Trip to Englewood, Florida

I'll apologize now........sorry so long. I have a lot of catching up to do : )

On December 26th, John and I learned that his Grandfather was diagnosed with leukemia and wasn't doing very well. So on New Years Day, John, Chad, and I flew to Florida and stayed with John's Grandma Mary for six nights. John's Grandpa Myron is his Mom's Dad and Mary is his Dad's Mom. Both grandparents' have lost their spouse and live two doors down from each other. While in Florida , John's Aunt Lorrayne and Uncle Gary (who live in California) and his parents were also there to see how things were going. Heathwise, both grandparents are doing pretty well now. We'll just see how it goes....

Anyways, so this was Chad's first plane ride and big trip. He did amazingly well!! Thank goodness they were both non-stop flights because we packed a whole lot of stuff. We were the crazy people in the airport with a toddler, stroller, carseat, backpack, purse/diaper bag, and a carry-on bag. Whewww!! But despite all that, both flights went well and Chad kept himself occupied (on my lap of course) with stickers, coloring books, and a portable DVD player that played The Wiggles over and over again.

While in Florida, we had a great time visiting with all of John's family. We were even able to meet up with one of my good friends from highschool and her husband who just live an hour away from John's grandparents. They even picked us up at the Tampa airport and let us borrow their car for a few days until John's parents got there. We couldn't have asked for better weather!!! It was sunny and 80 every day!! And since we were only about 7 minutes from Englewood Beach, we went there 4 days in a row. Lets just say, Indiana was a rude awakening...BRRRRR!!! John and I are definitely "warm weather" people and moving to Florida someday is most likely in our future. We just have to figure out how to move our families there too..hehe. Chad had a blast at the beach! On the car ride there everyday, Chad would fall asleep in his carseat and would sleep for about an hour on a blanket in the sand (in the shade of course). The first day when he woke up, he looked around kinda confused then put his little toes in the sand, looked at the ocean and smiled really big. The following days, however, he would wake up and immediately point to the water and then take off for it. He's definitely a kid who loves playing outside and especially in anything to do with water!! At the beach we went to, there was a playground between the parking lot and beach area. The first day he played on it, we couldn't believe how much he's grown up since the fall. He climbed up the playground steps without any difficulties and could even sit down and slide all by himself. It's like he's always been doing that.

All in all our trip went very well. However, there were a few minor discomforts or hiccups, so to speak, that occurred. The first was before John's parents arrived with the pack-n-play (they drove down), we didn't have a place for Chad to sleep. John's Grandma's house has two-bedrooms, one is hers, and the other has two twin beds. So for three nights, we made Chad a makeshift bed with a mattress on the floor surrounded by pillows. Then John and I both slept in one twin bed........not so comfortable. Eventually in the early morning hours, I would wake up to find Chad not on the mattress but somewhere close by, where he had rolled. So I would move him back to bed and sleep on the floor with him. We've never been more excited to sleep in two separate beds once Chad had the pack-n-play.

Then, one evening John and I and his parents were figuring out where to go for dinner, since being the picky one, I didn't like what his grandma fixed. (it was some sort of frozen chicken that was stuffed with oysters and lobster...YUCK!) Anyways, we were sitting around discussing the possibilities and next thing you know John said, Grandma are you alright? To make a long story short, me, the pregnant one who happens to also be a nurse had to lift grannie out of her chair and perform the Heimlich maneuver. Fortunately, all ended well and she quickly recovered. What a scare!!

I could go on and on about our trip to Florida but I think I've probably hit all the highlights and still may have bored you so I'll stop now. I'll post some pictures from the trip on the next few posts.