After our week at Disney, we made our way to Tampa for a quick weekend home to visit family. Back in the day when Jamee and I would visit my Dad in Minnesota for shortish periods of time, he would always set up one event, like dinner or something like that, and tell everyone we would be at this place at this time and all were welcome who would like to come see us. This works out so much better than running around town, trying to make time for everyone, so this is the strategy we took for this trip.

We asked Jon's Dad and Sandy to help us put on a picnic Saturday afternoon. They took the idea and completely ran with it - read as we didn't help with anything - and put on a great picnic at Lettuce Lake Park.

Tons of Jon's family came out, Crystal spent the day with us and her Mom, Rita, stopped by, too. Toby and Cathy made an appearance, as did Jon's old buddy Tony and his wife, who we hadn't met yet. It was a very fun and relaxing day with GREAT food :)

This is a pic with Jon's Aunt Carole, his Uncle Roger, Jon and Mary Grace, and Jon's cousin John... Cathy is in the background.















What a spread! Here is Sandy and Dennis with Koi and his wife setting up a buffet of yumminess.















Here is a great shot of GeeMee and Mary Grace.















And, Jackson with his Godmomma - I love how he's looking up at her.















Being at Lettuce Lake, of course we had to walk the boardwalk... and the good ol' Hillsborough River always comes through, delivering us an alligator.















BFF!















Us leaving the tower, but even more crazy is Mr. Nash - my calculus teacher from high school - walking towards us.















































After the picnic, Jon took Jackson to his first hockey game. It was a big deal that his first game be a Lightning game in Tampa with his GeePa. Clyde showed up for the game, too, which was awesome. Mary Grace spent the evening with GeeMee, which meant I had an evening in the hotel completely to myself. Heaven!

Jon said the game went okay... Jackson didn't like the loud horn when the Lightning scored and they had to move to different seats that worked a bit better. It wasn't the most fun game, but to his credit, Jackson was up way past his bedtime after a week at Disney and all day at a picnic with no nap. I think he probably did as best as can be expected.
















The next day, we dropped the kids off with GeeMee and GeePa again so they could go visit Auntie Pam. She hadn't been able to attend the picnic, so they went for some one on one time. Jon and I had some nice time on our own... we ate lunch at Sweet Tomatoes and hit every Walmart we could to restock our Tampa sports apparel ;)

We got the kids back and made our way up to my Grammy's house to see my Mom and Tim. We were short on time, but made the most of it... we had pizza and visited for a few hours. I love just sitting on the porch at my Grammy's house, and the kids played and entertained everyone.





























At about 8 that evening, we got on the road towards home. It was Sunday and we knew we were going to stop, so we were just trying to get as far as we could that night. Monday, we got up and made the rest of the drive, getting home about 4 p.m. or so.

The kids were troopers, but by Monday in the car, they were about done.















These few pictures belie just how done they were, lol, but are too cute not to post.





































It was a great vacation, but as usually happens, we were VERY ready to get home, too. It took another two weeks to recover!