Florida with Gigi and Grandad

After one of the worst snowstorms we were lucky enough to escape to sunny Florida for 4 days, thanks to Gigi and Grandad. Unfortunately their flight was cancelled as they were supposed to travel on the day of the snow, so they arrived 2 days late. Our flight still took off, but we had the most dangerous drive to the airport at 5 in the morning between snow and potholes and flooding on the roads. But once we arrived and were all together, the weather was lovely and we had the chance to visit the Ringling Museum again as well as discover a local botanical garden. One afternoon we took a beautiful boat ride in Sarasota Bay. We also got to Marina Jack for lunch (a restaurant with many fond memories as it was my grandmother's favorite when she and my grandfather lived in Sarasota) and of course made our daily run to Publix for groceries and movies. The only hard part was the presence in the apartment of not one but three large flat screen TVs complete with all the channels, and it was tough especially for one of our sweeties to leave those behind for any other activity. Next year we may disable them just to avoid the drama! However, it was warm enough to entice the girls to the pool and for us to have some time to run and walk on the beach. Overall, it was wonderful to get away from the cold.

Snow Days and More Snow Days

We have had quite a winter with lots of cold and snow. And where there is cold and snow, there are also snow days! I think we ended up totaling 5 between December, January and February. We are very lucky to have wonderful neighbors on our block and it does make the process go easier when you can split the time and bring the kids back and forth. We evolved a routine of sorts, with crafting and Wii at our house in the morning, lunch and movies in the afternoon at our friends' house. Of course the girls were so excited to miss school (though now that they are losing Spring vacation days they don't feel quite so enthusiastic), but for the adults it was quite stressful to anticipate that the snow day might happen, sort out work schedules, wait for the call/email from the district, and then deal with the weather itself whether heading into the city and leaving the rest of the family behind, or staying back with a full day of child wrangling and snow removal. We were blessed that our colleagues were so understanding of our situation, and again so grateful for good friends to pair up with.