Five States in One Day

We left last Friday after Evie had some lunch and play time at school and started our trek to Florida by way of Nashville and Atlanta.  We told Evie we were going to Florida but she didn't really understand what that meant since it's been over a year since our last visit to Abba and Grandma Pat's house.  She was awake the whole way to Nashville even though I had thought that was when she would sleep.  We met up with Lauren and Elesha, two of my former coworkers, for dinner and to stretch our legs.  Evie fell asleep for about 10 minutes before we got to the restaurant, but fortunately after dinner she took another longer nap as we wound our way through the hills into Georgia.

We arrived at my aunt Kristy's house where we were staying for the night at 10pm local time, and Zach, Aiden and Lydia were all still up and ready to play.  They played for almost two hours before we got ready for bed.  Lydia asked if Evie could sleep in her room, so the two girls had their first slumber party together.

They slept until about 6:30 the next morning, which felt like 5:30 to us, but Evie was up and ready to go.  They enjoyed playing with Lydia's toys and with their puppy Bentley.  We had breakfast and were going to go watch Aiden play football, but his game got canceled at the last minute, so the girls hung out in the yard playing with scooters and driving the toy car until it was time for us to go.

We then went to see Aunt Sydney, Uncle John, and Beverly who turned 2 this week.  We hadn't met Beverly yet, so it was great to see them and meet her after all this time.  The girls had a great time playing in Beverly's room and they share interests in all things Mickey Mouse and Doc McStuffins.  They had a snack together at the table and I think Evie enjoyed being in the position of oldest cousin since she's usually the youngest.  She's the youngest of my parents' grandchildren, the youngest in her class at school, and it's only when we get together with my cousin Daniel's family that she's not the youngest and even then, there's only baby Natalie who just turned one.  So I think it was exciting for her to have a younger cousin who was still close enough in age to share interests and playing abilities.

After a couple of hours with Syd, John, and Beverly, we were on our way to Abba and Grandma Pat's house.  Evie did great being the car with only one stop for dinner at a delicious seafood place, and she only had an incident of discontent in the last 10 minutes before we arrived at Abba and Grandma Pat's house.  She went almost immediately to bed as soon as I finished blowing up her air mattress.

The next morning, Evie was a happy camper and warmed up to Abba and Pat quickly.  She loved the fruit served with breakfast, the terra cotta pot animals that Pat has around the year, and the Sneaky Snacky Squirrel game that Pat purchased in anticipation of our visit, knowing how much Evie likes acorns.  Evie also loved getting to ride in the golf cart over to the playground.

That evening we had a delicious supper and hung around the house visiting with Abba and Pat.  Monday we were off to the Gulf to find a beach.  Our first stop was a bust, but then we were pointed in the direction of Pine Island Beach Park which was a perfect place for kids.  They had a little playground and the water was very shallow and warm, so Evie was able to go out in it quite a ways.  She also enjoyed chasing off all the birds.

We had a nice evening back and Abba and Pat's house and then after breakfast the next morning, we were off on a crazy 12.5 hour drive.  We had thought about leaving Monday night and driving a few of those hours, but we decided we'd rather stay and visit.  Strangely, the drive in one day wasn't as bad as I had anticipated.  We stopped in Valdosta and shopped at Target, picking up some new surprises for Evie to have for the rest of the return trip.  Then we stopped east of Atlanta and let Evie play on the playground of a fast food place and then eat her lunch in the car, so working in those two opportunities to get out and stretch her legs did her a lot of good.  We left Florida at 7:45 Central Time and got home at 8:15pm, just enough time for Evie to play with the dogs before going to bed.  It was a quick but very fun trip.

Last night we had dinner with my parents and my mom and picked up some cupcake mix, knowing how much Evie enjoys baking with me, so she and Evie made some bright orange cupcakes last night.  Evie then got to decorate them with tons of icing and so many sprinkles they wouldn't all stick onto the cupcakes.  Needless to say, she had a blast with that.