Floridays

No matter how much time we spend in Destin with my family, it's never enough,and it always goes way too fast. We were there from March 6th through the 21st (the longest stretch we've spent at their house yet!), but it still flew by! Considering the miles between us are over 1,100, it's not surprising that we don't get to see one another nearly as often as we'd like.

We encountered some "hiccups" on our journey down there. Our first flight was delayed due to mechanical problems, and apparently Delta doesn't schedule mechanics on the weekend, so since we were flying on a Saturday, we had to wait for the mechanic to drive from his house to the airport. It took him over an hour and a half to get there, and with Omaha not being a very big city, I speculated that he stopped at Burger King on his way ;-)

We finally made it to Memphis with 5 minutes to spare before our connection took off. Needless to say we missed that flight, so we had to kill 6 hours in the airport before we could catch the next flight out. We didn't get to my parents' house until almost 11 that night...it was a long day, but the boys did exceptionally well (whew!). Thankfully our trip home was less eventful.

We had such a great time hanging out with my family. My older brother also lives in the area,

but my younger brother took a job in Michigan a couple months ago, so he unfortunately couldn't be with us. My Aunt Cathy & Uncle Ken drove down from Atlanta to spend time with us, too, for one of the weekends, so that was great to see them!

The weather has been unseasonably cooler than normal, but even so, it was gorgeous compared to the weather we left in Omaha! We enjoyed playing with the boys OUTSIDE!! I kept telling Will before we left that it'd be warmer at Gigi & Papaw's house and that we'd be able to play at the park and the beach...he kinda looked at me confused as if he was thinking, "yeah right, Mom...I'll believe it when I see it." Well, the first time he saw the white sand, he said, "SNOW!"

My parents were so kind to stay at the house in the evenings after we put the boys down so we could have plenty of date nights. And you better believe we took them up on it almost every single night! We traded our jackets for t-shirts, boots for flip-flops, and swapped running on the treadmill to running outside with the sun beating down. It's amazing what a little sunshine can do for the soul, ain't it?! And we gladly welcomed the change of scenery...no longer were we looking out the windows at snow and gray days, but rather sunshine, ocean views, green grass, palm trees and flowers...I could get used to that very quickly!!!

Thanks to having a very curious2 1/2 year-old, we saw a lot of wildlife. We made the comment yesterday how different vacations have become since having kids. Rather than spending our time on the beach and doing other adult-friendly activities, we made several trips to Bass Pro Shop to see "big fishies" in the large fish tank, took walks to the park practically on a daily basis, blew bubbles outside countless times, saw live alligators, and went to the Gulfarium to see the dolphin and sea lion shows.

As always, our time went too fast, but chances are we'll have another opportunity to see Gigi & Papaw before too long. So on that note, thanks for all the fun, Gigi & Papaw...we love you!!

my little luv bug

We're quite smitten with this little guy, too

Our sad attempt at a beach photo...it was really windy, Graham was tired, and all Will wanted to do was play in the sand. Can't blame the guy!

A true beach boy