Florida Trip

Well, the highlight of our last 2 weeks was certainly the trip we took to Florida last weekend, but I will backtrack to 2 weeks ago before getting to that. 2 Sabbaths ago we stayed home from church because of Caleb's cough. It was still pretty bad, so we didn't want to get anybody else sick (even though I wasn't really sure if he was actually sick or if he had allergies to something). We did venture out to Heritage in the early afternoon for a couple of hours just to get out of the house and we had a fun time as always.

Using the nebulizer to help with the wheezing

I don't remember doing much on Sunday except for working. I think Caleb had a hard time napping again because of his cough, so I had to cut my working short but then we put him to bed early. He had a hard time staying asleep the first couple of hours of his night, which was hard. He kept coughing and waking himself up, but I also think he was hot, so we change him into cooler pajamas and I think that helped. 

On Monday, he was doing better with the cough so we went to our play group and he was fine. He barely coughed, so I am glad I made the decision to go. We picked up a humidifier from Jen since ours wasn't working and I hoped that would help with Caleb's cough. He did nap better and sleep better on Monday, but I think his cough was improving anyway. 

On Tuesday, we had music class and it was my last time going, because the following week was the last class but I was going to be working so Steve was going to bring Caleb. 

Wednesday I worked and of course, my mom was gone, so Caleb went to Heidi and Grace's house for the entire day. I was a little worried that it would be a really long day for Heidi because I wasn't sure that Caleb would nap at her house, but they had a great day and Caleb napped for almost 2 hours, so at least she got a break. She told me that it was really easy because Caleb and Grace entertained each other and had a lot of fun playing, so I was happy to hear that he wasn't any trouble. 

Thursday was the big day that we headed to Florida for the long weekend. We wanted to do one more fun mini-vacation before Kaitlyn comes and we had some credit and points on Southwest, so we decided to go to Florida. Our flight was at 3:10 so we left around noon. I didn't think there was any way Caleb would nap either in the car or on the plane, but I decided to give it a try in the car and lo and behold, he napped almost the entire way to the airport! I was ecstatic because I knew that would make the rest of our traveling day much easier! It is very good he napped because our flight was a little late taking off, and it took us longer to get our rental car than it should have, so by the time we got to Corey and Duncan's house, it was about 8:30. That would have been a long day without a nap! So, the Grodacks were at a homeschool convention until Sabbath, so we had the house to ourselves for the first 2 nights. Caleb called it our hotel, which was cute, but I think he said that because I had said that the Grodacks were staying at a hotel. 

Friday morning we headed to Blizzard Beach for the day. We have 10-day no expiration Disney tickets and we added the hopper option for not too much more and then we were also able to add 10 days of waterparks for about $20 more, so we literally went to Blizzard Beach for about $2 each (and Caleb is still free)! Can't beat that! We mostly stayed in the kiddie area - "Tikes Peak" - and Caleb had a great time. There were some little slides he could go on and he went down on a tube by himself which I thought was pretty good! We also did the big lazy river and a family tube ride, but that's about it besides the kiddie area. We stayed until close to 3:00 and Caleb was definitely starting to show signs of fatigue. 

He loved this tube ride and wanted to go again and again!

He also went down this one by himself - no tube on this one

The pacifier is trying to hold off a complete meltdown before we get to the car (luckily it worked)

Caleb fell asleep almost immediately in the car and Steve dropped me off for a little while at Downtown Disney while Caleb slept in the car.

Poor kid got so many scrapes from the concrete at Blizzard Beach!

Then we headed back to Corey and Duncan's house after stopping at the grocery store. We made supper there, gave Caleb a bath and got him into bed early. Steve and I also went to bed early, which was nice. 

On Sabbath, we went to Sabbath School at the Apopka church because it was a close church and we had been there back in January and Caleb had enjoyed the Sabbath School. We didn't stay for church and we got back to the Grodacks at the same time that Duncan and the kids were coming home from the convention. So the kids immediately all started playing and Caleb had a great time with all of them, especially Brady. I didn't even try to give Caleb a nap in the afternoon because I knew it would be nearly impossible for him to fall asleep with it being so bright out and I wanted him to be able to play with his cousins. 

What a pose! 

Devin, Leigh, Mia and Bode had been in Florida for the week and came over to the Grodacks around suppertime and they spent the night there as well. They barely got to see Caleb because I put him to bed early since he didn't have a nap, but it was nice for us to visit with them. 

On Sunday, we were up early to head to Disney for the day. As I mentioned, we have hopper tickets so our plan was to start out at Hollywood Studios and then head to Epcot for the rest of the day. We had gotten FastPass tickets for 3 things at Hollywood Studios, so we pretty much just did those 3 things before going to Epcot. We did the Toy Story ride, which was a lot of fun. 

Then we saw a Disney Junior show, which Caleb loved because it included Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We also saw a Little Mermaid show, which Caleb didn't like as much. In between, we also got to see Chip & Dale, Jake from the Neverland Pirates (which Caleb didn't really know, but he really likes to see all the characters, so he was still excited), and Minnie. 

Checking out his autograph book 

Waiting in line to see Chip and Dale

Excited to see Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

When we headed over to Epcot, Caleb and I actually took a boat that goes between the two parks while Steve moved the car. I was hoping maybe Caleb would nap in the stroller but he is getting too big to be comfortable laying down in the stroller and it was hot on the boat, so that didn't work out. I figured he would eventually start to melt down and then we would try to give him a nap, but that never happened, so he had no nap the whole day! 

We had fun at Epcot. We went to see the acapella singers in the America Pavilion, which Caleb really enjoyed since he loves music! 

Caleb was pointing at all the letters and telling us what they were

He said he was going to take a nap - yeah right! 

Clearly he was tired, but still no nap!

We also went on the boat ride in Mexico, and got to meet Duffy the Bear before heading back to the other part of Epcot. 

As Caleb was leaving Duffy, he turned around and said "One more kiss!" It was really cute. 

In the Future World part of Epcot, we went and ate an early supper (because we hadn't really eaten lunch) in the Land and then we went on the boat ride in there because we had a FastPass for it. We also went on the Finding Nemo ride. Caleb loved the seagulls outside the ride because they would say "Mine! Mine! Mine!" He would laugh and laugh and laugh. 

This was in the same building as the Nemo ride. 

We also made it to Figment, turns out right before it closed, so I am glad we made it. And we waited just long enough to go on the big ball so that there was only a 5 minute line. Originally I had wanted to stay for the fireworks at 9:00 because they are really good fireworks, but to see the fireworks you have to be way inside the park and I really didn't feel like fighting the crowds afterwards. So, we made our way to the parking lot around 9:00 and we could still see some of the fireworks over the big ball, so that made me happy and then we didn't have to worry about any of the crowds! 

When we first got in the car, he was wide awake and I thought he might stay awake until we got back, but after a couple of minutes, he gave up! 

So we didn't get Caleb to bed until about 10:00 on Sunday night, but I told Corey he wouldn't really sleep in on Monday, and sure enough, he was still up at 6:35! We thought about trying to give Caleb an early nap before leaving for the airport, but in the end, we decided to let Caleb play with Brady and we took our chances that he would sleep in the car on the way to the airport. Caleb had a really fun time playing with Brady and at one point, Caleb even told Steve to "Go away Daddy!" 

Love this picture!

2 lefties, although I think the jury is still out on Caleb! 

We left for the airport a little after 11:00 and gave ourselves some extra time in the hopes that Caleb would take a nap. It looked pretty iffy for awhile but he finally gave in and slept for almost an hour, which was great! 

We had just enough time to get to the airport, drop off our car, and get something to eat before our plane was boarding. We had a great flight and Caleb was great. He watched a lot of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the tablet and it kept him quite entertained. 

It felt so nice to land in Providence. It was much cooler there, although still a beautiful day. Our flight landed around 5:00 and we made it home by about 7:00, which was perfect because we could still get Caleb to bed at his normal time. All in all, it was a very fun weekend and I am glad we went! 

On Tuesday, I went to work and Steve stayed home in the morning and took Caleb to music class and then our neighbor, Carol Ann, came and watched him in the afternoon. She had a great time with him and he was well-behave (as usual), so that was good. Hopefully we can use her again sometime if we need to. 

Since I worked Tuesday, I didn't work Wednesday. We mostly did grocery shopping and laundry to get caught up from the weekend. 

Checking out the new sign in front of Trader Joe's

On Thursday, we didn't have much planned, but we had Beth and Charlie come over for awhile in the morning. It was fun, but neither of the boys wanted to clean up the giant mess they had made in the playroom, so that was a lot of fun! 

Before Beth and Charlie came, Caleb decided to dump out all his stuffed animals

Thursday evening I was not feeling well and I thought it was just the pregnancy, but I don't think it was. I ended up throwing up several times through the evening and night, which is definitely not normal. I got up Friday morning and knew I couldn't go to work. I hate calling in sick, especially since I only go into the office 2 days a week, but there was no way I could go in. Rosalie was coming to watch Caleb in the morning, so I met her in my pajamas and told her that I still needed her, but that I was staying home and would be in bed most of the day. So, that's what happened. I didn't throw up again after the early morning, but I still felt nauseous most of the day. I got some good rest and then had a good night's sleep last night, and now I am completely back to normal (which just means I am throwing up the normal amount instead of all those extra times). It was very strange and I felt awful, so I am glad it is gone now. 

Well, I guess that's it for now. Here are a couple more pictures.