Florida Vacation

We spent December 12-19 down in Florida visiting Greg's parents Rich and Mary. I was so worried about taking Meredith on the plane considering the awful time we had last year with her on the plane but I will eat my words because she did an AWESOME job both on the outbound and return flights! She even got complimented by a stranger on her good behavior. The only outburst we had was when daddy tried to eat one of her cookies that the flight attendant gave us (we had to ask for another pack to quiet her down). We spent the first night in The Villages and then we all headed down to Siesta Key just outside of Sarasota for three days. We couldn't have asked for better beach weather. It's was in the upper 80's and sunny the whole time! Meredith loved the beach. These pictures are from the first evening we were there. We headed down to the beach before the sun set to take a look.

The next two following days, we headed to the beach each morning. Meredith LOVED playing in the sand and the water and she collected a bunch of seashells. The beach here was like white powder. The sand was so soft and white and there were TONS of shells along the shore. The second day at the beach we had Meredith out playing in the water when all of the sudden I saw a dorsal fin pop out of the water not even 50 yards off shore. I went running down to the shore screaming "there's something out there" thinking it was a shark. But the 20 people lurking in the water trying to get a better look should have alerted me to the fact that it probably wasn't a shark. Then a nice man on shore told mere they were dolphins swimming out there close to shore

We spent one afternoon at the Sarasota Jungle Gardens. Meredith got to see all sorts of birds, monkeys, alligators, crocodiles, etc.

These flamingos just walk up to you on the path and don't let you move. I don't think I've ever been this close to a flamingo. I thought Meredith was going to be terrified but she just walked slow and seemed to like it.

After a few days at the beach, we headed back up to The Villages and spent a few days there. The weather cooled down a bit to the 70's and we had a little rain. It wasn't bad though. We opened up Christmas gifts before we left.

I love this picture - she wanted to read books with Grandpa. And she is wearing her puppy coat that she ALWAYS insists on wearing. She doesn't care if it's 10 or 80. She wants to wear her puppy coat.

Vacation!

This will be my last post until after Christmas. We're heading out of town on vacation tomorrow and spending the week down in Florida with Greg's parents. The plane ride will be interesting...last year we had a great trip down but the return flight was awful. She cried the whole way home. I'm loading up on snacks and Elmo DVds in hopes that that will be enough to keep her quiet for three hours on a plane. I'm looking forward to some warmer weather. This snow and cold couldn't have come at a better time.

My office laid off about 25% of the staff this week. Earlier in the year, we lost about 18% of our staff. So our office has about 55% of the staff we had a year ago. We're both lucky and thankful that we are still employed. Greg's office has lost a significant number of staff too - I think in the 25% range.

I'll leave you all with a holiday photo. A few of you might have received a Christmas card with this picture (we mixed it up this year and used a couple photos). We hyped us Santa like he was the greatest thing ever and she was excited about it. Then when it came time to actually sit on his lap...well, that was a completely different story.

Macy's Holiday Display & Hollidazzle!

Last weekend we made a spur of the moment decision to head downtown to visit the Macy's holiday display - A Day in the Life of an Elf - and go see the Hollidazzle parade. It was adorable BTW - go see it! It was so nice out and we really wouldn't have a chance to do it before Christmas anyway because of my travels to Las Vegas (I'm home now obviously) and we are headed to Florida on Saturday to visit Greg's parents. For the first time in many years, I am finding this stuff kind of fun now. Of course it's because I have a child now and I see all the fun she's having and the amazement in her eyes. All this new stuff she is learning every day excites me. Today she learned what snow is.

She loves these escalator things.

As you wait in line at Macy's, you get a nice tour of their furniture department. I think I have the craziest child ever. She never sits still. While all the other kids are waiting in line, she is the one running everywhere bonking her head on tables.

She was amazed at all the lights and moving figurines. She loves Christmas lights.

We can never get a good family shot.

These are just a few shots of the scenery.

We ate at McDonald's before the Holidazzle. She ate all the chicken nuggets in her happy meal. That's right, ALL of them. For those that don't know, my kid doesn't eat. Look how happy she is!

She loved the lights of the parade.


Look how excited she is in the above picture!