Tales from Florida

4 Planes, 14.5hrs and it wasn't even an international flight. Heck, it wasn't even a coast-to-coast flight! Our original itinerary was to depart Traverse City at 7am, connecting flight in detroit and arrive in West Palm Beach at 12noon. We boarded our plane in Traverse at 6:30am and pulled away from the gate shortly after 7am when the captain came on and said there was a problem with the engine, but have no fear, it was an easy fix and the would have to bring in the on-call mechanic. Is a problem with then engine of an airplane sound like an 'easy fix' to you? Me either. So we sat and waited and finally the captain said we were clear to go. We proceeded and a minute later heard from the captain again who informed us now that the right engine won't even start now. Great... get me the hell off this plane!! But no, they made us wait while the mechanic attempted to fix it again. Finally they gave up and let us get off the plane and reschedule our flights and unfortunately for us, there are very few direct flights from Detroit to West Palm Beach, so we were screwed with either making TWO connections or getting up at 4:30am again the next day and trying over. So we took our chances with making two tight connections with a 10week old and a 2 year old and I'm shocked to say we made it and so did our luggage, gasp!

So I thought the worst of our travel concerns were over until we woke up on Sunday and Jacob had a fever, runny nose and pink blotches on his cheekbones. He was very uncomfortable, grumpy and irritable and Motrin and Tylenol weren't doing a lot for him. I think maybe it was just his molars coming in that bothered him because he was drooling a lot, but who knows? He developed a rash on his belly by Monday, but that could have been from a number of things (chlorine, sunscreen, heat rash). We did take him to the doctor to rule out an ear infection since we had to fly again in a few days and she said he looked healthy, so who knows what it was. His fever and runny nose went away by Wednesday, but then at that point I think he got homesick :( He was very whiny and upset and the only thing that we found would calm him down was talking about home, Roxy and his sandbox, etc. Poor thing! He DID have a good time though. He LOVED the pool and even jumped in a few times without holding our hands! He also is doing great with swimming and will swim underwater without holding your hand, but he hasn't mastered swimming ABOVE the water yet. But he sure is cute below the water, with this HUGE smile and his face and big, open eyes. We bought a pair of the arm swimmies so he could swim above water without us and he hates them. It made for a rather embarrassing experience as our kid is crying and saying "HELP" repeatedly as he swims towards us. We kept Brody's brand new skin out of the water and the sun, so he is going to have wait a few weeks to experience swimming.

We stayed for 4 nights in a beautiful resort on the beach in West Palm (same place we went last March - thanks to Mom and Bruce) and Aaron and I had a ball swimming in the ocean, but I didn't get any beach pictures :( The ocean was just the way I like it... 83 degrees, crystal clear, sandy bottom and not a jellyfish in sight! Although we DID see a stingray! The waves were pretty big most days, so Jacob didn't care for the ocean much. He liked the beach until he and I were sitting a little too close to the water and a big wave tried to carry him (and all his beach toys) off to sea. The hotel property is on the ocean and borders a major inlet, so there is a ton of boat traffic. Jacob enjoyed pointing out every.single.boat. It was cute the first day.

The final 3 nights we stayed in Vero Beach. Our hotel was miles from the beach, but walking distance to the Outlet mall. As I predicted we did not make it to Sea World, so I made up for it at the Outlets. Most of our time in Vero was spent shopping or visiting with Aaron's family as their grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Aaron's grandparents are really doing great, his grandpa will be turning 89 this winter and his grandma is I think 87? Anyways, they strike me more as two people who just retired in the 60's though. Grandma even makes beautiful beaded jewelry!

The flight home was mostly uneventful, thankfully. Overall, things went very well and the boys did great. Jacob was glad to be home, but as soon as he realized that his bed and dog were still here and ok he was ready to go back for more... "Bye-Bye? Airplane?"