We arrived safely off the plane. Joshua enjoyed watching Elmo & Charlie Brown on our laptop, which made the trip go by faster. It still seemed like the flights were longer than our entire vacation. When the plane was landing, it "tickled" our bellies, and Joshua yelled out "all done, airplane!" We were glad to be on solid ground and even more glad that the flight got in early. Grandma & Grandpa were there to meet us!
Daddy went to get a rental car, and we stood in the chilly air, but it was nice to have some fresh air and sunshine, even if Florida was colder than usual for our stay.
We ate lunch at Applebee's and then headed back to the hotel to check in and rest for a little, then we headed back for sandwiches at the Ginder home and to play. Caleb loved the exersaucer and Joshua loved the little table that was just his size! He helped Grandma color.
Then we headed back for an early night to hopefully get some much needed rest since we were all exhausted. Caleb wouldn't sleep that night, so I got to sleep for about half an hour total around 7:30 am.
Day 2 - Thursday, January 22
The next morning we met at the Ginder house for pancakes & sausage. Shawn did work from his laptop at the hotel and their house. Then Erica watched Joshua as we took a familiar tour of Boca Grande. Since it was downright cold, Grandma stayed with Caleb in the car while Shawn & I got a few pictures on the beach. We love the beach, but we didn't get to see too much of it this trip. Here's Shawn & me in front of the back of one of our favorite mansions.
Erica put Joshua down for an early nap, so we let him stay there and went back to the hotel to try and rest ourselves for a little bit. From this picture, I'm not sure how much "sleep" was had...
Late that afternoon since we hadn't eaten lunch before Joshua laid down, we went to Sugar & Spice. The food was good as usual. I ate a ton of delicious ribs and drank their meadow tea - yum!!! Here's our entire Amish family!
One of the nights, and I think it was Thursday but they all start to run together, we tried to catch the sunset above the ocean, but we were too cold. So, we didn't get to see the typical gorgeous sunsets. Here's our frozen Caleb Luke, attached to Daddy. Afterward, we went back to the Ginder house and Joshua danced and danced to the purple (is it a dinosaur?) that played a "hip hop beat." It was adorable! Once again, we tried for an early night with no such luck of getting some sleep. We were exhausted and barely functional.
Day 3 - Friday, January 23The next day we went to the jungle safari. Here's some more pictures from Grandpa (THANKS!).
This was a neat place, and Joshua LOVED it. 
Since Joshua hadn't eaten anything but fruitloops that morning at 7 am, and we hadn't eaten much of the hotel continental breakfast either, we were starving. We ended up at Harpoon Harry's overlooking the water at 4 pm for lunch. Unfortunately, there was plastic covering the view because of the chilly temps. But, the food was great! Caleb was also ravenous and he ate in a high chair like a champ. Later that evening, we enjoyed some Plant City strawberries - I could eat them all day everyday. The watermelon was also delicious! That night we didn't even try to put Caleb in the crib, and he slept okay between me & Daddy. I passed out into unconsciousness, but poor Shawn was up off & on throughout the night with Caleb rolling into him and Joshua sitting up occasionally. I think maybe his reflux was bothering him with some of the greasy french fries, etc.Day 4 - Saturday, January 24
On Saturday, Shawn surprised me by asking his family to watch the little ones so we could go on a "hot date." (It was still pretty cold even though the company was wonderful!) Here's Daddy & Grandpa outside on their new lanai planning our trip.
Both Caleb & Joshua got to go swimming in Grandma & Grandpa's pool. We missed that opportunity, but we enjoyed spending some alone time together. We drove to Venice and had the time to talk and enjoy each other. We rarely get such an opportunity, and we loved every minute of it! Thanks for watching the boys!
While we were gone, they made a blanket tent, which Joshua loved.
We let Joshua spend the night on Saturday night at Grandma & Grandpa's request. He got to read books and sleep on an air mattress. I'm sure he enjoyed it.
Day 5 - Sunday, January 25
This day was straight from the pit of... well, you know. We packed our car, and headed toward Venice to meet Shawn's parents, sister and Joshua for breakfast. Grandpa called to say that the IHOP was packed, and they didn't want to go and put our name in but would wait for us and drive somewhere else. Unfortunately, we turned left which was south instead of right to turn north. There weren't any signs indicating that, but Shawn said he should have realized had he not been so exhausted (so much for R&R on vaca!). So, we headed back but were obnoxiously behind schedule at that point. We ended up at Burger King by the airport for a scarf-down lunch instead of breakfast. Joshua peed through his diaper onto his jeans that morning, so we changed him out of his warmest pants into other ones we dug out of our overflowing suitcase.
Thankfully, we made it to the airport on time. Joshua was a bear through security and was simply exhausted. He finally passed out on the plane. Once again, we were amazed that the plane ride seemed WAY longer than the five days had blinked passed. When we arrived at Baltimore, we realized that Shawn didn't have our car keys. We looked through every item we owned, and along with our cell phone loss at the beginning of the trip, our car keys were also MIA. DANGIT!!!
We called my mom to unlock our house and grab the spare key to come get us. But, it didn't work out. So, we rented a car and finally made it home safe and sound about five hours after our plane landed. Shawn turned right around long before the crack of dawn to return the rental car and pick up my ride. Unfortunately, airport lost & found isn't open on the weekends, but after doing some calling, someone discovered our keys! In all the chaos of going through security originally (taking out our laptop, going through the diaper bag, getting Caleb out of the stroller to put it through, taking off all our shoes, making Joshua let go of his blankey so they could check it, taking off our coats and emptying our pockets only to put it all back together again with two tiny, uncooperating children), the keys were left behind. Thank God TSA found them! God is GOOD!
After we got home, I had to apologize to Shawn for my unbecoming attitude. We had thought that Shawn had lost them along with the cell phones he's gone through in the past couple of months (more than I can count, including mine!!!). Since he wears his clothes a little baggy, he doesn't feel when things slip out of his pockets. I was downright nasty about it at first, especially when we were stranded in the freezing temps and starving and had had a miserable day to begin with. But, I was reminded once again about grace. How many times have I screwed up royally and Shawn has shown me kindness and grace immediately? More than I'd like to admit. He's been amazing. More than that, God has forgiven us when we've sinned against Him. We have no "rights" to speak of. I had to humbly ask for Shawn's forgiveness, and I told him that keys or no keys, for better or for worse, I love him and I support him and will help when the worse keeps on getting worse.
We let Joshua spend the night on Saturday night at Grandma & Grandpa's request. He got to read books and sleep on an air mattress. I'm sure he enjoyed it.Day 5 - Sunday, January 25This day was straight from the pit of... well, you know. We packed our car, and headed toward Venice to meet Shawn's parents, sister and Joshua for breakfast. Grandpa called to say that the IHOP was packed, and they didn't want to go and put our name in but would wait for us and drive somewhere else. Unfortunately, we turned left which was south instead of right to turn north. There weren't any signs indicating that, but Shawn said he should have realized had he not been so exhausted (so much for R&R on vaca!). So, we headed back but were obnoxiously behind schedule at that point. We ended up at Burger King by the airport for a scarf-down lunch instead of breakfast. Joshua peed through his diaper onto his jeans that morning, so we changed him out of his warmest pants into other ones we dug out of our overflowing suitcase.Thankfully, we made it to the airport on time. Joshua was a bear through security and was simply exhausted. He finally passed out on the plane. Once again, we were amazed that the plane ride seemed WAY longer than the five days had blinked passed. When we arrived at Baltimore, we realized that Shawn didn't have our car keys. We looked through every item we owned, and along with our cell phone loss at the beginning of the trip, our car keys were also MIA. DANGIT!!!We called my mom to unlock our house and grab the spare key to come get us. But, it didn't work out. So, we rented a car and finally made it home safe and sound about five hours after our plane landed. Shawn turned right around long before the crack of dawn to return the rental car and pick up my ride. Unfortunately, airport lost & found isn't open on the weekends, but after doing some calling, someone discovered our keys! In all the chaos of going through security originally (taking out our laptop, going through the diaper bag, getting Caleb out of the stroller to put it through, taking off all our shoes, making Joshua let go of his blankey so they could check it, taking off our coats and emptying our pockets only to put it all back together again with two tiny, uncooperating children), the keys were left behind. Thank God TSA found them! God is GOOD!After we got home, I had to apologize to Shawn for my unbecoming attitude. We had thought that Shawn had lost them along with the cell phones he's gone through in the past couple of months (more than I can count, including mine!!!). Since he wears his clothes a little baggy, he doesn't feel when things slip out of his pockets. I was downright nasty about it at first, especially when we were stranded in the freezing temps and starving and had had a miserable day to begin with. But, I was reminded once again about grace. How many times have I screwed up royally and Shawn has shown me kindness and grace immediately? More than I'd like to admit. He's been amazing. More than that, God has forgiven us when we've sinned against Him. We have no "rights" to speak of. I had to humbly ask for Shawn's forgiveness, and I told him that keys or no keys, for better or for worse, I love him and I support him and will help when the worse keeps on getting worse.So, we survived. Joshua had a great time - he got a cool new hat, we bought him his very own starfish on our date, Grandpa got him a new pair of shades (he always tells us the sun hurts his eyes...it's too cute), and he got a lot of quality time and attention. In fact, he keeps asking me "Where's Papaw? Let's go see Papaw!" He also has lots of new words and sayings that keep cracking us up. My favorite is still "What-you talkin' 'bout, Caleb?" along with "What's goin' on?" and "Hey-hoh!" There are more each day that make us laugh and laugh. We're looking forward to seeing Grandma & Erica in February but will miss Grandpa that trip!
Bye-bye, beautiful beach!
Upon looking at our pictures, I think the only time we got our camera out was the day we went to Sarasota's Jungle Safari (or something like that).Grandpa bought Joshua a hat there that was too cute!
The first stop was the bird show. They offered to let Joshua hold a bird, but he was too scared. He so desperately wanted to be like Grandpa but when the time came, he decided that Grandpa could do the birds and he was "all done."
Here's Erica, Grandma & Caleb.
When we took a pit stop for me to feed the baby, Joshua got to play on the playground and even made a little friend. He enjoyed being outside, even though Florida was cold this week.
Have you seen these explorers yet?
On a side note, when we ate at the restaurant Sugar & Spice, Grandpa took pictures of our whole family together... hopefully I can get some of those pictures and post them soon!
Here's Daddy, Grandpa & Joshua and then Grandma & Caleb.
Next we went to see the flamingos. I was surprised that these birds would just walk right up to us. They were very peaceful and then when they started to talk, they all chimed in. It was neat to see.
The cutest part was when Joshua went to feed the flamingos. He didn't grasp the concept of holding his palm flat, so he would try to hand the birds a fistfull of food and say "here go!"
Here's all the boys of the trip together: Daddy, Caleb, Joshua & Grandpa.
Here's Aunt Erica & the boys! She watched them for a little while so we could look at model homes. We also had a nice "date" out to Venice to walk on the beach, look out over the jetty, and walk on the streets of shops & tent vendors. On the way home, we went through million dollar model homes in a "Gran Paradiso" resort that was really neat-o.
Caleb enjoyed the fresh air and time playing on their floor & in the exersaucer. He didn't sleep well throughout the trip and was pretty fussy, which is rare for him. He's doing much better today, though, now that we're home and he's back to his normal routine.
Joshua was so exhausted he fell asleep with a straw in his mouth.
Here is Caleb awake in "Momma's Bed" (as Joshua told me when he saw the pictures).
My kids were downright terrified of the gal screaming at them... she was like the "peekaboo monster." She was nice, but much too loud and disturbing (which coming from me who always talks loud, you know she was hollering!!!).
She forgot the mat at first for the tub, so he's sliding in this slippery thing on the towel the entire time. But, he did love to chew on the rubber duck! We have a ton of these pictures where you can't see his smile!
Joshua's personality is fiesty but so fun! We enjoy playing with him.
We had snow to celebrate his birthday with! No playing outside today, even though it felt warm out in the 20's. Bizarre how your perspective changes!!! Joshua also got a haircut tonight. I think Daddy did a great job!
On Friday I took Caleb to get his six-month pictures done at JCPenney's. What a fiasco! I got the "beauty school dropout" (what I call pretty people who are downright stupid) who didn't have any idea how to position kids or how to take photos. She even thought she deleted them all after we were there two hours and had to call the helpdesk. It was pointless because I've never seen such awful pictures, and Caleb will typically smile for anything or anyone. Ugh!!! It was a waste of time! But, it wasn't worth 'crying over spilled milk' about. We get lots of pictures here, but my camera needs batteries and I swear every picture I take with Shawn's turns out fuzzy. It drives me crazy-go-nuts!
Here's our little butter-ball baby in his swim trunks, t-shirt & sun hat. Today I've been digging through my bins of clothing for summer things for both boys to wear since we're heading to Florida this Wednesday to see Grandma & Grandpa Ginder and Aunt Erica. This outfit was given to me when Joshua was first born, but it was the wrong season. It fits Caleb perfectly! What a cutie pie!
He's such a happy little guy! And so curious! I love it! Today I was putting the table cloth on the table, and he grabbed it right away and pulled it toward him. He'll grab anything to play!
Well, the Bean just woke up, so I'll stop blogging for now. Enjoy the rest of the pics! And here's the Bible verses today that I enjoyed from my study while everyone napped:
Joshua at 6 months on 3-18-07 (for those of you who forget how he pudged up at this age, too!).
You can see his teeth well in the picture below. I love his chubby cheeks and smile! He is SO easygoing. I am a blessed momma!
Caleb is strong and rolls and 'crawls' and gets into everything! This morning he tried to grab my roses and yesterday he wore some of Joshua's yogurt because we were too close to it!
Hopefully I'll be able to take some more pictures later. Happy 6-month birthday, big guy!
Becca & Allayna still came over today for our playdate then. We had a fun time together! Joshua was tired this morning from being up all last night. I think maybe he had a bad dream? He wasn't screaming, he didn't come into our room, but he was bawling! I mean big tears soaking his pillow when I went in to comfort him...no idea why. But, he was up on and off throughout the night.
After we watched a few minutes of Elmo (both kids love him...okay, all kids love him!), we headed upstairs to play with Play-doh. Joshua does better with it each time we play with it, but we were soon tired of it and moved onto coloring. Gotta love the purple nose below!
And Joshua told me he had a green mustache!
After coloring, we headed upstairs to the office for more toy time. I busted out the hats, which were a hit! I love the firefighters! And, my picture of the construction workers didn't turn out too well...such is life!
We played some more until it was time for lunch. We munched on PB&J sandwiches, cheese & crackers, blueberries, bananas, raisins & yogurt (we all didn't have all of those things, but we each ate what sounded the best to us). Joshua just loves Allayna, as you can tell by the picture below. 
Joshua loves Aunt Missy & Uncle Kevin. He was highly upset that Missy was playing with other children. As we left he said, "I love you, Missy!"
Here's Jenavieve getting Caleb Luke.
Thanks for having us over, Aunt Missy!
The husbands of the group in order of the girls above are Don (pictured below with Shawn), Shawn (of course!), Angel (pictured below on his recliner), and John (who somehow escaped our picture taking last night by walking around).
The food was amazing. We had all sorts of appetizers & snacks including shrimp & cocktail sauce, cheese & crackers, chips & dip, veggies & dip, fruit & dip, buffalo chicken dipping sauce & scoops & bread crisps, a crab appetizer that was simply devine, bacon bites, frozen cakes and more! We ate & ate (which helped keep us awake), and we toasted in the new year with sparkling cider and wine for those not pregnant, nursing, over 21, or too tired. That ended up being all of two people. Haaa!!! I just love the two pictures below. First, Lael is looking at Joshua, then he's keeping his eyese on her...
We watched Dick Clark's NYE special, but we missed the actual countdown to midnight because we were all commenting on Dick Clark's appearance. Here's Alayna clapping next to Lael, who kept trying to take care of her last night. It was adorable!
We had a fun time going to a party where kiddos were welcome. Again, they all did so well. It was a great night! And, while Shawn & I were too tired to share any resolutions with each other last night, we're looking forward to spending 2009 as a family. May God bless each one of you this new year!
