After church we went to my Mom's favorite Greek restaurant in Tarpon, The Original Mama Maria's. We met Papou, Georgie and Darcy there. Then my mom's good friend Thea Mary came with her sister and mom's Goddaughter Naomi and Mom's cousin Thea Katina. They put together my Mom's memorial service and coincidentally they also hosted my bridal shower 10 years ago. They were all very close.

Brian joked with me, George and Darcy that the sign outside the restaurant belonged on the "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. Does it mean that it is really authentic Greek food, or is it "authentic Greek food" (wink wink)? Kind of funny, I never really thought about that before :).

I really like this photo of my Dad joking with Jack and Darcy, it was nice to see him laugh.

Brian loves feeding Liv. I chose this dress because it reminded me of a Greek Island dress. You can see it better here and here.

Here are some pics my cousin Elaine took of us after my Mom's memorial. Her daughter in Mary is in the second photo, she is so pretty isn't she? The boys adored her.

We got these cool beach towels at the Super Target in Clearwater. Tor wanted Cars and Jack wanted Iron Man.

I bought the kids really cool water wings before we went down to Florida because what usually happens is we spend a lot of vacation time looking for water wings. I told Brian I bought new ones so I didn't have to pack partially air filled ones. He reminded me that I was going to bring them back partially air filled. Ugh. That's true, but they were only $1.99 per pair and they were soooo perfect for my kids. This company only makes two designs, clownfish (like Nemo) and puppies (cavaliers). Like I said, cool huh?

Saturday afternoon my Dad, Georgie and Darcy came over to the hotel. The boys had just fallen asleep for their nap so Daddy stayed with them while Liv and I walked with them to Frenchy's for lunch. We brought back a grouper sandwich for Brian and some chicken fingers for the boys. After our visit we went in the pool -- even Liv.

Saturday morning of our trip to Florida we had breakfast at the hotel. They had a balloon guy walking around making balloon animals for the kids. My kids requested dogs (of course) so he made them dog hats. Unfortunately the balloons didn't fit around the boys heads -- my kids have exceptionally big heads. Oh well.

After that we went and played on the beach playground. We used to take Jack there when he was a baby. They didn't have this web thing then, but he loved it this time.

When we go to Florida we usually stay at the Hard Rock in Orlando. This time we went to Clearwater, but Jack still wanted to stay at the Hard Rock.

He drew this picture of the Hard Rock Hotel from memory while we were at dinner the first night before we checked into our hotel.

Pretty good, don't you think? Especially since he hasn't been there in seven months!

After we arrived at Tampa airport we got our rent-a-car and headed over the Courtney Campbell Causeway to Clearwater. We met my Dad, Georgie and Darcy at Bennigans at the end of the causeway for dinner. Here is my Dad meeting Liv for the first time.

He said she was beautiful and that she looks just like me when I was a baby. That's pretty cool.

After Jack's graduation we came home, finished packing, took the dogs to the kennel and then headed to Newark for our 3:15 flight to Tampa. We choose Newark because JFK's flights to TPA were at 12:30 -- too early, and 6:30 -- too late.

We made it to the airport JUST in time despite our GPS's efforts to thwart us :). It didn't want us to take toll roads so rather than take the Jersey Turnpike it kept wanting us to take the backstreets of Newark. It was a nail biting trip. You should have seen us go through security (see our return trip security line horror but add last boarding call). But we made it!

I had previously picked four seats in a row, three together and one across the aisle. Because we checked in at the last minute, they gave us three bulkhead seats together (very cool) and one center seat midway back in the plane (not as cool). As we boarded the plane, Brian said, "You'll sit here with the kids and I'll take the other seat?" Yeah right. Brian ended up sitting with the two boys and I took Liv to the other seat so I could nurse her during the trip. Could you imagine me nursing her and keeping two boys occupied during a 2.5 hour trip. No me either :).

Because they had bulkhead seats, I ended up being able to sit with them for part of the trip while Daddy had either Tor or Jack in his lap. There was plenty of room. It was funny, my seat was with two young guys all tatted out. I could tell they were less than thrilled I sat with them with a nursing baby but they turned out to be really nice and told me about what a good traveler Liv was. The all were great. The boys got lots of compliments as every de-boarded too. My kids are seasoned travelers :).

We didn't take any pics though, we were too busy trying to keep the kids happy.

Liv with her future teachers, but especially with Miss Kelly. Miss Kelly adores her. They will be Tor's teachers next year.

Jack receiving his diploma and then handing it to Mama (I am so proud of him).

The kids sang a lot of songs. They included such Disney classics as "I won't grow up," "Spoonful of sugar," and "It's a small world." (Do I sound like a commercial? hehehe). Jack has sung them around the house so much that Tor knows all the lyrics too.