I can't believe it took over a year to return to a place we called home for six years but we finally boarded a plane (without kids) & spent 5 days in the Sunshine State. The trip was planned around celebrating with Steve, Jenny & the kiddos as they reached 100% support & were officially headed to Poland. We were able to be there for a commissioning service at CCC & spend lots of time catching up. On top of spending time with that beloved family, we were able to catch up with a few others we have missed dearly since our move. It was a fabulous & emotion- filled trip & we are thankful we were able to go.
We debated for about 5 minutes on whether we should take the kids or not when we had made the decision to go. I think we were smart to plan a mommy & daddy trip. My parents came into town to spend the five days with our little brood & provided shuttle service to & from the airport. I'm pretty sure the kids didn't notice we were gone ; )
It was an exciting moment for me to see them pull up! Then my dad's speech to the kids had me laughing as he repeated the phrase we heard as kids that may have been delivered a bit more sternly than it was to my bunch "We're a family & we are going to have fun!"
We booked our tickets on American Airlines who did not assign seats till we checked in at the gate. I walked up to the counter & gave the woman our tickets. She said she did not have any seats together & would need to work on it for a minute. I found a cozy spot while we waited. She walked up & handed me our boarding passes. I never even glanced at them. When it was time to start boarding Rob looked at the ticket & saw "FIRST" written across...could it be? Did she move us to first class? I walked up to the desk just to verify & she smiled this funny smile at me like "don't say anything, just get on the plane!" So we did & found ourselves in the front row with an extreme amount of leg room to stretch out & enjoy the flight. It was a first for me....no pun intended. I'm thinking that the woman at the desk must have been pregnant a time or two & remembered how it felt to sit straight up & down for three hours with lots of trips to the bathroom. Bless her. We were off to a great start & Florida bound on July 16th.
The next great thing that happened was when we arrived in Orlando & walked to the counter to pick up our rental car. She said it was a slow week & they were running a special on Corvette convertibles. Well that was an easy decision, especially for my travel buddy. We walked out to find this...
I cannot describe how fun it was! It was definitely the furthest thing possible to our Expedition that can carry six extra passengers. For example, our two carry on bags had to be jammed into the trunk & I carried everything else in my lap, including Arlo. We rode with the top down & sun glasses on the entire time which also meant we stayed pretty sticky in the Florida climate but we didn't care. I did feel like I needed to hold a sign up that said "this is a rental & we got a good deal on it!" Rob asked what we should name the car & the only thing I came up with was "the banana mobile" which he immediately shot down after he had a good laugh. He said it had to be a girl name so I suggested "Hannah" so we could call her "Hannah Banana." He agreed & we sped down the highway from the airport to Celebration. I had to take the picture above so Arlo would know he was the one & only of the Valentine kiddos to ride in a Corvette & so he would remember how cool his mom once was ; ) The only downside to our vehicle of choice was how difficult it was to get out of with a growing baby bump. By the end of the trip I felt like a needed a crane to lift me. Rob came to the rescue every time & heaved me out of the passenger seat. People grinned at us when this was in process like they weren't expecting a pregnant lady to exit.
We headed straight to Steve & Jenny's place before checking into the hotel. They were happy to greet us & Steve was pretty excited to go for a spin. In fact by the end of the trip Robby had taken just about everyone in that house, a couple other friends & a 12 year old kid drooling over the car in the parking lot for a spin! It was like a ride at the fair!
We had a blast playing with Karis, Isaac & Olivia that afternoon before checking in at our hotel. We thought it would be super convenient to be right around the corner from the "Polish Valentines" as I will now refer to them. It happened to be a beautiful hotel on top of being so close. Our room looked over the lake that we had walked around about a million times while we lived in Orlando.
Thursday evening we got cleaned up & headed to an old favorite restaurant, Seito Sushi. It was just as good as we remembered! I wanted to get back to our hotel room as soon as possible to go to sleep. I was SOOOO excited to sleep in a place where no one would wake me up. I actually picked up some Tylenol PM that I took each evening & completely knocked me out. I felt great! Friday morning started with a trip around the old neighborhood & some nearby developments before heading up to the mall. We grabbed a late breakfast before heading back south to have lunch with the Lent's. How did I not take a picture with them?! We ate at Abuelos, also a place full of memories. It was wonderful to catch up with these two. They are refreshing, hilarious & filled to the brim with Christ centered counsel & encouragement. Once lunch was over I thought we would head back to rest but we found that we couldn't stay away from Steve, Jenny & the kids! I read some Curious George & snuggled with sweet Isaac who is now 3. Karis (turned 5 just a few weeks ago) climber all over Uncle Rob & precious baby Olivia who was about 18 months old when we visited tried to figure out if she liked me to hold her. There were lots of laughs & a heavy heart on my part thinking about the physical distance between our families that was fast approaching...more on that later.
Good thing we rested well because Saturday was filled with activity! We started off the morning celebrating Karis' 5th birthday at a nearby pool. The Brainards met us early for a quick visit. We love this family! We met them about a year & a half before we left Florida. Annie & I were pregnant at the same time with the boys for us & sweet Lilah Leigh for their family. We are pregnant together again & had we knowing each other for the past 7 years, all of our pregnancies would have overlapped!
Karis could not have been more fun to watch during her birthday celebration. She is such a delightful little girl that relishes in spending time with friends from babies to grown ups. Her official birthday was not until the end of August & they thought it would be more fun to celebrate with friends than right after a huge move. We were happy about that decision. Another bright spot in our trip was getting to meet the newest Lent baby, Vivian. She is perfectly chubby & full of smiles!
I had all these plans for afternoon naps everyday in our quiet little hotel room but when it came down to it we could not refuse an opportunity to visit with friends that we have missed SO much. The Bucks fell into that category & we got to meet up at Starbucks that afternoon. We have known them since the fist year we were in Orlando. In fact, I am pretty sure they were the only other young couple at CCC with us in the early days. They celebrated the welcoming of our babies & Emily was never short on helping us, cuddling kiddos & inviting us to Sea Word (pre twin invasion). The girls loved the attention from Christian & Olivia. What a great visit, quick as it may have been, we left feeling encouraged about many things.
Saturday evening we had some yummy BBQ with this clan. All the grandparents were there too...I am thinking that the Polish Valentines were in the spot light of my camera lens the whole time & I am missing pictures of everyone else ; ( As I look at this picture I am wondering if Steve is holding a partially eaten banana...that makes me laugh.
Sunday will be a whole post in itself since it encompassed the majority of emotions during the trip. That being said, we will move onto Monday. We woke up bright & early to head over to a Colombian bakery that has the most delicious pandebono, a Colombian cheese bread served warm. I could eat about 10 of them. Our old Colombian neighbors Hugo & Juanita introduced us to a new carb filled addiction. I texted her the picture to say "wish you were here!" We said our goodbyes to our beloved family, packed up our hotel room & were on our way to the airport. Our other quick stop in the afternoon was to Winnie Palmer of course. What a place full of memories. Memories of meeting all of our babies & precious friends babies, a place filled with colleagues that were a gift to work with & just a place that played a large role in my life while living in Orlando. It seemed fitting that I had to be there pregnant with Arlo since he wouldn't be born there. To prove it, my friend snapped a picture of me with my own pregnant belly full of baby Charlotte.
We were tired both physically & emotionally, we missed our little brood & were excited to hop on the plane back to Texas. It was late that evening so we didn't see the kiddos till the next morning. It was a lovely reunion for six (& a half) people plus souvenirs in Mommy & Daddy's bed. I'm not sure what we will do once Arlo is here....do they make larger than king size beds?
What a wonderful trip that we were thankful we were able to enjoy. I am actually a little tired thinking about it but then again, I was about 10 weeks earlier in this pregnancy now & was able to tolerate much more activity!
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