Siesta Key Beach -Florida Vacation 2013

We took a day off from the parks, rented a car, and drove to Siesta Key Beach in Sarasota!  The kids really needed a day to just relax and run around in the sand and water!  And so did my Parents and I!  We were told by some family friends that the beach closest to our hotel wasn't the greatest, so we decided to drive a bit to get to Siesta Key.  It's one of the best beaches in the United States!  The sand is unbelievable! I hate sand...but this sand was SOFT!  And I mean really, really soft!  It was white and so smooth, I just wanted to bury my feet in it!  It was such a beautiful day when we went and the sun was nice and bright!  The kids brought their buckets and sand castle toys and were really excited.  Ella couldn't wait to look for shells and Kian wanted to catch a fish.  Which he did! A cute little minnow.  We snagged a good spot on the beach and got in the water! It was actually really warm.  I think it was about 60 degrees.  Maybe warmer.  But the water was nice and clear and you could see the fish at the bottom swimming around your feet!  It was so cool!  The kids found a crab in a spiral shell and carried him around for a while!  I'm not sure he appreciated it, but the kids just thought he was too cool to put down!  After a few hours, we grabbed a bit of gluten free food for me (because I wasn't able to find much for lunch where we stopped on our way to the beach) and headed back to the hotel.  It was really nice to be able to relax for a bit and not have an agenda.  That night we went to Downtown Disney which is really awesome!  We ate at the T-Rex Café which was so fun and yummy!  They have a meteor shower every 15 minutes where the lights turn orange and blue and all the dinosaurs start roaring and moving! The kids thought it was awesome! We got a really great seat near the ocean area and the mammoths!  The kids had a good time digging for "bones" while we waited for our seats.  After we ate, we went to look around at the stores.  There is a MASSIVE Disney store there and it is just adorable!  I could have spent 4 hours in there and not seen everything!  The kids wanted to go inside the LEGO store, and they met up with me after a while.  After a couple of hours, I got some Giradelli's Ice Cream while my Parents and the kiddos watched a concert/DJ play radio Disney songs and danced!  There were a bunch of cool, huge LEGO creations outside, like a dragon and prince, Toy Story, and more!  We had a really great time!