hoping 2025 will be a lot better (Narrator: It was, in fact, NOT any better.)

The boys needed to lay down after the sun finally set. The fog was pretty thick at this point!

Awww, all the girlies, ready to ring in 2025!

When we got back to my mom's place, we had to turn on CNN to see Andy and Anderson do shots on the hour!

Fireworks are legal in Florida so there were plenty of these going off.

We had sparklers that we bought at Publix - Happy New Year!

Back inside, we got noise makers and head gear and rang in the New Year with Andy and Anderson, who were having a grand old time.

And on New Year's Day, we went over to Cory and Brie's house for a little Hoppin' John. YUM!

It's still funny to me that my son is taller than my brother! You can see where Grant gets his ability to make ridiculous faces!

And for Christmas, my brother and his family got us a gift card to Guppy's in IRB! So that's where we went the day after New Year's Day. Indian Rocks Beach is still kind of a mess from Hurricane Helene, but it was so important to us to go down and support the local businesses.

So after lunch at Guppy's, we went to Clearwater Beach to get a drink at Frenchy's Rockaway Grill. This Frenchy's location had closed in August for renovations but then was further damaged by Hurricane Helene, and had only just reopened around Thanksgiving.

For dinner, look who we found! My mom finally arrived home from her cruise! We ran over to Finley's for some food and drink.

On our last full day in Florida, Todd and I went for a walk, knowing we weren't going to have sunshine and warm temperatures when we got home. I found this two headed palm tree in my mom's neighborhood!

And for dinner, we joined my mom and Aunt Sara for some delicious Cuban food at the Columbia! I haven't been there in FOREVER. It was awesome. It was so good to see them both, even if it was only for (not even) 48 hours! It's always so sad to leave the warmth of Florida.

Until next time, Tampa Bay!