My getaway....

One of my sisters and I met up in Florida this past week for a little "adult" time. I love, love, love my family and wouldn't trade my life here in OK for anything, but it sure was relaxing and refreshing to have no responsibilities this past week besides making sure we were back at the airport by 2pm on Sunday. It was a blast!
We met at the Orlando airport around 2pm on Wednesday afternoon and picked up our "economy car". I had to take a picture of this for the kids:

They asked what it was when I showed them the picture - haha!!

First stop...before even checking into (aka. finding...and for the record, Conroy St. is NOT the same as Conway St.) our hotel:

Looking nice and tired after being up every 30 minutes with a sick kiddo the night before a 7am flight. *sigh*

After some shopping, we found our hotel (which was a.w.e.s.o.m.e.) and cleaned up and got dinner. The next day we did more shopping...seeing a theme here? Shopping without kids rocks, by the way! Then we headed to the Gulf side of Florida to see my grandmother.

Grammy has lived in this small town in FL for as long as I can remember. Our family visited her several times a year when I was little and still visits her as often as we can. I love it there. We wanted to spend Grandparents Day with her on Sunday and enjoyed revisiting some places we used to go when we were little. One vivid memory I have from years ago is walking from her house to a little park in town. We would play tennis, shuffleboard, and put on all kinds of performances on a stage that was there. We spent some time reliving old memories and entertaining strangers in the park with trying to beat the camera for some shots.

We clearly a) need to get out more and b) should not be let out unsupervised!

We spent a lot of quality time cruising around Gram's community in the golf cart. I am sure her trash didn't need to be taken to the dump twice a day, but she graciously allowed us to be "kids" and play.

We visited a cemetery by her house that my sister's husband has family in. The kids (and Big Daddy) always love the Spanish Moss on the trees and I thought it looked especially cool there.

And here is a little palm tree because...well...I was in FL.

During the few days there, we went to aerobics class with Grammy and got to meet some of her friends, visited a friend in the hospital, had an awesome burger, met up at a cool cafe with a photographer friend of mine (memories of the impromptu play on domestic violence that surprised us there will take a while to forget!), played games, and got to go to Gram's church and meet more of her friends. Sadly, our week went by way too quicky. We love you, Grammy! Thanks for putting up with us, filling us up with chocolate, and introducing us to a new show!

Then, back at the airport, we said our good-byes and parted ways.

I think KJ was relieved to not have to go through security with me and my packed bags. I might have purchased a cheese grater, laptop tray, some bowls and two blankets that I had to fit in my carry on along with the new clothes and shoes and all my original clothes and shoes. That thing was stuffed tight but it fit. We were a little concerned about the metal setting off the scanners. To quote KJ on facebook, "Heaven help the poor TSA that has to sift through that mess!!!" Thankfully, we both made it through without incident and made it home safely to our families that missed us as much as we missed them. You can't beat coming back from a couple of days away to your kids holding "welcome home, mom" signs in the airport and of course, Princess P and Tricky T brought homemade gifts! I love them so much. I have to pause and give a shout out (that is still cool to say, right?) to Big Daddy. He totally stepped up and took care of all the household duties, which happened to include washing bedding that was puked on the morning after I left. You rock, honey! Thanks for making this happen. I love you!!