Florida Vacation

These are some highlights from the trip to Florida we took in March. We went to visit my (Randi's) dad's mom and her husband Bill, and to introduce them to Jonathan. He was the hit of the party. We couldn't walk down a hallway at their retirement home without having to stop and accept a very sweet compliment from one of the residents. We loved hanging with Gram and getting to see a little part of her world. We love you Gram!


Uncle David always has a huge cup of tea with him and J thought it was only fair to share!

David was great at entertaining the little guy, something Mom and Dad were very grateful for.

This is just a pic of his first plane ride!


We were bored the first night, still on AZ time and in need of entertainment so we invented "Sugar Packet Poker". There were cards but no chips and basically nothing else in our room but this ancient basket of sugar packets. Just to mix it up, there were some packets of unrecognizable tea, too! So we came up with a rating system (one sugar=5 sweet and lows, etc) with the tea bag being the ever so important $50 chip. (Did I mention it was REALLY late?) I was out pretty quickly and David and Chris played it out for quite awhile. I think David ended up with all the sugar-- a fitting end for my sugar loving brother! Anyway, I highly suggest this game next time you are staying at a retirement home in Florida. Maybe with enough players we can get the World Championship Poker Tournament to switch over to our currency! :)


My brother thought this was hilarious because he remembers me drinking this way well into my late teens!

This next set is from a great park near Boca Raton. Everything was free, including the science and exploration center on the campus. We spent several hours there and had a wonderful time!

His first carousel ride.

Just a cute Daddy and J pic

First trip down the slide with Mom. He had gone with Dad once before a few days earlier and showed Daddy his breakfast again on the way down, so this was really much riskier than it looks. He is excited though!

He LOVED this swing! Check out the video below to hear him giggling!



This was in the science center and he loved the ball floating in the air.

Ahh, the beach...

The next day we went to the beach. The kid is good. By 8 months old, he'd had his feet in both oceans!

It was really windy and he loved the sand a little too much so we didn't stay long.


Getting belly kisses from Dad.


Checking out the sea turtles at a local rescue center. They put nail polish on them to distinguish them-pink for the girls and blue for the boys!


Well he kind of understands how to use a spoon!


Uncle David having a goofy moment again!

Playing cards with Gram at her apartment. She is still one of the best card players I have ever known!

Getting a kiss from Gram!


Ironically, the smallest bags belong to the big people and the biggest bags (4!!!) belong to the littlest person. In order to fit all the stuff in the car, I rode in the back seat with a suitcase and umbrella stroller at my feet and the entire other half of the seat filled.

This is J next to the driver's seat on the bus. He used more forms of transportation in the 4 days of travel than he had in all his previous months combined!

Gram, when you see this I hope you are doing as well as when we said goodbye! We love and miss you!