The day after Christmas we drove down to Clearwater Beach to spend a few days with Grandpops and Grandma Jan. We were thrilled that Nick, Alli, and Brock were there too. Jan's 5 younger siblings, their spouses, children and a couple of grandchildren were coming in town too, so we got to see everyone! These were a fun (and noisy) few days!
Mia couldn't wait to go out fishing on Grandpop's boat. He surprised her with a tackle box of her own which had lots of hooks, weights, and line in it. It was a beautiful day as we got ready to set sail; there was even a gorgeous rainbow behind us.
Grandpops taught Mia how to cast a line. She took to it quickly!
We were out for a couple of hours, and in that time Mia caught 17 fish! They were mostly black bass, but there were a few puffers and grunt too. At times it felt like she would throw her line and then reel something in! Ryan and I had fun fishing too but we were not quite as successful as she was.
Thanks Grandpops!
The next day Jan, Nick, and Alli took the girls swimming up at Carlouel, so Ryan and I had a little date to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. This was made famous by the movie Dolphin Tail a few years ago as it told the story of Winter who had lost her tail. Ryan and the girls visited here on spring break a couple of years ago, but I wasn't on that trip. I was really excited to go. It was really neat to see Winter, her friend Hope (also featured in the movie), and several other cool sea creatures like sea turtles, river otters, sharks, fish, and pelicans.
Seeing this dolphin perform was lots of fun too.
The next morning Lily and Grandma Jan joined us for a boat ride. Another gorgeous day!
On our last evening together, several of us went to the beach for the sunset.
It was absolutely stunning!
We enjoyed these few days together with so much extended family who we very rarely get to see. What a great post-Christmas vacation!
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