Off to Florida!

As I previously mentioned, we are having our kitchen redone. Part of that process includes getting hard wood floors in our kitchen and getting our hard wood floors already in the house refinished. We needed to be out of the house for 3 days during that process so nobody would walk on the floors, so we decided to take a trip down to FL to see Madgie and Patch. Unfortunately, it was pretty last minute so we ended up taking afternoon flights and having to stop in Charlotte on the way down (we normally would take a morning direct flight). Our flight out of Chicago was delayed (causing us to worry about making our connection in Charlotte). Here is everyone eagerly looking out the window for our plane to arrive...

We did make our connection, only to board the plane, get on the runway, and then wait as the airport completely shut down due to thunderstorms and lightning. The kids did pretty well, especially given the fact that it was late, hot on the plane and we didn't have time to grab much food. Finally, we took off in the storm (which was scary), but made it safely to Jacksonville and to the house a little after midnight.

The next day since everyone was pretty tired, we stayed around the house. Luckily, Madgie and Patch have a great pool in their backyard, so staying around the house was pretty easy! The kids couldn't wait to get swimming!

Abbey and Madgie hanging out on the deep end step.

Madgie also had some great blow-up toys for the kids to ride on...Juju loves getting in all the toys and being pushed around.

Abbey got comfortable with the noodle as long as someone was on hand to help her out.

Ben is quite the swimmer. He can now jump off the side and swim to the steps without anyone being there to help him. He can also swim across the pool and come up for breaths in between. It might not be the most graceful of strokes, but he gets the job done! It has been amazing to see his progress this year! Abbey also is making strides - she will go underwater to search for things if the water is shallow (like 2-3 feet so she can stand back up when she is done). Juju loves the water too and will put her face in to blow bubbles. Paul has dunked her a few times and she wasn't thrilled with that, but she loves being in the water so I am sure she will follow in her big brother's and sister's fins.

And of course what would a trip down here be without taking a ride in one of Patch's classic corvettes. He owns 3 classic corvettes and a delorean and just built a huge fancy garage to house all these cars and work on them. It's pretty nice and Ben couldn't wait to take a ride. This time he chose the white one (1967).