Florida

Every year in October / November I go to Florida for John Deere training. Mom & Ron have a house very near the training site and they are there for the duration of training, so I am able to bring Andrew with & mom watches him during the day. This year I got to go with our friend Charlie who has been a friend of Mike's for a very long time and also works at Ehlers. The flight down went well - Andrew was awake but in a good mood & fell asleep when we landed - just like on our trip to Colorado! We got home & settled in before we headed to the beach to play in the sand and eat at the sandbar restaurant. Andrew had a blast playing with his toys in the sand, and I even let Charlie walk him into the water a little bit (even though he didn't have a life vest on!) I don't think I could say which beach event Andrew liked most - digging in the sand with his shovel, running up to the water, pushing his truck - every single thing he did made me wish I lived on the beach so he could have that much fun every single day! He was so cute when a wave would come in - he would stand sideways and put one foot up as if to stop it! We would pick him up and swing him out of harms way & he just loved it! The next day we got to go out on Ron's boat. We went to a restaurant on Cabbage Key (or something) which is the restaurant where Jimmy Buffett allegedly wrote the song "Cheeseburger in Paradise" about. All the burgers were served medium, and you could only get cole slaw or potato salad as any side. And their kids menu - grilled cheese! It was a great lunch, but it was humorous how simple it all was (especially for me who substitutes everything!) Andrew loved the boat - every time we would move, he would crawl up into my lap, put his head on my shoulder and go to sleep. When we weren't moving, he was up and running around - as much as he could! The next day Charlie and I started training, and the next three days went by very quickly. Our last night there mom & Ron had some friends over & we played poker and other betting games all night. I got a great hand of pocket aces, but my poker face gave it away. I tried to bluff the same way a couple hands later, and Charlie called me on it and won. Once Texas holdem was over, we played some other games, and I somehow managed to win some money! Our flight back wasn't so easy. Andrew should have fallen asleep on take off and didn't so he was awake & fussy the whole way home except for about 1/2 hour when he did sleep. There was a nasty old guy in front of me who kept banging his seat back at me because my fussy toddler knocked the tray with his head a couple times. Oh well - you can't win them all, and the trip was a blast!