Annnyyyyways, I'm having a baby in 2 weeks, so I have to get this blog post written, so that I can write a blog post about how my pregnancy went (so I can complain about how much I don't like being pregnant... for posterity's sake.), so that I can write a blog post about this baby's birth when she arrives. Also, I have a bunch of other little projects to get done before the baby comes (nothing fun, more like organizing a closet, putting a stroller and bassinet together, and sorting through 738110473818480358173 pieces of paper/mail/bills/boring adult stuff to put into a filing cabinet.) So, if I get this task out of the way, I'll maybe be more motivated to get the other tasks done next....
So, without further ado, here's how my trip to Florida went! Back when everything was normal! It's crazy how much has changed in just one month.
- The first part of the trip involved a miserable 4 hour red eye flight with me (7 months pregnant) and Rose. Our plane took off at 11 pm Utah time (3 hours after Rose's bedtime, have you ever heard about the importance of getting a toddler to bed BEFORE they get over tired? The consequences of not listening to that advice are rough.) and arrived at 5 am Florida time. I came prepared with Melatonin, a blanket, a binkie, a bottle of milk, and the stuffed horse that Rose sleeps with. Normally, Rose wants to sit on my lap all the time, but something about being on a cramped airplane made it so that she had absolutely no desire to sit on my lap. At all. She was trying to escape constantly, but there was a lot of turbulence so the seatbelt sign was on for almost the entire flight, and I just had to wrestle with her to get her to stay with me. I felt like I was wrestling with a raccoon the entire flight. It was rough. I only cried once though.... so I'd consider that a success. And I don't think anyone around me noticed. Rose didn't sleep for the entire flight EXCEPT for a brief moment when the plane started descending.
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| The small moment when Rose decided to fall asleep right before the plane landed. [Insert eye roll here] |
- We got to the airport where we met my mom who had flown from Texas, and my cousin was there too. She flew on the same flight as me but the flight attendants wouldn't let her and I sit by each other because the plane was full. Rose had a meltdown while we grabbed our luggage, (at this point I told my mom that Rose could fly back to Texas with her) picked up the rental car, and then drove an hour to my grandparents house. We got there by 7 am, all of us very tired, and then we went to sleep until sometime in the afternoon.
- My wish list of things to do while in Florida included: a trip to St. Augustine, eating coconut shrimp, seeing a sunset on the Gulf of Mexico, seeing Spanish moss, eating breakfast at my grandma's, doing something for my mom's birthday, being a bridesmaid in my Kindergarten best friends wedding, seeing an alligator, and seeing my other best friend from elementary school and my family delivered! I got to do all of those things and more!
- On our second day there, we drove forever and ever to get to St. Augustine (the one problem with moving away from Florida when you are 12 is that you have absolutely no mental map of the geography of Florida. So, when I put that one on my bucket list, I didn't realize it would be a 4 hour drive... ) ((Also, unfortunately, the memories I had of St. Augustine from my elementary school field trips there were a little skewed from what St. Augustine actually is, or maybe it has changed... but it wasn't what I was expecting.)) St. Augustine is the oldest city in the US and when I was a kid you could go see all this historic stuff like the oldest school house and the fountain of youth and the fort, but as an adult you have to pay to see each of these historic landmarks and everything else is just fancy restaurants and tourist shops. We did stop for some yummy ice cream and then we had lunch at a sea food place where I was able to have delicious coconut shrimp (which has been one of my cravings this pregnancy.)
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| The chocolate ice cream, that Rose thought was very good. |
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| I love this picture of 4 generations. :) |
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| Coconut Shrimp. :) My only complaint is that this is NOT enough coconut shrimp to hold me over until the next time I'm near a coast. |
- After St. Augustine, we drove another couple hours to a place called Flemington to spend the night with a couple that my grandparents have been friends with for over 50 years. This was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. There wasn't any service so at night after everyone went to bed I sat on the back porch, barefoot, without a blanket or jacket (in FEBRUARY) and wasn't cold! I listened to the frogs and the bugs and used their house phone to call Ryan. It was so peaceful. In the morning, Buddy (the husband) let me drive his golf cart with my Mom and Rose and he showed us around all of his property. And then the best part (besides driving the golf cart, which was super fun, I think I need to get myself one!) he let us meet his cows and pet them! I love cows, they remind me of my time spent in Elma and Winlock, Washington where there are lots of cows. I knew that cows were big, but when you are standing close enough to touch them they are absolutely massive! I couldn't believe how big they were, it's a bit intimidating! But honestly was probably one of my very favorite parts of the trip.
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| My beautiful cousin! |
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| I'm thinking I need to make enough money so I can buy a bunch of land and also have my own pond. How beautiful is this?! |
- That afternoon we drove back down closer to where my grandparents live and stopped on the way to watch the sunset, I can't remember the name of the beach. It wasn't the nicest beach I've ever been to. But the sunset did not disappoint. And Rose and I had fun playing in the water. We got there a little early so my mom and grandparents relaxed at a picnic table while Rose and I walked up and down the shore picking up poor little sea snail things and throwing them into the water. (Rose wasn't very soft with them.) She wouldn't stop putting her hands in her mouth so I had to put a stop to it, and luckily I did because one of the last ones she picked up was actually a hermit crab, and if I hadn't taken that away from her she definitely would have been pinched by a grumpy hermit crab that wasn't happy to have his home invaded by little toddler fingers. We also found a tiny starfish that she may have killed by squeezing too hard when she didn't want to give it back to me. (Side note: do you want to know what I think the scariest thing I can think of is? A giant toddler. Have you ever seen a toddler play with little toys or bugs or anything? Now imagine that toddler is big enough to pick you up, doesn't have any idea how to be gentle, and squeezes you to death, or throws you to the ground when they are done with you, or shoves you and other humans into a cup because that's just what they feel like doing with their fun new toy. It's a terrifying thought. Thank goodness toddlers are so small! But not so lucky for the little creatures they find...) During the sunset I was able to take some incredible pictures of Rose, I will try to limit myself to a reasonable number of pictures... but don't count on it.
(I knew I wouldn't be able to limit myself... If you don't care about pictures just scroll right on through. There's no hope for me.)
- The next day was a day to just relax at my grandparent's house and recover from all the stuff we did the two days before. We celebrated my mom's birthday with my grandma's fried chicken (the best fried chicken ever, I promise) and a homemade red velvet cake.
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| Growing up in Florida is a magical experience, I'm glad Rose got to enjoy some of the little joys that come from playing here. |
- On Friday, my mom and Rose and I drove to Oviedo, near Orlando. I got my nails done with Tori and her other bridesmaids. Which was really nice, the pedicure chairs were massage chairs which felt really nice on my aching pregnant back. The last time I had my nails done professionally was on my mission, 4 years ago, so it was a fun way to spend the morning. While I did that, my mom and Rose drove to the airport to pick up my sister, Emily, who spent the rest of the trip with us. We stayed in this super cute airbnb right across the street from where I went to preschool. I was tempted to steal all of their decorations because they were so cute, but I resisted because I'm a law abiding citizen. That evening I went to a wedding rehearsal and then dinner. The weather was crazy because my first few days in Florida felt SO hot and humid but then during the rehearsal it was in the 40's and windy and so so cold, and I was NOT dressed warm enough. I guess the weather is bipolar no matter what state you are in.
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| I went to preschool at this beautiful Methodist church! Isn't it fun to see Rose sitting on the steps here? |
- Something important that my mom and Emily and I made a priority while in Oviedo was to get gelati's at Jeremiah's ice each of the 3 days that we were there. That may seem exorbitant, but it was necessary, considering it has been at least 12 years since we last went to Jeremiah's ice and you can't get it in Utah or Texas and it is SO delicious. You just have to take advantage of things like that! A gelati is a swirl of vanilla soft serve and Italian ice (which comes in SO many flavors). It might sound strange, but if you ever get a chance to try it, I highly highly recommend that you do!
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| Okay, embarrassing picture alert: When I was a kid I loved climbing. Trees, light posts, anything that could be climbed I would. Emily found this lovely picture of me a while ago and posted it on Facebook! And I will just have you know that I had never even HEARD of pole dancing at this time so that is NOT what I am doing despite what it may look like! Anyways, my family thinks this photo is hilarious, it's taken at Jeremiah's Ice and so I did a small recreation of the photo when we were there during the trip. You're welcome. |
- Saturday was a wedding day for me (not my wedding, but Tori's wedding.) Rose spent the day with my Mom and Emily and had lots of fun with them. While I had lots of fun getting my hair and make up done, wearing a pretty bridesmaid dress that may have been just a little bit (a lot) snug because my belly grew so much since I bought it, eating snacks, riding in a limo(!!! My first time!), and participating one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever seen. Everything was perfect. Tori was beautiful, the weather was perfect, the vows were so fun to listen to (I've never been to a wedding where vows were exchanged) and Tori's cute 4 year old stepdaughter was the cutest addition to the wedding party. And there's really not much better than seeing your oldest friend get married to someone who treats her so well and you can tell makes her so happy. I just love marriage and I love when my friends get married! <3 <3 <3 The only downsides to weddings is that there are so many people there to see the bride and groom that you just don't get to catch up the way you would like with your friend. The last time I saw Tori (before this) was when she flew all the way to Utah for my wedding 3 years ago, and we had the same issue then too. We'll just have to plan a trip to meet up without any wedding stuff going on some day.
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| The problem with getting married before all of your friends, for me at least, has been the fact that they always choose to get married when I look like THIS. |
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| Tori at my wedding almost exactly 3 years before <3 |
- On Sunday, we went to church and were only going to stay for the first hour, but Rose threw a fit because she wanted to play in nursery, so we had to be good and stay for the second hour too. (I guess it's a good thing because who knew that church would be cancelled for who knows how long when the world shut down for Coronavirus! I miss church!) And like heathens, we stopped at Boston Fish House for lunch (where I had more coconut shrimp), and then Jeremiah's Ice for our third gelati that weekend before we drove back down to Bartow.
(A few more photos from Granny's house.)
- We spent Monday and Tuesday, our last full days, in Bartow at my grandparent's home. On Monday we took a few hours to drive to Lakeland to meet my friend Kristen (my other childhood best friend) for lunch and then to get cupcakes. I hadn't seen her in SIX years! Which is just so devastating, and a few hours just wasn't enough time to catch up. In that six years she graduated from high school and college, got married, and got accepted into a CRNA program for grad school. I served a mission, got married, graduated from college, and had a baby and am about to have another one. Growing up is cool in some ways, but time flies by between seeing the people you care about way too fast. I moved away from Florida in 2007, and I have wished since that year that I could figure out a way to push Florida and Texas (and now Florida, Texas, and Utah) closer together. But, so far it hasn't worked out. My other solution is to figure out how to teleport. or get rich. None of my plans are working so far. But there's still time.
- On our last day we drove to Highland's Hammock, a really pretty state park. We went on the only 2 hikes that were stroller friendly. Some highlights of this visit were getting to see a thousand year old live oak tree, finding some really, really big leaves, and walking on a boardwalk above some water, and finally spotting an alligator! We were perfectly safe, alligators sleep during the day, and this one wasn't that close. The boardwalk could have been just a bit wider, but we made do.
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| Thousand Year old live oak tree. It's not looking so hot, but it's still alive. The trunk is really impressive, the top, not so much. |
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| The alligator! |
- Emily and I finished up our last day by taking pictures in the Bartow cemetery. I really wanted to capture the beauty of the sunlight shining through the Spanish moss on the giant oak trees, and I am not an experienced enough photographer to have been able to get the pictures that I wanted, but I did get some great pictures of Emily and she took some cute ones of me and my baby bump. It was nice to have a cooperative photo subject. Ryan and Rose are not so easily persuaded to have their pictures taken.
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| Spanish Moss is SO beautiful, especially on these massive oak trees. I wish you could all see it in person! |
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| Just look at how big this tree is! |
- We flew home on Wednesday, and this flight went much better than the flight there. This sweet family sitting in front of us had a boy who was probably 3 or 4 that took a liking to Rose, he kept turning around to say hi, and then handing his toys to Rose, and then at one point she just wandered to their row and played with him and his toys for like 2 hours. They let her sit with them and read her books, and I got to sit without trying to wrangle my wild raccoon the whole flight. They were life savers, I felt so so grateful to this family the whole time.
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| This little guy jumped out of my suitcase while I was packing. He really rounded out my trip by making it feel like Florida. |
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| My Instagram stories from the flight home. Isn't she cute? |
- This trip was just so fun. I love Florida so much and would move back in a heartbeat if Ryan didn't hate humidity so much (he also has to have mountains. Funny that doesn't work when I say I have to have the beach!) I'll just have to keep working on that teleportation idea so I can go back whenever I want. However, I am currently accepting donations to fly me back there (once it's safe to travel again) should anyone feel so generously inclined. ;)
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