What I’ve Been Up to Lately (aka 17 Days in Florida)

I know that my posting has been pretty spotty lately.  It’s especially funny if I admitted that I thought I was going to have all kinds of extra time to write.  Not only to write, but to write ahead.  It didn’t happen.  But, here is what I actually have been doing since December 21st.

1. Left our house at around 9 pm.  Proceeded to switch off driving duties until around noon (our time), with a total of only three stops (adding only about an hour).  The kids each managed to get several hours of sleep, as did Eric.  I slept a total of about 90 minutes (in three 30 minute stretches).

Yes, this was pretty miserable.  However, it helped that I listened to an audio book (American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot) for the first time ever.

2. We arrived in Florida for our long vacation. Eric decided this was the longest he had gone without working since he was around 13 years old.

3. We took several trips to the beach. Granted, we had to wear jeans, but we were on the beach, dang it.  (We didn’t go in, but did put our feet in.  Instead, we went swimming in the heated pool.)

4. We made new friends.

Oh, okay.  Not bird friends.  Although, I guess we made some bird friends too.  We actually played cards every other night with a couple that my parents met in Florida (who just so happened to be from our town and have kids who graduated with Eric and I).  Crazy, huh?

5. We celebrated Christmas in Florida. It seemed more than a little surreal, having lived in the Midwest my whole life.  (We also celebrated my birthday while we were in Florida.)

6. Ate at lots of great places! I should probably be ashamed to say that we ate out about once a day for the entire time there.  Guess what?  I’m not really ashamed.  It’s nice to splurge from time to time.  Plus, we had purposefully been careful with our dining out and grocery budgets in December to be able to have extra to take with us for just this reason.

One of the cool places we ate was Lambert’s Cafe (Home of the Throwed Rolls).  This was such a fun (and yum-o) place to eat!  My kids were all excited to catch rolls.  Well, Molly was unsure about doing it, so then I told the roll thrower that she wanted to catch one, but was afraid.  He threw her one extra gently then (and then had to do it again when she didn’t catch it).

My favorite part of that was that I called him by saying, “Hey Stud Muffin — my little girl wants to catch a roll, but is too afraid.”  My Mom was horrified.  We all laughed so hard afterward, because he actual had a pseudo-name tag on that said “Stud Muffin.”  My Mom thought I was just calling him Stud Muffin for no reason.

7. We went to the National Naval Aviation Museum. If you’re ever in the Pensacola area, I’d recommend it.  It was free, and had some great hands on activities as well as all kinds of displays.  It was also both mine and Eric’s first time on a military base.

8. As I mentioned previously on my blog, we went to see the movie Tangled (in 2D).  We don’t go to movies often, so this was a special treat.  Everyone loved it, and I can’t wait to buy it on DVD when it comes out.

9. Spent more time than we wanted with doctors after my Mom had a knee injury. Also spent more time than we wanted pushing her around in a wheelchair.  (Hard to complain too much when you’re not the person in the wheelchair though.)

10. Had to say goodbye to the beautiful weather, and made the long drive home on January 7th. Although we planned to stay overnight on the way back, we again did it all in one long stretch.  We left at around 9 am (our time) and got home around 12:30 am.  Other than hitting some snow, the drive went surprisingly well.  (Much better than the sleep deprived trip down there.)

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday.

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