Florida Part Two

On the day of our departure, we finally managed to get a few family photos.

Aunt Connie and Nana

Miles is far more interested in the piece of tape he's holding, but we got everyone else looking the right direction!

Watch out Michael Phelps

All this play is exhausting

No, he didn't fall asleep while playing. I wish. He's been on a crazy sleep schedule- with the time change, new environment, weird sleep arrangements. Well, we're doing the best we can. Weirdly, I've been pretty mellow about it all. He even got up the other night around 8 something and was up until 10-ish and then back to bed. I figure, hey, we're on vacation right??? Here's what I'm looking forward to....coming home and having him wake up at 4:30 am for the day because it's 6:30 in Florida. It's a good thing they look so angelic when they're sleeping.

Not for the faint of heart

****WARNING: the last picture in this post is a huge, ginormous spider. Seriously. It's huge.****


A little snapshot of the bug life found here in Florida. These were taken on/in/around the screen surrounding my mom's pool. Just consider how well they show up on film. They grow 'em big out here.

And here it is. This guy was as big as Miles' ear. Thankfully, it was on the outside of the screen.

Rain, rain

I'm starting to wonder why I packed our bathing suits. Forgot about the rainy season-oops. And, as you can see, Florida takes its rainy season very seriously. Nice change of pace from the dry, dry heat of Utah. Except for the side effect of humidity. Humidity...bleck....yuck.

Oh, and I know you hear a bit of crying. Don't worry, we hurried back inside and there doesn't seem to be any lasting effects. We've certainly had lots more thunder to test it out. Poor guy, Florida is really testing his limits!

Seasoned traveler

See, I know how to work this thing. Now, all I need is a TV.

Time for stretching.

I remember this lady, it's going to be all right.

We made it! I'm about to get my first taste of humidity. oh boy.

So, the first airplane trip with Miles was okay. Thankfully, both legs of the journey we ended up with a row to ourselves. This made a huge difference I think. Miles could sit and/or lay down to play. He really handled the whole day so well. He didn't nap too much, so by the end of the day, he was a little overtired. Remarkably he still had a cheerful demeanor....until.....

as you may or may not know, we surprised my mom by showing up with my sister (she knew Stephanie was coming). So, my mom just pulled up outside baggage claim to pick her up. Okay, no problem. I run outside into steamy, rainy jungle weather and lo and behold, she was surprised. Now for OUR surprise. She brought her dog with her, a big furry, bearlike German Shepherd. Well, I start to put Miles in the car and Angel decides to stay hello. She inches over to the car seat to sniff-so picture a giant dog head poking into the carseat. Suddenly, a scream I haven't heard before came flying out of Miles. It was terror, pure unadulterated terror. Poor tired guy. I whisked him out of the car, ran back inside to regroup with Stephanie. Back outside. Have I mentioned the rainy, steamy jungle weather. We're sticky and sweaty, not to mention exhausted. I tried the carseat again, keeping a hand up to push the dog back. No way. More terror. More whisking out of the car. In the meantime, both the suitcases won't fit. Although, they tried really hard, it's just not happening. So, at this point, I did what any sane person would do, I rented a car. Problem solved. No German Shepherd. Suitcases fit and we're back in business. I GPS'd my way home and ended the ride with Miles screaming-overtired and didn't fall asleep in the car. Thankfully, Wheels on the Bus seemed to help and 50 verses later we were home!

Videorama

A little video montage of our day of travel. They are all super short, just to give you a taste of the adventure!