Florida

On Saturday, March 5, we flew to Florida for a Kringel (immediate family) reunion. When Ever's preschool class studied the letter "n" in preschool a week or two before we left, the kids had the opportunity to share some news. I thought maybe Ever would want to tell the class about baby no. 3, but instead she told them about going to Florida to visit Grandpa Kringel. She was incredibly excited about packing in the days before the trip. She got to break in her new rolly, and she seemed so grown-up pulling it through the airport:

It was really late by the time we got our bags, picked up the rental car, drove to Fort Pierce, checked into our hotel, and got to bed. 

Sunday we had lunch with Grandpa and then drove down to Fort Lauderdale to pick up Dawn and Ed. We got dinner at a little pizza place, dropped the Flinns at Grandpa's, and then headed back to our hotel in Fort Pierce. (Our hotel was a full half-hour from Grandpa's. It was the closest place we could find with a living space separate from the bedroom. That was necessary if we wanted to be able to stay up later than the girls, although that didn't actually happen to the extent we would have liked because we always ended up getting back to the hotel late.) 

Grandpa had set up a river cruise for us on Monday. It was a beautiful day and a nice, relaxing trip. After we got back to port, we browsed around the shops and some of us had ice cream. Then we made our way to a little park. After we walked a little ways, we realized the park was farther away then we'd thought. We paused by the water, and Jim ran back to get the car.

Ever had a lot of fun at the park. The purple car was enjoyed by all.

I was a dorky tourist. Skinny jeans turn my tennies into clown shoes:

We had dinner at Mulligan's, and Ever posed for a pre-dinner pic:

We spent a good amount of time that day and evening discussing the term "sweat jacket," which I declared is not a real term and is not used by anyone but Jim. He calls Ever's pink, zippered hoodie a "sweat jacket." I say it's a sweatshirt. He says if it has a zipper, it's a jacket. I say if it's made of sweatshirt material, it's a sweatshirt; sweatshirts may or may not have zippers. We solicited opinions from Dawn, Ed, and Grandpa. Jim found a hilarious post online by some guy who was having the same debate with his wife. The topic produced lively and entertaining discussions. The really excellent news is that at the end of the day, after conducting some online research, Jim finally acknowledged that I appeared to be correct.

Tuesday we went to the Flagler Museum (aka Whitehall) in Palm Beach. Henry Flagler was a railroad guy, and he was friends and business partners with Rockefeller. Whitehall is a mansion Flagler built for his wife. The Flaglers only used Whitehall six to eight weeks a year during the winter. I missed a lot of the tour because I was dealing with children, but the place was pretty incredible. After the tour, Ever and I took a quick spin through the second floor because she wanted to see the bedrooms. We really enjoyed the place. Ever pointed out a few bedrooms she wished were hers.

The ballroom:

The walk-in closet:

One of the bedrooms:

I wish I'd gotten a picture of one of the bathrooms because they were neat. The water tanks were suspended way up high above the toilets.

After touring the house, we walked to the water to look at the yachts but detoured into a big, open building containing a restaurant and a railroad car that I thought was really cool. If this weren't blurry and otherwise poor quality, it would be such a cute picture of Ever in the railroad car:

After Whitehall, we headed to Lion Country Safari, stopping at Subway for lunch on the way. We saw lots of animals as we drove through the safari park.

 

The lions were lounging around and didn't give us a good show like last time, when they started fighting right by the fence:

The monkeys did some good swinging, though:

Doesn't he look so human when he walks?:

Water buffalo:

There were lots of antelope-type animals:

At one point I looked over and saw Wrenzo just gazing adoringly at Ever. It quickly turned to giggles, as Ever began making Wren laugh by doing something that wasn't particularly funny but that Wren really got a kick out of.

This rhino walked RIGHT by our car:

After the drive-through part, we walked around the other section of the park.

The family (minus Wren and me) and a big alligator:

Ed and Wrenzo (looking like a little boy):

Wrenzo kept pulling at Ed's chest and arm hair while he held her. It was cute. He was a good sport and let her do it.

Dawn loves giraffes ("raffies") and was very excited to feed one. Jim joined in, and then Ed upstaged them both by feeding it Lady and the Tramp-style.

Dawn, Ed, and I went into the enclosed bird area. Jim stayed outside because he has an irrational fear of birds. Ed got some bird feed so he'd get accosted. I think he enjoyed it more than this picture suggests:

We enjoyed this fuzzy chicken:

The ferris wheel has been removed since we were there before, but Ever did get to ride the Dumbo ride and the merry-go-round:

After a fun-filled day, we headed back to Port St. Lucie and went to dinner at Applebee's. Ever was pleased with the chocolate lava cake:

We didn't get to bed until really late. Like midnight. Then we had to wake up at 2:30 so we could leave at 3:00 to pick up Dawn and Ed and head to the airport. We ended up getting to the gate with lots of extra time, so perhaps we should have slept a little longer. 

As we were boarding the plane, the young man behind us on the jetway kept calling out "Sir!" until I realized he was talking to Jim. We turned to him, and he asked excitedly, "Are you Tony Hawk?" Jim said, "No. He's a lot taller." I didn't want the guy to feel like an idiot, so I said something about how Jim has gotten that before. It was pretty funny.

Wrenzo struggled on the plane but finally fell asleep briefly like this (yes, she made the trip in her jammies):

During the trip, Ever either wanted to ride with Wrenzo in the stroller like this ...

... or push the stroller like this:

Ever had a slightly scary escalator incident in the Fort Lauderdale airport, when her rolly got stuck on the side of the escalator behind her after she had already stepped onto the stair part. She held on tightly to her rolly and tried to run back up the escalator until Jim rescued her. Then in L.A., we arrived at an escalator. Jim was ahead of us. I got on with Wrenzo in the stroller (which you're not supposed to do) and had to make sure to keep the stroller steady and upright. Behind me, Ever balked at the top of the escalator. All I could do was tell her I would come back for her. I watched her as I descended to make sure she was OK and not getting abducted. Then I saw this really nice youngish couple who'd been sitting next to us at the Fort Lauderdale gate come up behind her. The guy offered to help her. She wasn't really having it, but she did finally let the girl take her hand and help her on the escalator. Super-nice strangers. 

The girls were thrashed by the time we returned to California. We were up late every night we were gone, and they missed their naps. Ever fell asleep in the car on the way home from the airport, and I left her for a long time in the garage like this:

After I put Wren down for a nap, I heard Ever crying in the car. I brought her inside. She sat on the couch while I was in the kitchen, and before I knew it this was happening:

Jim's dream of taking a nap on the couch with his little love came true.  

It was a wonderful trip. The weather was perfect (actually kind of cool), and it was so nice to see the family. We had a lot of fun and just wished we'd had a little more time.