We are back from our time in Florida, and all that it included. The plan was to go down a week early so that Hubby could work from the main office for a week and then stay a week after to do fun things with the kids. Wow did the plans have to change and change and change! First of all, we were a mere 4 days from leaving before we got official confirmation that Hubby was wanted in the main office that week. Talk about a planning momma's worst nightmare! Once we got confirmation we got things set quickly and headed out. Unfortunately it had taken them so long to make that decision that we had to limit our second week to a few days. Additionally, at the last minute we got a call from my Nanny that she had a place for us to stay for a few days so we could cancel our hotel reservations. Works for us! So we drove, and we drove and we drove. It is quite a drive to lovely Florida from our house and we always forget how long the drive seems to be until we are making it again! Haha! At least Boogie was wonderful!
By the time we arrived it was about 4 am and Hubby had to be at work at about 8 am. Did I mention the time difference between home and Florida? Yeah, it made everything seem worse. So we get to the hotel that had been advertised as newly renovated only to discover that the new renovations had been done by drug addicts and bugs. It was a dump, a slum, a nasty slimy, itchy hole! No literally, there was a huge hole in the wall of the first room they sent us to. Additionally there was an in room safe that was locked (which made us really concerned about what was in there and if we would get blamed for it), huge stains on every surface, and every drawer was broken. Not good. So Hubby went and told the guy at the front desk. He gave us another room. This room was just as stained but lacked the hole and the safe. No really, this room had no safe at all. I immediately had visions of our electronics having to be carried with me everywhere I went that week. I was trying to use my, by that time, extremely sluggish brain to figure it all out when something bit me. And then something else. And then something else. Hubby and Boogie passed out and decided to handle it for the night but I could not sleep with all those little creatures biting me. After an hour of itching I got up and started looking for a new hotel online. I found one we had stayed at before and loved that had a really good rate and made the decision to try and convince Hubby to go for it. Thankfully when he awoke he took one look at my bite marks and said he wasn't going to subject me to that.
I called the new hotel and asked for a room at the rate I had found online. No problem they said. I asked if it would be OK if we came and did the paperwork early before check in time since I am not authorized to use Hubby's work card. I told them what had happened and they were shocked and said they would see us in ten minutes. I wanted to do a very tired happy dance. Wait, it gets better. When we got there to do the paperwork they gave Hubby the key and said we were free to go in right now! At 7:30 in the morning! They have officially won my loyalty and I will never stay anywhere in Tampa other than there! I dropped Hubby off at work and then went back to the new hotel to wash away the bugs and sleep. I gave Boogie a DS, turned on Nick Jr. and went straight to sleep until 1!
When I woke up I knew I had to take Boogie to do something so we went out to shop and get lunch. The mall I chose really made me wish I didn't have a broken foot. They had ice skating! Boog wanted to try it out so bad! :( At least he had fun just being with Mommy! We enjoyed being together enough that we were late picking up Hubby from work.
The next day Boogie and I decided to hobble through Lowry Park Zoo. It is a really cute zoo, but the things most people actually paid attention to weren't animals. How crazy is that? The kids were all playing in the fountains and the families were all riding rides. I can't imagine why you would pay to get in to a zoo and then do the carnival rides or play in the fountains you can find at most nice parks! Jacob and I were rather intrigued by the opportunity to feed the rhinos and the giraffes. Too bad silly Mommy hadn't brought enough cash with her! Oops. Seriously, I had no idea. And it became a huge issue in the late June Florida sun when all of the drink machines in the African section of the zoo refused to take what I had! Oh my goodness! I thought I was going to faint! The carts were all closed. The restaurant was closed. And that section of the zoo is totally isolated from all the rest! YIKES! Once we made it back from the brink we stopped and had some ice cream together. I kept looking over at Boogie having those moments where you just want to be able to freeze that moment in your memory. He is such a sweet boy! We finished up the zoo earlier than I had expected and tried to call Hubby and say he didn't have to work late on our account, unfortunately by then he had to work late on works account. Pout! So we headed back to the hotel to wash up.
And this is where the trip really goes awry! I decided to Nair my legs and thighs so I could take Boogie swimming the next few days. After about a minute my thighs started burning really badly. I wanted to scream! I decided to heck with this and started rinsing my legs. But the burning wouldn't stop. I couldn't figure it out. It hurt so much! Hubby called to say he was done with work and a co-worker was going to drop him off. I thought thank goodness because I am not putting anything on this burning right now! When he got there he looked at my legs and said ouch but we both thought it was over. Not so!
When I awoke the next morning I discovered I had bled in to the sheets- a lot! The sores that had seemed pretty bad the night before were two to three times as large now. They were about nine inches long and two to three inches wide, on my inner thigh. I bet you can imagine how it felt to walk! I just wanted to cry! Hubby decided to walk to work (since the hotel was only a mile from work) and left me to try and figure things out.
I couldn't tell Boogie I was going back on my promise to take him swimming. As it was we knew the beach was out of the question! So I glued my knees together and geisha walked to the pool. I stayed in a crouch in the pool like John Leguizamo in The Spawn for three hours! Eventually Boogie was ready to go back to the hotel room. He played some more DS and I did some research. Apparently, that junk continues to eat through your skin until you soak yourself in cool water for at least ten minutes! Seriously, why didn't they put that on the bottle? I would have soaked the night before! AGH! Keeping my promise to Boog is what kept the chemical burns from getting any bigger than they already were.
When Hubby got home that night he said I was to stay in bed and not move for the next few days to try and give myself some time to heal. He was really not happy at the size of the dang things, or the fact that I was openly bleeding! In fact, I kept openly bleeding for over three days! I seeped and pussed for three days more than that as well. We can definitely mark Nair down on the list of things to never ever buy again!
While I am mentioning having to be bedridden I should mention that my Boogie deserves a medal for those days. He helped my bandage the wounds, never complained about not being taken out and did whatever he was told. He was a perfect nursemaid and a perfect help. So many days of his life I look at him and can not imagine how I came to be so blessed!
Finally, it was Friday. We had to check out and Hubby had to work. That meant I couldn't stay in the bed all day. We bandaged me up and I put on the geisha walk again! I took Boogie out to visit his great grandfathers grave and he insisted on putting together a bouquet of flowers. It was the oddest conglomeration of flowers ever, but it was really sweet. He even cleaned the headstone placard thingy. Man is it hard to find the headstone though! If I am buried with a headstone or placard I think I want those big find me here lights put on there or something. It took us an hour and three phone calls to find the thing! We finished just in time for Boogie to play on a playground for a while before picking up Hubby and heading to my Nanny's.
Hubby was waiting for us and we made good time out to Nanny's so we had time to get ready for the wedding that night. Ahh yes, the real reason we aimed for this trip to Florida. Another wedding. This time it was my cousin, Lizzie, getting married. I hurried us all through getting ready only to discover that there was no need to hurry. The wedding was over an hour late getting started! Once it got started it went really well. Everyone got along and Matt and Lizzie were wonderful at seeing all of their guests. I could see just how much had gone into making that wedding beautiful. Lizzie, her mom (my aunt) and her sister had hand painted us all coffee mugs. They are so gorgeous!
The next day was a party designed just for the happy couple to get to spend more time with their guests. My other aunt made ribs, there was a water slide and we all played games. Of course I couldn't go on the water slide but my hubby enjoyed it. Boog on the other hand... yikes. He was so excited at first. And then he got scared. But he mustered up the courage to do it... only to have his sister come down on top of him and nearly drown him. He got the wind knocked out of him and then held under the water. It seemed like the rest of the day was spent trying to convince him to give it another try. Poor guy. The only time we weren't dealing with him and his new fear was when we were dealing with my daughter having popped her shoulder out and then back in when she fell! Man oh man! Don't get me wrong, it was a good day. We had fun. I just wish my normally low maintenance family hadn't been so high maintenance that day!
Our next day was spent at Downtown Disney. I love that place! The kids made a car at Ridemakerz. We had lunch at Wolfgang Puck's (not worth it but still enjoyed by all.) We shopped at every store we saw! Ha ha! We even had an appetizer and dessert at T-Rex. By the way, totally repeatable! It was super yummy and fun! We were disappointed by the downtown Disney 4Th of July dance party though. I seriously kept thinking, "Oh I bet this man goes home and cries in his beer over having this job!" It was just... sad! Overall it was a fun day. For the most part you are immersed in Disney without paying $82 a person to do it. Oh man though, next time I really want to ride in the big hot air balloon! That looked incredible!
Our final full day in Florida was spent at the Magic Kingdom. We had (except for Boogie who isn't old enough) all earned a day at Disney by making Easter eggs for the animals at the zoo. It took us a while to decide what park to use it on but in the end it had to be MK! And what a day! We rode virtually everything there was to ride. It was incredible! We rode somethings two to three times. No one ever accomplishes that on a summer day! I still can't believe it! We were disappointed that the parades were cancelled due to rain, but summer nightastic still went off so that was a great end to the day. Again, an overall good day!
And now came the day of dread- driving day! We really did not want to get in the car! At the same time we also didn't want to get home at 4 am! So we kept trying to leave. We would try to leave and find something else we had to do. Then we would try again and find something else. The next thing we knew it was 1 pm! Oh no! We decided we had to leave right right now! We hollered for the kids and headed to the car. The next thing I know my kiddo is walking around a corner with Boogie in her arms. She didn't want to leave Nanny's so she convinced him to go hide with her. Did I mention he was barefoot? Did I mention that she took him to hide somewhere with broken glass. Again we got to be super happy to have a nurse in the family because his foot was bleeding a lot, A LOT! Pristine cleaned it all up and bandaged it and told him to wear a sock to keep it clean. Pristine if you are reading this- he didn't take that sock off for a day and a half. Nurse's orders he kept telling me! Thanks again. After that we finally made it into the car.
I could see how tired Hubby was so I offered to drive for a while so he could get some rest. NO no No. He wouldn't allow it. He was going to drive us the whole way home. Til the sun went down and he couldn't take it anymore. Then I had to take over, myself exhausted since I am not allowed to sleep when he drives, the last 4 or 5 hours of the trip. Home has never before looked so good as it did that night. My bed has never before felt so good as it did that night. My city has never before looked as pretty as it did that night. We were home at last!
