The great thing about having in-laws in Florida is that I don't have to pack up my shorts until after our Fall/Winter visit! This year we decided to plan our visit to include Halloween. We originally were planning to go between Thanksgiving and Christmas and do a sort of combined holiday thing, but Baby Girl prevented that. And of course, we don't mind her interference at all. All this to say, I'm finally getting around to posting about our vacation. (I don't know how people with children manage to post so frequently, sometimes daily, without going to extreme measures. For instance, I am, at this time, sitting next to Charlie on the couch while he watches one of his favorite movies, and I type on the laptop. I'm using 8-month-pregnancy-fatigue as my excuse for doing this at 9:53 am. There. I said it.)
As I said, we decided to go to Florida over Halloween weekend, not because we particularly value that "Holiday" but because I thought it would be pretty cute to see Charlie trick-or-treating for the first time in his life around his grandparents' neighborhood. And it was cute. But more on that later.
Okay, so this first picture isn't in Florida, its Charlie with our punkin'. Looking through all our recent picture downloads, I was shocked at how grown up he looks! And I wanted to share... Anyway, this was early October.
Our biggest concern surrounding this trip was the plane ride. Actually, plane
rides. The trip to FL included two stopovers, which equals three plane rides to get there. Our previous experience with Charlie-boy and planes included
tension. I mean, how would you feel if you were a little person with lots of wiggles and nowhere to go? But praise the Lord, Charlie did great! He loved the air and light buttons, the armrests, the seat belts, the juice from the flight attendants. He surprised us with a nap during the second flight. He even cheered loudly at the end of two landings "Yay! We landed!" and "There's the control tower." And brought chuckles from the people around us. And can I just say we LOVE our portable DVD player? If you are attending a baby shower and have some extra cash, bring one as a gift. I'm just saying.
Moving on.
Once in Florida, we soaked up the humidity, hugs and kisses from Granny and Grandad and settled in for some relaxation and fun. Lakeland has some fun parks, a must for us.
And aside from city parks, Florida of course has theme parks. This year it was Legoland! There was a lot of hype in FL building up to the opening of Legoland because the park was meant to be specifically for toddlers to twelve-yearolds. For the Dimelers, it did not disappoint. And thank you Granny and Grandad for the early Christmas present!
If you read my last post, you'll see that Charlie was more than ready to tackle rides. And he really did! Every ride that allowed for his height/age he got on with enthusiasm. The funny thing is, he always forgot to smile! But he must have had fun, because he wanted to do all of them. The capstone of this park for Charlie was the rollercoaster. Indeed, there was one coaster that allowed my two-yearold to ride (with an adult). It wasn't without some nervous flutters that I watched him walk with Grandad to the line. Charlie has watched a video about rollercoasters, so he knew all about what you are supposed to do. He lifted up his hands, I think before the ride even started, and with quite the serious expression on his face, enjoyed his ride! Attaboy!
Sometime in the mid-afternoon it started to rain, but we were not deterred. Keith, and later I, joined Charlie on the last two rides of the day. And they were wet. The look on Keith's face might convey something like "Wow. That's a lot of water." He was quite tough about it, actually. I'm the one who cringed as I sat down. All for the kids.
While waiting in line for the fire truck ride, Charlie surprised us with another nap. He fell asleep right there in the middle of Legoland in the rain.
We also had the chance to visit Keith's brother and sister-in-law and their daughter, Carli. Just check out those curls! We told Charlie to give her a hug for the picture. She wasn't sure what he was doing.
Here's a picture of another early Christmas present: the Tornado Tee. Or, as we've come to call it, The Golf Machine.
The other big adventure we had was riding on a seaplane. This was more of a feat for me than anyone else, as I don't like heights. But I was only a little nervous and tried not to act startled everytime we hit a little "air" up there. The pilot didn't say anything.
And here are a few shots of our trick-or-treating adventures. Charlie got a little braver at saying "Trick or Treat" as the evening continued and collected quite a nice little bundle. He was dressed up as a train conductor. And Keith was... Gandalf?
It may seem that we didn't have a moment to rest, but truly we all got plenty of naps and relaxation time. We were quite ready for the big leaf clean-up that awaited us at home!
