A GREAT Vacation

We had such a wonderful time in Florida! The weather was absolutely perfect, and it was so relaxing even with a 1-year old :) We went for long walks every day, swam in the pool, went to the beach, and visited the Twins Spring Training Stadium multiple times. It was really neat to see Hammond Stadium. We went on a non-game day to check out the place which was awesome because we were pretty much the only ones there. The game was fun too, although they lost 5-0. We also watched a morning practice one day and got to see many of the big-name players (Thome, Young, Casilla, Span, Nishioka, etc.) walk onto the field. Tony Oliva and Tom Kelly were also there to help coach! (You can check out all the pictures on my Facebook.)

Brecken did really well on both flights. The flight there started off a little rough as Brecken decided to skip his morning nap before we left for the airport (I think he must have been able to sense that something was going on), so he was really overtired by the time we got on the plane. After we left the gate, it took 45 minutes before we actually took-off because of de-icing! During the de-icing, Brecken started crying and crying, and he didn't want anything to do with the water, suckers, ear plugs, or anything else we had brought along to hopefully help with his ears. We were really nervous at that point because we were like oh boy...just wait until we start going up and the pressure starts changing in his ears. However, as soon as the jets turned on and we started moving, he was instantly "out-like-a-light." He stayed asleep for an hour-and-a-half until the pilot made his announcement that we'd be landing in an hour. The flight home was even better - he was just antsy sitting on the plane since he is constantly go-go-go at this age.

The trip was such a nice little getaway...it was of course great to get away from cold, snowy, Minnesota, but the BEST part of the vacation was just having all of that extra family time! In our day-to-day lives, we really only have about 3 hours each evening with him and that is usually filled with daycare pick-up, making dinner, giving him a bath, and putting him to bed. Then the weekends are filled with laundry, grocery shopping, family visits, meeting up with friends, church, etc. (The story of all working families ;) It just seems as we don't have as much quality time with him as we'd like, and it was sooooo great to have this mini-vacation to play, laugh, and have lots of extra quality time just the three of us :) We truly enjoyed our time together!

Oh, and an update on Brecken's ears...the dr. wanted to see him again after our vacation to check the fluid, but she is out this week so we can't get in until next Wednesday. We just finished up his med that was used to prevent an ear infection, so hopefully the fluid doesn't turn into an infection before our appt. If that happens, we'll just have to take him to see a different pediatrician.