Florida Trip!

Amelia and I just got back from a week long trip to Florida! We left from the Knoxville airport – once we got there we had almost two hours to wait before departing, and Amelia had a lot of fun with her daddy. They spent quite a bit of time looking out of the windows at all the airplanes!

The day after we arrived in Florida, we went to Amelia’s “almost birthday” party, hosted by Daisha.

Amelia took a few days to warm up to everyone, so she was a little clingy and unsure at the party.

Despite all of the “new” people around her, Amelia dived right in to her presents! Out of all of the books she received, The Nose Book seems to be her favorite. It actually kept her occupied for most of our plane ride home!

Amelia’s party was at a gorgeous community park, and our pavilion was right next to a beautiful lake. Looking back, it’s probably a good thing that Amelia was clingy – otherwise she would have surely been trying to crawl over to the water!

On Tuesday we went out to Lovers Key State Park. It was a perfect day – not too hot and not too cool. The sky was overcast, but we didn’t mind – no sunburn!

Amelia warmed up to her Uncle Dan at the beach. They played in the water, looked at seashells and made a sandcastle!

What a fun day!

Spending some fun time with Grandma G and Uncle Erik – reading The Nose Book, of course!

November 4th was Great Grandpa M’s 90th birthday. Amelia was unsure about him at first, but by the end of our visit he was sitting on the floor playing with her while she crawled all over his legs and untied his shoes.

My aunts came into town for Great Grandpa’s birthday – it was a lot of fun to see my dad laughing with his two sisters. We had fourteen people around the dinner table, and I think Great Grandpa M had a wonderful time. There was a lot of good food and tons of laughter – Great Grandpa M said he couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed so hard that he cried!

On two separate occasions we noticed this bald eagle perched on top of a tree across the street.

How majestic!

Towards the end of our trip Amelia finally warmed up to Grandpa D. One morning they had a blast out on the back porch while I was getting ready for the day. He showed Amelia some of Grandma G’s wind chimes and she had so much fun making music!

On our last night there, Daisha, Daniel, Andrea and I roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Yum!

Seeing all of our family and friends in Florida was wonderful, but at the end of the week Amelia and I were both ready to head home. Uncle Dan drove us to the airport and waited with us until our plane started boarding. Amelia behaved wonderfully on the flight, and we were both incredibly happy to see Mark waiting for us once we got off of the plane.

Mark had a dozen red roses waiting for me in the car – they smell divine! Amelia and I had a great time in Florida, but it’s true that the best part of any vacation is when you return home. We look forward to the next time we can see our friends and family!