Florida Through the Phone

It all started in Ontario.... for leg one, of THREE legs of flights.  We started happy.  Finn roamed his first airport lookin' all cute and big and I took pictures and thought, my kids are so rad, maybe it won't be so bad.  Ha.

They're still rad, but it was bad.  It's always bad traveling with a baby isn't it? Especially when they're young and you don't have to buy a seat-- so you don't because you think the suffering is worth the many hundreds you're saving.  But then the flight is full and you're ACTUALLY stuck with the lap child on your lap (or your sweet husband's lap) and your cute babe is eventually driven by exhaustion and cabin pressure and too many fruit snacks being desperately shoved in his mouth to become something wild and awful and out of control.  And there's no where to go. And no where to hide.  And people try not to watch but they're all watching.  It's enough to make a person want to jump out the emergency exit.  

You see this is why Ross held him almost the whole time.  He deals with that kind of stress far better than I.  Thank you Ross.  And I'm sorry, sweet Finn.... I know it's not your fault.  If it was socially acceptable for me to cry and scream and arch and throw my head back in exhaustion after hours of traveling and surviving on snacks because Southwest doesn't do food, I'd do it too.

PHEW--- but eventually, close to midnight, we got to Florida.  And after getting the rental car and driving for a couple of hours.... we got to Aunt Lacy's house.  And the real fun began!

We went on a nature walk to see wild alligators... and we definitely did.... let's take a closer look at that one above.  Here it is below.  Still gives me the eebie jeebies.

We did an awesome little teaching zoo.... so beautiful and green and NOTHING like our dry, dusty wide open, desert zoo.  We got sitters for the babies and floated down the river on inner tubes ... wandered a museum, got a sitter and went to my favorite Gainesville restaurant (that's the picture below where it looks like I have a booty.  Something weird happened there.)... we did Strawberry picking (AWESOME), and ate strawberries at every meal thereafter, we swam, we Easter'd, I saw my old friend, Michelle!, and mostly soaked up my sweet sister and her entertaining husband and darling kids as much as we possibly could.  It's always so so hard to say goodbye.  

Oh and the flight home was SO much better.  One less stop.  And Ross got a whole row on the long flight for him and Finn.  Which meant we could lock him in his seat.  And he could sleep and we could READ! And the girls had the most awesome giggle attack when a little boy behind them all of a sudden said "we're fwying wike a biwd"... and it went on and on and on.  Cutest thing ever.