Snorkeling

We decided to do an afternoon snorkeling trip yesterday.  It was a great decision.  It was a bit rough out there, but was a great boatride, we got Kat out on a boogie-board-like snorkeling device with a window in it that she couold see through.  Well, she could if it weren't so rough and didn't keep filling up with water.  She totally got it and really wanted to see turtles. We wondered how she would react to being afloat in the rough seas.  She did great.  You could probably say that she was paralyzed with fear....she never moved from her perch, which we both had a firm grip on.  They did issue her goggles and a snorkel, which she enjoyed playing with on the way out.  But we didn't try them in the water.  I'm pretty sure that one inhalation of cold salt water while getting thrown around by the waves would have resulted in panic.  As it was, Dan eventually asked if she wanted to go back to the boat and she quietly said. yes, back to the boat.  From there she had fun watching one or the other of us and looking for turtles, which we never saw.  Pics of us in the water will have to wait, as we had a little disposable camera and will actually have to get the film developed!

But on the way back, we did see WHALES!!!   Our captain, Captain Jack Sparrow  (looked just like him) said the humpback whales were a competition group-  a bunch of males competing amongst themselves for the chance to mate with the female.  There were at least 5 whales and they put on a show for us, if not for her.

waving goodbye???

Hawaii!!

I think Kat will be an expert 2.5 year old swimmer by the time we leave.  She can't get enough of the pool.  And, was jumping in by herself, not into our arms (from a sitting position, wearing a life jacket) tonite and loving it.  We went up to Haleakala (sp?) today, so she got her national parks passport stamped.  And it's Free Week at the National Parks, which at some parks would have made me steer clear, but here....it wasn't too bad.  I think the beach and/or pool tomorrow.  And the next day.....

Hawaii??

It seems that we're living a rough life here. A week ago, Kat and I were in Florida. And today we're in Hawaii. It seems that Dan thought he needed a vaca after tax season and kat's and my trip to FL didn't count. And we found pretty cheap (direct) airfare to Maui. On Monday. And on Tuesday, here we were. I think this makes this the most last-minute trip ever for us. At least for flying.

I pretty much was home long enough to cut the grass!

An kat had prety much settled back into west coast time (and caught up oh her rest after grandma & grandpa ran us ragged). So we thought we'd take her 3 time zones further west to see what that does to her. No pics yet. Have mostly been at the pool, which she loves. Beach this aft. Should be good pics from that.

Just thought I'd post so folks would know where. We were. All 2 of you who read regularly. Our phones work here--they even take American money!! Just a 6 hour time diff from the east coast (later). Thought we'd fly to HI when we're still in the west and it's a 6 hour flight.

More later.

Sent from my iPhone.
Sorry for any typos.

More Florida

Well, we're home now.  Trying to catch up on our sleep.  Mom & Dad ran us ragged while we were down there.  I don't know if they were exhausted when we left, but we certainly were.We had great weather and a fantastic time.  We went to Sea World (twice), Busch Gardens and Disney.  I love the non-Disney parks best, with all of the animal exhibits/tanks/petting/feeding areas, etc.  Dad did great cruising around in his Cricket.  Everywhere but Disney.  They wouldn't let it in Disney, but gave him a comp one person cart for teh day, which worked just fine.  The pic below is the Cricket leaving Seaworld.  It barely fit thru the one turnstile.

The beach pics are misleading- she didnt enjoy it as much as it looks like. It was overcast and very windy that day.  You may notice the perspective in these portraits of Grandma & Grandpa.  Kat took these.  I think I helped push the button on one pic...

The very impressive tiger area.

some of Busch Gardens' animals.  I really like it there and they have a great kiddie area- that's where most of the Kat/ride pics are taken.

Sorry about the random text.  I'm not digging this new version of blogger.  It's a lot harder to work with, I think.

The flights home were rough (well, the long one was).  Kat fell asleep in the airport waiting to board.  I dragged (on wheels) and carried her car seat onto the plane (with her in it).  It must have hit every seat, every bump and probably every person unfortunate to be seated before us (it's a bit bulky to carry, filled, down the aisle of a plane).  She slept through it all.  And woke up just as I was buckling it in.  And then fought off sleep, loudly and voilently for the next several hours (and that damn seat makes it impossible to NOT kick the seat in front of her). 

I still have to post the pics of Dad's vancomyecin procedure.  Even though they've since stopped the doses and removed his pickline, so he has gone back to regular crutches.

FLORIDA!!!

Well, Kat and I are inFlorida, visiting Mom & Dad and many other relatives.

We took the red eye here on Wed night.  You might think (or even bet) that a 2.5 year old would sleep on a red-eye.  You would be wrong.  She slept for exactly 3 minutes.  I had 4 bottles of milk, just in case and we went through 3 of the 4 on the way.  We dragged the car seat through all 3 airports and she sat in it on both flights.  And on the Continental red-eye....they showed a movie, followed by the regular airline TV filler crap.  And the screen was about 2.5 feet in front of us, so every time she settled in with her bottle and closed her eyes....she glanced at the tv screen and had to look at it.  So I didn't even get those 3 minutes that she got.  On the second flight, she did pass out while we were still taxiing and woke to scream for the final 20 minutes, when her ears were hurting her (I assume).

That was the extent of our sleep that night and we both did amazingly well when we got to Jacksonville. Mom & Dad picked us up and we went right to the jacksonville county fair (I don't think that's the county name). We had lots of sun and got to watch a clown show, which completely absorbed her; see lots of farm animals up close and pet some; pet and feed lots of critters at the petting zoo and eat/wear some ice cream.  We've also been to St Augustine and checked out their splash park.  It got two paws up.  And we all went to Aunt Norma's today for ham and birthday cake (for myself and Norma), so Kat got to sing happy birthday one more time.  And eat ice cream cake.  Talk about a win-win.

Tomorrow I'll post pics of Dad's vancomyecin (sp?) fill up.  For those of you who don't know...that's THE big gun when it comes to antibiotics I think.  I have the pics but really need to go to bed and may get better pics of the process tomorrow.  Oh yeah, we're also headed for a beach or something, maybe.  I'm sure there will be pics.