Our trip to Florida

We recently got back from a trip to visit Grandma in sunny Florida. It was Isabella's first plane ride and she did a really good job. On the way there people were commenting on what a good baby she was. Jeff and I were so nervous the entire time, the plane ride there was about 2 hrs and 15 minutes.

We had fun while we were in Florida. I've posted all the pictures here. Isabella's Aunt Nancy and Cousin Gus were down there when we were and so was her Great-Grandma Mann (GG). Gus is 17 months and keeps everyone on their toes. He has so much energy, he would just go from one room to the next to see what he could get into. He is also really into climbing on everything he can. He was fine with Isabella. He has the word "baby" down and would say it when he saw her. He'd get up nice and close to her and be gentle, but then he would start hitting, but he wasn't doing it to be mean, he doesn't know the difference yet. At one point he threw a handheld mirror and it hit her in the head, but she was okay. Another couple things Gus did to keep us busy was he took my hair pic and found a way to shove it in the sliding glass door to jam the door and it took Jeff and Nancy a little bit of time to get it out. It kind of reminded me of watching a game of Operation or a challenge on a reality tv show. Gus also stuck a playing card in the bread maker and when we went to make a loaf of olive bread, we noticed it was smoking, but wrote it off as an olive stuck to the side, only later when the maker was being cleaned did we find a half burnt playing card.

Here's the picture of the "hair pic rescue" from the sliding door (Gus is on to his next project in the background):



Sunday afternoon my cousin, Michelle, Chris, Courtney (2 yrs) and Kyle (almost 1 yr) came over for a visit. We made a trip out to Parkesdale for the famous Strawberry Shortcake (a must-do if you are ever in Plant City). It was fun to watch the 3 toddlers play together. Courtney was cute as she referred to Isabella as 'Pissabella'. Isabella slept through most of the excitement, so we of course had to go back to Parkesdale again later in week when she was more alert (or maybe the reason was Jeff has developed an obsession over these Strawberry Shortcakes)

Here are the little Strawberry Kings and Queens:




Isabella eyeing the shortcake on our second visit to Parkesdale:



We spent most of the week hanging out at Grandma's. Everyone let me slip away to the pool from time to time. I wasn't able to spend hours there like I had in the past, but it was nice to get some sun. It was also fun to take Isabella on some walks outside in the fresh air. Nancy, Gus and Grandma took a trip to Busch Gardens one day. We figured we'd better sit that one out this time, probably just a little too much hassle with Isabella. We stayed home and got some card playing in with GG. Isabella played her very first game of Euchre, but we never had a chance to get the Dominos out.




The plane ride home still went okay, even though she was a little bit more fussy on the way back home. (who can blame her, I think everyone is a little fussy on a plane ride leaving sunny Florida and going to snowy Iowa). Our flight was delayed and then we sat on the runway for a while on since other flights were backed up. Then there was a medical emergency on another flight that shutdown the airport for a little bit. Then when we were 3rd in line for take off, they turned the airport around and we had to taxi all the way to take off in a different direction. So, after all that, I'd say she was pretty good. Isabella really liked Florida, she had been enjoying being outside and also being able to hang out in a short-sleeved onesie all the time. I didn't have to deal with her losing socks for the whole week!