Spring 2010 the Chatt's go out for dinner

Jennifer and Molly went out to the movies and had a girls night out. It was Larry, Mom and Dad Chatt, Grayson, Julia and Jackson that were left behind. I needed to go out and pick up a few valentine's items and wanted to go into Bradenton. The original night started out that Grayson and Dad would go out and have a bite to eat then hit Walmart for a few small Valentine's presents. Pretty quickly it was Dad Chatt, Larry and Grayson....arggg, a guys night out on the town. All right, way to go guys, we were going to show the girls how to do it right!

Sitting in my parents Holmes Beach Vacation Rental we began to weigh our options. Larry and Dad Chatt take Jackson and Grayson. No, No, take Julia, Grayson and Jackson... yah right. I wanted to have a nice night out and not worry about watching several children. Well it quickly moved into the whole gang going out for dinner and mom chatt was very skeptical that we would even be able to eat dinner let alone stop for Valentine's shopping.

We jumped in the truck and after much debate decided on Applebee's. All along the trip, can we go to Mcdonalds, Burger King, etc. We tried Applebees and the wait would have been excruciatingly long. Uh oh, what to do now. We drove down Cortez and began the continued dialogue between the children and myself. Chuckie Cheese, McDonalds, and on and on.

Finally we came up upon Cody's and Dad Chatt grabbed a menu and it had something for everyone. For Jackson, Macaroni and Cheese, Julia, Chicken Fingers and for the adults something half way decent to eat which did not require a choice of pepperoni or French Fries. So we made it through the evening without any embarrassing temper tantrums and was happy to click off a couple ACTION dinner shots with the family.

We were all worried for nothing. It was a great night out and we even stopped off at Walmart and picked up some Valentine gifts!

Discover Vacation Rental homes versus hotels

Anyone who knows me knows that I am passionate about Anna Maria Island as well as my family and friends. Everyone is passionate about family and friends. Another new found passion is Vacation rental homes. After all that is a big piece of our business on Anna Maria Island so it would only make sense. Sure, I understand there is a time and place for hotels. They are typically well suited for business travel but vacationing with friends and family is just not a good value proposition for hotels. Vacation rentals are a far better choice. Before I get up on my soapbox let me stop there. Go Colts!

Today is Superbowl day and I am excited to see some new vacation rental videos by a large vacation rental company. They have grabbed the "Griswold's," America's vacationing family to portray the benefits of staying in a vacation rental home. Very smart move! Take a look at the "teaser" they have released prior to Superbowl Sunday. Go Saints!

Miscellaneous pictures of Grayson

As I mentioned in a past post I took all of our photos and scanned them in. It was a great process that I would suggest everyone to do. Our pictures which were only 15 years old were fading, getting crimped, you name it. Digital is just so much better. Anyways going through the thousands of scanned photos I found a couple that I thought were cool just to post them.

The photo below is Grayson's first show he ever saw in Orlando. It was the pirates of Caribbean show. He was such a trooper that you can see he was very nervous of the pirate but it made for a great picture.




The following two photos are from Rhode Island. Rhode Island had a great zoo. Take a look at the great photos below. You can see Grayson is not so sure about this big white animal under the water.