The "Saturday" 7: the Florida Recap

If you've been following my picture updates on facebook, this will be mostly old news, but I'll flesh it out with more details. I know that's what keeps y'all coming back for more every week. 😉

1. Our flight was at 1:50 on Sunday, so we picked up Justin's brother Jesse at 11:30 and headed to the airport. He drove our van home, and we donned our masks and made our way into the airport. Check in was fine, we made it through security with only one small hitch (Lucy's shoes set off the metal detector - haha), and the kids did well waiting to board. Levi wouldn't keep his mask over his nose, but no one said anything, so I didn't force it. I ended up with Lena and Levi in my row. Justin and Lucy were next to us, but it was a full flight and Lucy wanted the window, so a random guy was on the aisle between us. 

Before take off.

We didn't have to wait long at all on the runway, and as soon as we started to take off Lena started freaking out. She cried/whined for the first half an hour. (Sorry seat-neighbors!) I gave Levi gum, but apparently he doesn't understand how gum works, because he swallowed it immediately, then shouted intermittently throughout the flight, "I can't hear out of my ears!!" Lol. 🤦 Again, Levi wouldn't keep his mask up. The flight attendant asked me once to pull it up, which I did, but she didn't ask again when it inevitably fell down for the rest of the flight. Eventually, Lena calmed down, but then she got bored, and whined/cried for the last hour of the flight. Levi had to go potty three times. I'm glad he didn't go in his pants, but c'mon, it was a 2.5 hour flight. You really have to pee 3 times?? 

Landing in Orlando

We landed a little late because of wind or something. And then we had to pick up our rental car. I had reserved one online a month ago, and triple checked our reservation. When we got to the rental counter, there was a line a mile long. Justin and the kids found a place to sit with all our luggage, and I stood in line for almost an hour. None of the other rental car counters had lines. Apparently everyone booked with Budget like I did! It was a hassle, but they did indeed have a car for us: A Mazda CX-5. It's way too techie for us, and it took us a while to figure out. Haha. We drove through McDonald's and hunkered down for another 2.5 hours of travel. Lena asked roughly 400,000 times when we were going to be there. Levi did pretty well playing on his tablet. But then this happened:

My kids never fall asleep in the car. Lucy was awake (she blinked when the flash went off), but Levi was out! Later, his head was lolling around and Lucy tried to fix it, which woke him up. He immediately said, "I wasn't asleep!" Haha.

We finally made it to Justin's parents' around 10 and dropped into bed.

2. Monday was a gorgeous day - everything you hope for in a Floridian vacation. We walked down to the beach from our condo before 9:00 a.m., not intending to get wet, but I should've known better.

Finally we wised up and went back to put our swimsuits on.

I made Lena put her donut mask on to go with her donut swimsuit. Haha.

Then off to the pool!

This condo development is mostly snowbirds, and I loved watching them all coming out to sunbathe every afternoon. Dave warned us that we wouldn't get a chair if we didn't get to the pool before noon, and he was right. Those old people are serious about reading poolside! 

Connect 4 was the game of the week. It was an intense competition.

We ended the day with the beach again.

3. On Monday night it rained and the man-made canal behind the condos got too high, so the township dug out a trench leading the canal to the ocean. It was fascinating to watch the ocean create a current that pulled the water out.

At first, I was afraid the kids would fall in the trench, but then Justin came down and got in the trench with them. It was only like a foot deep.

Justin showing some people how big the crabs are that were getting sucked from the canal to the ocean.

Later on we went to the pool, but it was too cold for the girls, so they didn't last very long. Levi soaked up the one on one attention and showed me every trick he could imagine.

Justin's parents offered to buy bikes for the kids for their birthdays. Lena was happy with the one she already had, but the other two jumped on the chance, and made a Wal-Mart run to pick up these bad boys:

Justin's dad drove his truck down in December, so he'll bring the bikes back when he comes home in March.

3. Wednesday morning was rainy and cool, so we colored and painted nails . . .

It warmed up later, so we drove down to "The Jetty." Justin and his dad fished, while the kids and I played on the beach.

This is something else the old people in Florida do:

They all have these mesh scoop things. Justin's dad uses it to find "sand fleas" - which he uses as bait for fishing. The old ladies use them to find shells and shark teeth. I was one of those old ladies this week. Haha. It's like gambling - you never know if the next scoop is going to reveal something amazing!

This was one of the cool "shells" I found. Justin think it's probably a vertebrate from something.

The surf was pretty rough most of the time we were there. The waves were big and the current was strong. We learned some good lessons about the ocean after it ate one of Lena's water shoes and sucked up a pair of Lucy's goggles. Haha.

That night for the first time we got to watch the beautiful sunset on the beach. That's another big part of the old peoples' day - they all march down to the beach with their chairs like clockwork every evening, chat with each other, sipping wine while they watch the sun sink, then get back to their condos in time for Wheel of Fortune. I went a little crazy taking pictures of the sunset/twilight pictures because it made such a cool effect . . .

View from the condo, walking toward the beach

4. Thursday was another beautiful day spent between the ocean and the pool. In the morning, we all went down to the beach where Dave set up his fishing poles. 

They caught a little fish right away, and Levi was thrilled to hold it.

Levi and Grandpa were buddies all week. 

It warmed up enough that we all ended up in the water. There's a steep drop-off that scares Lena and Levi, but they loved riding the waves when Justin and I went out with them.

At the pool later that afternoon, we all swam for a while, then most of us wanted to sunbathe, and Levi was not happy about swimming alone. He sat by me and whined for a while until a bunch of old ladies sat on the steps to chat. He literally told me, "Oh! I can get in now! There are people in the pool!" He then proceeded to jump in near them, pop up and say, "Guys! Watch this! Hey guys! Wanna see my backflip? Guys! Are you watching?!" 🤦🤦🤦

We joke all the time that the VanderKodde social gene skipped Justin, but made it to Levi. Dave makes friends everywhere he goes, and talks to everyone. Levi is following in his footsteps . . . much to my chagrin. Haha. I finally went over and told Levi to leave the old ladies alone, but they all crooned, "Oh! He's fine! He's so cute!" 

5. Friday was cool, windy, and rainy, so we ended up just hanging out at the condo all day. 

Justin and I walked down to the beach to see the big waves, but only lasted like 5 minutes. 

The girls caught up on some homework, Justin and I read, Levi watched a Paw Patrol marathon on Nick Jr. Haha. I think I read 3 books this week: The Still of Night and The Breath of Dawn by Kristen Hetizmann, and A Love Like Ours by Becky Wade. 

6. Yesterday was Dave's 70th birthday (!). 

We celebrated with a trip to the park, and another jetty/beach for fishing and swimming.

It was really windy again, so there were a bunch of surfers that were fun to watch. And we spotted some dolphins off in the distance!

That night we had cake and ice cream and watched the sunset one last time.

Snuggles with Grandma

7. This morning, we spent all morning packing and cleaning to head back to Orlando. 

We got to see the drawbridge going up!

Thank goodness for headphones!

It was a loooong 3 hour drive. The kids did well thanks to their devices, but Levi had to go potty 3 times again! The first two times, we exited the highway and found a gas station. The third time, we pulled over to the side of the road and let him pee in the grass. Haha. Boys for the win!

We have one more day of fun planned for tomorrow, then we're getting back on the dreaded airplane and going home to the frozen tundra. I've been watching the weather back home. It was horrendously cold most of the time we were gone, but is actually supposed to be in the 30s and 40s by the time we get back! Hallelujah!!