A vacation wrap-up

-
Well I am finishing up my last full day here in sunny Marco Island. Good bye green landscape, good bye Gulf of Mexico, good bye lazy days in the sand, good bye sunshine and happiness. Ok, so maybe the sunshine and happiness part will also be found in Iowa but any warmth will be replaced with cold, cold snow, ice and wind.

All of us had a lot of fun on vacation and I think we may actually be ready to go home. Kate hasn't been the best sleeper. She wakes up whining several times in the night and never slept past 6:45 a.m. Florida time. Yep, that is 5:45 Iowa time. Sunday morning she was up at 5:40 a.m....or 4:40 a.m. central time. We may have a rough transition back into our normal life. The only other pitfall to our vacation was my dad coming down with the stomach flu. He fell sick Thursday and was still a little queasy when he left on Sunday. What a bummer for him to get sick on vacation. I wished there was something I could do for him.

But despite any troubles, overall I have had a great time. We lived a slow, relaxing, lazy life for 10 full days. What more could you ask for?!

We shall return to Iowa on Tuesday and our plates fills up immediately. I will however have all of the great memories of spending a vacation in Marco Island, Florida with Matt, Kate, my mom and dad, and Matt's brother, Mike. I'm a very lucky girl!!



Grandpa and Grandma Smith with Kate


Splashing in the waves (which were tiny until the recent hurricane arrived in Cuba)


Our condo had a wrap around balcony and this is one of the views


Matt and my dad each ate a one pound burger and got the picture on the wall of the restaurant, Cheeburger, Cheeburger. I had a picture of my dad's accomplishment too but I don't know what happened to it.


Kate plunged into the Gulf before finding her swim suit.
Snuggling on the balcony
Matt and Kate building sand castles
No matter where Kate is, she can always find a playground.

Comments

Heather's Henhouse said…
Glad you had a good time.. also glad to have you come back. We're ready for a play date!
November 11, 2008 at 1:24 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The dark day of June 27th...

-
 June 12, 2023 We typically don't share a lot of updates about Kate's health, primarily because she wants to remain "a normal teenager." However, we still get asked how Kate is doing and I started thinking maybe it's okay to share updates now and again. Most people care about her and our family, some others could maybe be labeled as "tragedy junkies," but I'm going to operate under the assumption that most people have the best of intentions.  Today is June 12th and we are quickly approaching the dreaded dark day of June 27th. Have you watched, "Gilmore Girls?" It's a witty, comforting television show from the early 2000's. In it one of the main characters has what is dubbed, "a dark day." This is a day the character dreads each year and in response he goes into hiding from the world with no communication. Well for Kate, and the rest of us to some degree, the dark day of the year is June 27th and that date is closing in on
Read more

The other side of the dark day...

-
 Kate's dark day of Jun 27th came and went like any other day. Kate swam 100 fly in the Independence meet and finished 1st (she was the only swimmer in her age group to sign up, but who cares about details) and then she and Matt hopped in the car to drive up to Rochester for next-day appointments. The worst part of Kate's dark day was probably Matt trying out the Grimace meal at McDonald's. It was death by milkshake and yet he drank the whole thing. Can't let food go to waste, or something.  We braved June 27th with dread and came out on the other side. We enter year three into the cancer life. Two years of appointments, scans, blood draws, IVs, endless chemotherapies, daily medications. It is difficult to remember life before all of this, when Kate was able to get up at 6 a.m. to swim, play basketball, ride her bike, go to school and chase her sisters. We've all adapted even though no one wants to. Hand to God I keep hoping to have a tantrum and wake up from whatev
Read more

October things...

-
Image
It has not been the easiest October on record. Kate had a couple of hospital visits to Rochester but she is somewhat better at the moment. She continues with chemotherapy and has not been back to school for quite some time but she is doing her best to set aside time for online school work between naps, loving on cats, and hanging out with her family. I was able to get the girls to visit their great grandma in western Iowa a few weeks back. Here's Claudia shortly after arriving at great grandma's house. She is very into jewelry and lots of it. Grandma had several questions for her about the number of bracelets and thankfully Claudia loves talking about them. Many she has made, some were gifted to her...it's a lovely hodgepodge of middle school girl goodies. Clearly the girls and I were blessed with height genes from relatives not named great grandma. We spent time relaxing, taking four wheeler rides, eating candy and we also received a visit from my aunt and uncle. Aunt Deb
Read more