Friday, December 29, 2006
enjoying south florida...
here is a version of our vacation so far.
We left on Tuesday afternoon. The traffic out of Atlanta was really bad. It turns out about 30 miles south of the city there had been an accident northbound. I was scared we were going to be in this traffic all the way to florida! It delayed us an hour. We stopped south of Jacksonville. our hotel was not in our navigation system for some reason. We checked in around 9:30. The hotel room smelled like mold or mildew. Otherwise it was pretty decent. I slept with Alyssa and that was ok, but Jack, like always was "wired" . He will eventually crash , which he did. Alyssa was still trying to get over her cold and I could feel myself getting her cold. We did ok on sleep.
The next day we got an early start and made it to my parents by noon. My brother and his wife were not there, but the kids were. The cousins started to play with each other. Felix and I went next door to check into the posh hotel. There was not enuf room at my parents. I cannot believe as a family we paid 400$ for a hotel room. This was a westin. The room was really high end, with a great bed, big bathroom and wonderful balcony, but did not even give free internet! Also, water was 7$ a bottle. I would normally not spend that money. Then my parents , my brother and I had to attend a funeral. My dad's friend, whom he met on the way over from Poland after the war, had just passed away. It just so happened the funeral was the day we arrived, so I was able to attend. I honestly have only attended maybe one other funeral in my life. I have been very sheltered.
After the funeral we got back and I went to the hotel to get ready for my mom's birthday dinner . My brother , his wife, felix, and I sat with our kids, while my parents sat with their friends. THis was not a real "kid friendly" type restaurant so the kids got bored.. Jack was overtired. Eventually I took him back, but he did not fall asleep until the other kids came back. they went to bed late again. I was in my hotel room and asleep by 10 myself! The next day felix and I walked on the beach and then came back to my parents place to say goodbye to my brother and his family. One family leaving and one "moving in". I got everything unpacked quickly and the kids off to the beach with Felix. I then joined them. We met up with a boy that my mom had met earlier that is a bit older than Jack. He has a 3 year old brother and then two much other (20's) siblings. We met the mom and they invited us to their cabana. My parents building is right on the ocean andpretty expensive. this is their vacation place and they even sprung the 200K for a cabana. I could not imagine how much $$$ they have, but they were so friendly. The mother is russian. LAter that night the kids were going to meet in the movie room to watch a movie together. In the meantime I started to feel really bad. I thought maybe even strep. (But today I was better most of the day with my throat, so probably Alyssa's bad cold) . I took on the project of setting up the router I had bought on my mom's pc. The problem was that somehow I got the cable loose and when nothing worked, noone was happy. But eventually we figured it out.
Now I have wireless access wiht my laptop! Yeah... I have outlook so that I can read my mail that way. Work changed from a nice web based way to having outlook with http over rpc. A big pain the you know what. I felt horrible so felix and my mom took the kids down for movie night.
Today I got everyone ready. This is a big difference from my sister in law, who never takes care of her kids when she is on vacation. She expects everyone else to. The one time my mom left her with her own kids she took an hour shower and then read a book. my mom's place was trashed. I am so different. I take care of my kids and I am happy to do so. I will say that my kids are easier, since my nieces are still only 4. They have to be watched more carefully at a pool. Yesterday at the beach I got the relax. The kids just play nearby and never go that far out in the ocean.
Anyway, today we took my mom to sawgrass mills, an really big outlet mall. We ended up being there about 5 hours! My mom needed stuff. We had lunch at the rainforest cafe. We came back and went to the pool.. There was a girl Alyssa's age there and her sister who is 9. The dad has partial custody from what he told me. He has one of hte most expensive units in teh building. I asked him what he does and he is a prominent breast cancer dr/surgeon. He lectures all over the world. He has a nanny and I guess splits the girls with their mother. Tomorrow Alyssa has a playdate with them. She was all shy until they started talking about webkinz. I know she plays it too much, but webkinz is a good thing for her socially. Today we also played monopoly JR. I am trying to get my kids to do better with games. While at the pool Jack worked on his stroking. His backstroke is coming together.
I am here while everyone went out to dinner. I am just not a going out person much anymore. I dont like to go out to eat. I guess I always gain weight as I have no self control, so its better not to even tempt me.
We thought about going to key largo to snorkle, but its probaby not the best time of year to go.
Today our disney tickets arrived. WE had forgotten them, so the neighbor watching the cats mailed them to us. it was worth it,, as there was no reason to then get new tickets. They are just so expensive.
We left on Tuesday afternoon. The traffic out of Atlanta was really bad. It turns out about 30 miles south of the city there had been an accident northbound. I was scared we were going to be in this traffic all the way to florida! It delayed us an hour. We stopped south of Jacksonville. our hotel was not in our navigation system for some reason. We checked in around 9:30. The hotel room smelled like mold or mildew. Otherwise it was pretty decent. I slept with Alyssa and that was ok, but Jack, like always was "wired" . He will eventually crash , which he did. Alyssa was still trying to get over her cold and I could feel myself getting her cold. We did ok on sleep.
The next day we got an early start and made it to my parents by noon. My brother and his wife were not there, but the kids were. The cousins started to play with each other. Felix and I went next door to check into the posh hotel. There was not enuf room at my parents. I cannot believe as a family we paid 400$ for a hotel room. This was a westin. The room was really high end, with a great bed, big bathroom and wonderful balcony, but did not even give free internet! Also, water was 7$ a bottle. I would normally not spend that money. Then my parents , my brother and I had to attend a funeral. My dad's friend, whom he met on the way over from Poland after the war, had just passed away. It just so happened the funeral was the day we arrived, so I was able to attend. I honestly have only attended maybe one other funeral in my life. I have been very sheltered.
After the funeral we got back and I went to the hotel to get ready for my mom's birthday dinner . My brother , his wife, felix, and I sat with our kids, while my parents sat with their friends. THis was not a real "kid friendly" type restaurant so the kids got bored.. Jack was overtired. Eventually I took him back, but he did not fall asleep until the other kids came back. they went to bed late again. I was in my hotel room and asleep by 10 myself! The next day felix and I walked on the beach and then came back to my parents place to say goodbye to my brother and his family. One family leaving and one "moving in". I got everything unpacked quickly and the kids off to the beach with Felix. I then joined them. We met up with a boy that my mom had met earlier that is a bit older than Jack. He has a 3 year old brother and then two much other (20's) siblings. We met the mom and they invited us to their cabana. My parents building is right on the ocean andpretty expensive. this is their vacation place and they even sprung the 200K for a cabana. I could not imagine how much $$$ they have, but they were so friendly. The mother is russian. LAter that night the kids were going to meet in the movie room to watch a movie together. In the meantime I started to feel really bad. I thought maybe even strep. (But today I was better most of the day with my throat, so probably Alyssa's bad cold) . I took on the project of setting up the router I had bought on my mom's pc. The problem was that somehow I got the cable loose and when nothing worked, noone was happy. But eventually we figured it out.
Now I have wireless access wiht my laptop! Yeah... I have outlook so that I can read my mail that way. Work changed from a nice web based way to having outlook with http over rpc. A big pain the you know what. I felt horrible so felix and my mom took the kids down for movie night.
Today I got everyone ready. This is a big difference from my sister in law, who never takes care of her kids when she is on vacation. She expects everyone else to. The one time my mom left her with her own kids she took an hour shower and then read a book. my mom's place was trashed. I am so different. I take care of my kids and I am happy to do so. I will say that my kids are easier, since my nieces are still only 4. They have to be watched more carefully at a pool. Yesterday at the beach I got the relax. The kids just play nearby and never go that far out in the ocean.
Anyway, today we took my mom to sawgrass mills, an really big outlet mall. We ended up being there about 5 hours! My mom needed stuff. We had lunch at the rainforest cafe. We came back and went to the pool.. There was a girl Alyssa's age there and her sister who is 9. The dad has partial custody from what he told me. He has one of hte most expensive units in teh building. I asked him what he does and he is a prominent breast cancer dr/surgeon. He lectures all over the world. He has a nanny and I guess splits the girls with their mother. Tomorrow Alyssa has a playdate with them. She was all shy until they started talking about webkinz. I know she plays it too much, but webkinz is a good thing for her socially. Today we also played monopoly JR. I am trying to get my kids to do better with games. While at the pool Jack worked on his stroking. His backstroke is coming together.
I am here while everyone went out to dinner. I am just not a going out person much anymore. I dont like to go out to eat. I guess I always gain weight as I have no self control, so its better not to even tempt me.
We thought about going to key largo to snorkle, but its probaby not the best time of year to go.
Today our disney tickets arrived. WE had forgotten them, so the neighbor watching the cats mailed them to us. it was worth it,, as there was no reason to then get new tickets. They are just so expensive.
# posted by sandy @ 4:03 PM 
