Our (rainy) Florida Vacation!

Casey & Emma's spring break finally arrived, which meant one thing: FLORIDA VACATION! I was lucky enough to find cheap tickets to Ft. Lauderdale in early January, so I had been counting down the days until we left. Casey's parents bought a house in Boynton Beach last year so we were anxious to see them both, since they had been down there since after Christmas. It took me about 3 days to pack. I'm pretty sure that I packed mostly everything in the house. The "girls suitcase" was huge, weighing 49.5 lbs when it was weighed at the airport (note: the limit was 50 lbs. Good thing I forgot to pack my shampoo & conditioner!). Our flight left early on Wednesday morning, so we spent the night at the Hampton near the Columbus airport. It was a pretty uneventful night and the kids were awesome on the flight down there. Luke slept for most of both legs and Emma watched her DVDs. It was rainy when we arrived, but that was fine since we were all exhausted from getting up at 4:15 am.

We spent most of our time indoors, since it was raining, but it didn't really matter - we were on vacation! Casey and I were able to play tennis a couple of times (don't ask the score). On Sunday, the weather finally broke and we were able to hang out at the pool all day. Emma had such a great time! We spent most of our time hanging out and doing a little of nothing (which are the best vacations). I was able to finish 3 books.

The best part of the vacation was watching Emma and Luke play together. One afternoon, Emma was playing with empty baby food containers and decided that she would pretend to feed Luke his lunch. So she grabbed his spoon and put his bib on and started to "pretend" feed him. The best part of the whole thing was watching Luke chew on air after Emma had fed him the pretend food. They both thought it was hilarious and had such a great time. Luckily, I was able to catch it on video. Karla said that it was their first time playing together!

The flight home was a little more stressful. Emma was dead tired and Luke (as we later found out) wasn't feeling so great. Once we got on the airplane to Orlando, Emma had a meltdown (can't remember why) and spent a few minutes whining and crying. Finally we got her calmed down. The flight was a short one - only 45 minutes - then we had to pick up more passengers for the leg to Columbus. Emma was still acting a bit fiesty, but I was keeping my fingers crossed that her DVD would keep her occupied. No such luck. She got her fingers pinched while playing with her seat buckle and started WAILING. You should have seen the looks that we were getting. Once she calmed down, then Luke smacked his head twice on the window and he starts in. Then, right as the plane is pushing away from the tarmack, Emma announces that she has to go potty. The flight attendants told us that she couldn't go until once we were up in the air. And the wailing started again... Luckily, everything smoothed out and both kids took a good 45 minute nap.

So, we're back in Cincinnati and the weather is finally starting to break. Its about 60 today so I can't complain. Spring can't get here quick enough. Little Luke is sick again - another ear infection AND pink eye. That kid can't catch a break. The doctor said that he will need to get tubes if he gets another ear infection. I'm hoping that we can avoid that.

Emma, however, will be having surgery #2 this summer. As the doctor put it, she has "ginormous" tonsils. Just another fun thing to prepare for!

Casey is finishing up his spring break today. We're going to mom & dad's this weekend to celebrate Kinsey, Hailey, Mike & Papaw-Great's birthdays. I'm looking forward to it.

Funny Emma story: yesterday morning she got up and was playing in the hallway and I heard her talking. I asked her what she said, since I thought she was talking to me, and she responded "I wasn't talking to you - I was talking to Susie." Oh, okay. So, she continues on, "Susie just told me that we should put on our bathing suits and I said 'No way, Jose!'" It was so cute how she said it.

Okay, I think that's it for now!