The Raft

For Mother's Day, my family bought me a New camera! I love it so much! It's little and it's quick and it takes great shots!
Our first day in Florida, Wyatt fell head first into the pool. I immediately pulled him out. My brand new, Mother's Day, Gift of love and happiness, Camera went in the pool. It was ruined.
I cried and cried. I was so sad that I broke my new camera. I was so sad that my loving husband was so excited to give it to me and now I broke it. It still makes me a little weepy, to be honest.
That afternoon, Jay went to Best Buy and bought me another camera.
Same one.
I love my husband so much. He didn't want me to feel sad.
He did, however, request that next time - I let the boy float for a second while I put my camera down.

As we arrived home from dinner one rainy night in Florida, I heard the very loud, very needy cry of a kitty cat.
Oh no.
I do love kitties.
She was wet. She was adorable and she was trying, very lovingly and sweetly to try to get into our house with us.
Jay took the kids in while I talked to the cat. She was very cute.
Fortunately for Jay (and me, cuz really - who are we kidding, I couldn't bring the cat to CT on the plane), I found out - after knocking on the neighbors' doors - that the kitty lived across the street and had a habit of trying to visit everyone.

Speaking of neighbors - you should have seen these maniacs when I knocked on their door. It was about 8:00. Maybe that's late, but it certainly isn't obscene.
I could sort of see and totally hear all FOUR of them behind the door. There I am, in the rain, nicely dressed, not at all an alarming visitor, waiting while they stare in wonder.
Finally, the man of the house opened the door, we discussed the kitty, I went on my way. No big whoop. But how strange were those people?

Also, they live in Florida. Inland, sort of, too. We were about 35 minutes from the beach. And they didn't have a pool. Granted, the community pool was in sight of the house, but come on. When you live in Florida, using only a community pool is sort of like saying "we don't need AC, they have it in the Clubhouse, we can just go there to cool off."
I would never NOT have a pool in Florida. Maybe that wouldn't have been such a big deal but after the staring and whispering, I decided they were freaks.

Each time we went out, we had to drive down the main road (70) and almost each time we had to drive by this little shack at the corner of 70 and some Avenue. It was hard ot miss since you could be at a red light right in front of it. A tiny, run-down, shady looking house with a giant sign (that didn't light up) - "ASAP Divorce".
Because sometimes you just can't wait, I guess.

While in Florida, we had no batteries in any remotes in the house. We found a few channels and stuck with them. And the kids watched their movies that we packed. (Abby packed for both kids.)
The one movie that Abby watched about 33 times was Disney's Tarzan. We all loved that. One day, I started crying at a particularly sad part. Just tears, I wasn't sobbing or anything, just movie crying - you know you've done it. Abby took one look at me, said "mama, are you crying?" I said yes and she LOST IT! She was hysterical! Crying and sobbing and hugging me... it was so sad and adorable.
Then, after we both calmed down, I started telling Jay what just happened and from listening to me re-tell it, Abby started crying again. So, I did, too.
It was so cute and sad. Re-telling it doesn't do it any justice. You really had to see her precious little face when she saw me crying. Then her little face just crumpling after hearing the story again, only minutes later.
Oh, it was like nothing I have ever experienced. What a sweet, sensitive little lovey-girl she is.

Wyatt's movie of choice was Elmo's Dinosaurs. If I can find the song from it, I will link it here. It will drive you crazy if you listen to it 1839 times in one week. Like we did.

I just wanted to share those few tidbits. I am sure more will come to me and I will post them.
It was a fabulous vacation. It flew by. And usually, we're really ready to go home. This time, it took us by surprise how quickly it was all over.
Now, we're home. Our routine has resumed.
Vacation has a fabulous way of making the routine feel good again, though.