What a great time we had on our recent trip to Florida with the boys. Since it was spring break we decided they needed to have that experience of a long car ride to visit family. It actually went quite a bot better than we had expected and the boys did a pretty good job in the car. Yuri even lost another tooth! That makes number 4. Of course the DVD player was in hyper drive but was soooooooo nice. We all survived and are all still speaking to one another.
On the way down we stopped by to see Rob's brother, Jason and our nephew Marco. We all had a fun time on their 4 wheelers. It was one of the highlights of the trip.
After spending the night we made it all the way down to Sarasota to see Babushka and Ama (great grandmother who is 98). We were pleasantly surprised that there was plenty of room for all 7 of us in her 2 bedroom condo. She had done a magnificent job of putting things away. Probably because we told her that our little demolition crew would love to help her get rid of a few things. She showered the boys with lots of love and attention as well presents. A day didn't go by when she wasn't surprising them with something else "to keep". Good thing we had a car top carrier. She got them straw hats and stuffed animals and candy pops with a basketball game on top as well as lots of other things.And no, babushka did not get her black eye from the boys thank goodness. She just had an eye infection that hasn't healed all the way yet.
By far the most fun was at the pool and in the ocean. They all did such a good job of swimming and they built some sand castles and had fun collecting all kinds of shells.
It really didn't matter if they were broken or not, they just picked up everything they saw. We'll have to work on the selection process criteria another time. Until then our car will be waited down with their treasured seashells. We did a little shopping and also got to visit with family that we hadn't seen in a while. The boys got to meet their cousins Connor (5) and Ana Lauren (3) and of course they all made friends at the pool. 
Friends that we had met in Ukraine, the Harris's, came from Ft Lauderdale to swim with us for the day with their daughter Sveta. That was really nice to visit with them since conversations on the phone are a little difficult at our house with the additional voices in the background. This way all the kids were having so much fun in the pool that we actually got to chat uninterrupted for a while. Woo hoo!
At the end of most days the boys were totally wiped out and on several occasion went straight to bed with very little dinner because they fell asleep at the table or asked to go bed instead. (Perhaps we will move to Florida!) After several relaxing and fun filled days we were back in the car headed to Clearwater to see our good friends the Rahns with their daughter Yana who were also in Florida visiting family.
We went to the beach and playground area there and had a great time and got a little more sun. We went to Crabby Bills seafood place for dinner and then headed North toward Atlanta.
We stopped somewhere along the highway about 4 hours north of Clearwater in the wee hours of the morning. We slept for a few hours and then took advantage of the free breakfast and then continued north to see our friends the Lambeths. We met them in Ukraine at Sonechko baby house in Zapporyzhzhia where they were adopting their daughter, Haley (formerly Nastia). What a great time we had with them. Vanya and Haley had a grand time together but I don't think either of them recognized each other because they were in different groups because Vanya is a year older. So they grew up across the hall from each other their whole lives and then got to see each other again in their new lives with a family. Pretty cool. The boys got to go fishing in their back yard and we went to a really fabulous pool/gym that had indoor slides and water spouts. They even had a family showering area. I had never seen one like that where the whole family could have a little room with a shower and changing room and then there was a locker area for all the stuff. It was really nice to visit with them as well after sharing such a long and interesting process with them. We spent the night with them in their newly remodeled basement and felt like royalty with our own bathroom and everything.
We stopped somewhere along the highway about 4 hours north of Clearwater in the wee hours of the morning. We slept for a few hours and then took advantage of the free breakfast and then continued north to see our friends the Lambeths. We met them in Ukraine at Sonechko baby house in Zapporyzhzhia where they were adopting their daughter, Haley (formerly Nastia). What a great time we had with them. Vanya and Haley had a grand time together but I don't think either of them recognized each other because they were in different groups because Vanya is a year older. So they grew up across the hall from each other their whole lives and then got to see each other again in their new lives with a family. Pretty cool. The boys got to go fishing in their back yard and we went to a really fabulous pool/gym that had indoor slides and water spouts. They even had a family showering area. I had never seen one like that where the whole family could have a little room with a shower and changing room and then there was a locker area for all the stuff. It was really nice to visit with them as well after sharing such a long and interesting process with them. We spent the night with them in their newly remodeled basement and felt like royalty with our own bathroom and everything.
The next morning we had to head out early to make it up to see my cousin Collen (frequent comment writer while we were in Ukraine). The windy mountain road was not real fun and we had a little car sickness going but we made it in time for church. The boys did a great job when it was time for children's church they got up and went with all the other kids. Even Vanya went with the help of Colleens mother, Anita, who was selected by Vanya to escort him. Yea, he is pretty diplomatic and used his charm to ask her to go with him. He said, "OK, you go with me" as he put his hand on her lap and smiled. After church we were so blessed by the luncheon that Colleen,Anita, and our other cousin Penny had put together for us. The fried chicken and macaroni salad and broccoli salad and coleslaw and all the fixins were there. We even got treated to freshly baked cookie and ice cream. We got to use the youth room that had a pool table, air hockey table, and lots of room to play. Again, we felt like royalty, and were honored that our extended family had gone to all that effort and made things so nice for us as we were passing through. We hadn't gotten to see them in so many years. I think Colleen was in college and she is now a few years older than us. That was a real treat.
We then headed back toward home and made it all the way home by 1:30 that morning in time for Rob to sleep for 3 hours and then get ready for work. We squeaked every last hour out of that vacation. Of course we are still paying for it now.
1 comment:
Sounds like a very fun trip! We took our boys on their first ever real road trip (other than the 2 hrs we often do to go see Grandma). Hopefully we'll be able to blog about it later today.
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