July 1-8

We're back from Florida and none the worse for it!

Last Sunday we arrived at the airport to catch the first of two quick flights.  The weather was bad, so our flight was delayed by about 20 minutes.  After a very brief layover in Atlanta, we hopped on our second flight and arrived safely in Florida by about 11:30.  Olivia was too busy people watching to sleep, so she pushed her normally 7:00 bedtime back until we left Atlanta at 10.  At least she was happy.

Upon arriving in Florida, we were greeted at the airport by a helpful young man who ran right up to us and offered to help us with our bags.  Bryan gave him a strange look and declined.  The stranger then turned to me and said, "Your dad's waiting outside" before walking away.  Bryan gave me a questioning look, and I decided that perhaps that was my cousin, Nathan.  Sure enough, dad WAS outside, and we all hopped in the truck for the drive to the hotel.  Bryan looked up into the front seat and introduced himself: "Hey, guy I've never met before, I'm Bryan."  Nathan realized he had forgotten to introduce himself to us, dad was surprised that we didn't recognize Nathan, and I pointed out that the last time I'd seen Nathan was 6 years ago when he was 10.  It made for a good story.

Monday morning Bryan, Olivia, and I had breakfast with Uncle Steve and Aunt Donna before heading over to the zoo that was my grandparents' house.  Their house (as well as Uncle Paul and Aunt Char's house across the street) was full, so we stayed at a hotel until the last day.  Every night someone would take us back to our hotel and then come pick us up the next morning.  Tuesday morning we decided to walk back since it wasn't too far away.  Unfortunately, there were more turns involved than I thought.  That turned out to not matter much, though, since I started us going the wrong direction on the first street.  After walking for a bit, we called and asked if we were supposed to be passing City Hall.  No.  So we turned around, and by the time we were a few blocks past our hotel in the other direction, Nathan and Jillian had been dispatched to escort us the rest of the way.

Painted Toes

The week was filled with a lot of spending time with relatives (obviously).  :)  We attended a ceremony for the Rededication of Wedding Vows, went the the beach, swam in the pool, took pictures between the palm trees, walked to the pier to watch the sunset...  Bryan hung out with the boys, taught them Axis and Allies, went skeet shooting, participated in an air soft battle, and helped uproot a large plant that grandma didn't want in her front yard anymore.  Olivia refused to be held by people most of the time, which we blamed on the fact that she was too busy being nosy to sleep.  Her Aunt Jacque did manage to get her to sit still long enough to paint her toes, though.  :)

Dinner every night was after Olivia's bedtime, but she toughed it out.  She usually seemed okay when she was eating, but as Bryan pointed out, "She's not necessarily happy, but she can't cry when her mouth is full." She's going to be the roly-poly-est baby ever.

Saturday we were up dark and early so that we could catch a 5:30 flight home.  My mom drove us to the airport and we reversed Sunday's trip, complete with a sleeping baby and a short layover in Atlanta.  Olivia woke up from her nap for the second flight and we were home before some of the Floridians were awake.  We stayed the rest of the weekend at Bryan's parents' house and finally made it back to our house Sunday night, where we found a large tree branch blocking our front porch.  Fortunately, that was the only damage from the previous week's storm.

Jacob was playing with his new toy while we were in Florida, so he has quite a few pictures up on his website.  I stole a few for this post, but perhaps he will share a link in the comments so that everyone can see the rest.

Pictures and Video:
Bryan shooting.  He is proud of the fact that his average per 50 shots was 24, but Josef's was only 23.  (picture by Jacob)

Sunset at the pier (picture by Jacob):

Pictures from after the Rededication Ceremony (pictures by Jacob):

Playing piano with Rianne:

And a video: Olivia Plays Piano

Jillian took some pictures of Olivia enjoying pizza:

 And ice cream:

The tree branch: