I’ve been away since Wednesday on a quick, long weekend getaway to Florida, taking the girls to see Grandma and Grandpa. We had a great trip; at one point my oldest was dancing in front of the bathroom mirror and shouting, “this is the best time of my life!!”
There was much to enjoy on this short weekend away — the home-cooking from Grandma, fishing on the pier with Grandpa, the walks around the lake by their condo complex, the beach, the pool, the ride on my wife’s uncle’s boat, and for the girls, tv, tv, and more tv, from the moment the plane took off (JetBlue is the greatest)until the moment we taxi’d back into Newark Airport — since we don’t have cable, it was like eye candy for the girls to watch so much television.
We saw dolphins over by the pier, and dolphins while riding in the boat. We only went out to eat once — usually we go out to dinner on several nights during our trips but not this time. It was easier to have the kids settled in the evening, and we also did not eat any big meals at night, except the first one. My oldest was sitting in the “grown-up” chairs (that’s another post soon), while the little one used her big sister’s old booster seat. They had “new” toys to play with, and they loved running around grandma’s condo, the little one trying very hard to sit on the big one.
it was pretty relaxing for us, too, to be in the warm sunny weather — there was no rain at all — and not to worry about the day-to-day balancing act of work and family. Well, that’s not entirely true for me. When i could I sneaked in grading some papers and even managed to struggle and post one of my blogs. But I assure you, it’s very hard to use dial-up Internet access once you’ve had high-speed! We took tons of pictures and video, and maybe I’ll share one with you.
We also got the pleasure of showing my mother-in-law what her new kitchen looks like. We decided that while they were away in Florida, we’d remodel their kitchen here in New York. They’d just bought the place last year, and the space was very small, and the microwave stopped working, so we had the whole thing redone. We showed her before/during/after pictures and she cried. The project actually is not quite done, but most of it will be by the time my in-laws arrive next week.
Well, that’s where I’ve been, and hopefully later today you’ll see a post about how we travel with young children.