time sure does fly....vacation-part 1

Strap yourselves in, this post is gonna be a long one. In fact, I'm going to make it a two-parter.

I swear, I think we were just on the quickest vacation ever! It went by much too quick, that's for sure. So we had to make even more crazy arrangements to get to Florida than I previously mentioned. Refunding G's one-way ticket that we purchased at the last minute so that G could be a pallbearer for the funeral (which was an honor to say the least). It worked out better that way, so G's dad didn't have to drive down with the boat by himself. They even made a little side stop to see our niece, Christine, at Moody AFB.

G's mom, Michael and I were on our own Friday afternoon, as well as Saturday and Sunday before the boys made it down. Well, whenever Carole and I are on our own we tend to get a little crazy. One day I'll have to spill some of those stories: driving by the baseball players during spring training in Tampa, trips to the nursery for plants and mulch, the first time [and not the last time] I called her a beyotch during a card game, the truck stop tour to Pittsburgh, the shopping sprees, it goes on & on.

We had just picked up our rental car and we weren't even 15 minutes from the airport when we decided to stop at Rain Forest Cafe for lunch and to get our shop on at Downtown Disney. Nevermind the fact that we still needed to get all of the groceries for the week and get to our little cabin on the lake an hour and a half away. Let's just say that grocery shopping at 11pm is so much easier - no crowds or screaming kids to upset Michael. Yes, Michael was a trooper this whole time and was pretty pleasant as can be for being up so late.

Transformer (that matches Michael's pj's) and dragon made from Legos.

$37,500 for a jewel-encrusted Cinderella castle....CRAZY!

The best part about Rain Forest for Michael was finding the cool rocks to play with and "talking" gma Carole into buying him some as a souvenir.

Catching rule-breaking rebel Michael in the act (his way or the highway, baby). He was trying to play in the pool of water in the rocks.

The next day, we hit the road again to visit my 80-year-old gma...Michael's great gma. I started calling her GG this trip (that's what my sister and I used to call HER mom), so Michael could distinguish between gma Carole and her. Anyhow, we did the usual lunch and errand running and chatting and hugging.

Then made our way back to the cabin by 10pm...earlier than the day before, but by this time poor Michael has been in Florida, at the lake, for two days and has yet to see the water.

We decide that it is finally Michael's turn to really enjoy himself, so Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, we do nothing except hang out lakeside at the beach.

Loving Michael's 'turtle tracks' down to the water.

He thought it was fun jumping on me to make me scream and laugh. He wasn't afraid of the water at all. In fact, it took all we could to keep him from drinking the lake water. Eeewww.

The next best thing to playing in the sand and water, is the fun of riding in gpa's boat with daddy.

Gary had Michael drive the boat all by himself. The thing is, Michael only wanted to make right hand turns so we kept going in one big circle.

(Please, please look away from the big spit at the beginning, I had no idea that was gonna happen..shudder; ick!)

Michael signing "GO"...he loves going fast. There is no fishing going on in gpa's boat when Michael's on board.

To be continued....don't fly away, there's more in the second post....

No, really...come back. I know I'm getting carried away with all the pictures, but I promise it's almost over.