Tour de Grandparents

For the last week and a half, we've been making the tour of the grandparents - both sets of which live in Florida. On Wednesday, we picked up Mason on his last day of school with the car loaded, and headed down I77 to Orlando to see Dave's family first. We knew the trip would take about 10 hours, so the thought was we'd leave just in time for Lauren's afternoon nap, then the kids would both go to sleep for the last couple of hours which is always the hardest. Our plan worked pretty well except for all the rain we got on the way. That made it a little hard with a son who won't go to public restrooms and insists on peeing in the grass (see a previous post about our trip to Myrtle Beach) but we made it with relatively few issues.

We visited with Baba, Grandpa, and Uncle Matthew in Orlando until Tuesday. We also got to visit with some very dear friends while we were there, but with all the rain we had, we didn't get to do much else. At least we were able to enjoy most of Memorial Day outside by the pool at Amy and Ryan's house.

Mason enjoying yummy cake poolside...

Tuesday morning, Dave flew from Orlando to New Jersey for work, so I loaded up the kids and headed north to Perry where my parents live. It was my first time travelling for any length of time with both kids, and I had only done it once with Mason before Lauren was born. The three hour trip took about five hours, but it was relatively smooth. We had a good time visiting with Grandmama and PoohPa. We even got to see Aunt Amy and cousins Kellon and Chandler, plus good friends Aunt Marge and Uncle Don while we were there.

Mason and cousin Kellon on the computer...

Cousin Chandler and Lauren...

Friday morning I loaded up the kids again and headed to Jacksonville where we were to pick up Dave who was flying back from New Jersey. I have a pretty good husband because his flight actually connected in Charlotte on the way. He was just flying down to be with me on the longest part of the drive home. His flight was delayed out of Newark as usual, but he made it to our hotel at 10:30pm. In the meantime, I visited with a good friend from high school who I haven't seen in 14 years. Saturday we made the long trip home, and I think all of us were ready to get out of the car by the time we hit South Carolina.

He must be worn out to fall asleep in the middle of a movie...

To cap off our vacation, we hit the Carowinds waterpark on Sunday. Mason had such a good time in the splash area, swimming in the wave pool, and going down the kids' slide. I think Lauren didn't really know how to feel about such a big bathtub. She did enjoy napping in the stroller though.

Mason and Daddy enjoying the waterslide at Carowinds...

Both kids were certainly warn out after such a busy several days an slept very well last night. It was wonderful to get to visit so many of our friends and family on our trip, but it is very nice to sleep in our own beds again and get back to our regular routine.