July

On Thursday, July 2, the kids and I headed down to Largo to visit my family for a couple weeks as we awaited Barrett's return at the end of the month. I wanted to get there on the 2nd so we weren't traveling during the 4th of July weekend. On Saturday, to celebrate the 4th, we went to the local community center for some free food and air jump inflatables for the kids to play on. While we were there, I ran into an old friend of mine from my childhood years, Paulina. We were good friends and neighbors during elementary school and I hadn't seen her in years. It was nice to visit and catch up a little bit.

While in Largo, we did a lot of our usual activities like going to Largo Central Park. The first weekend of each month they do free train rides, so we were able to go and it was a lot of fun. Isabelle only wanted to ride once, but Caleb went on it 2 or 3 times. We went to the beach, played at Nana's pool a couple times, went to the "banana park", played at parks, went to the library, played in the inflatable pool at my parent's house, and went to an aquarium and the children's museum!!! We also played miniature golf, went to the Seabird Sanctuary, and did as much garage saling as we possibly could. The kids LOVE to find bargains, and we found lots of them. Grammy gave them each a dollar or two when we went out and they had a blast.

At the Banana Park:



At Nana's pool:


Watermelon seed spitting contest:


At Chuck E. Cheese's with my two little mice:


We filled the time with so many activities, but it really helped the time go by faster for us, and the kids had a great time. Oh, I almost forgot- our regular trip to Chuck E. Cheese's! We absolutely cannot go to my parent's house without making a stop at the famous pizza place! We also had a watermelon seed spitting contest in the backyard. It was hilarious to watch the kids' faces as they tried to spit the seeds. Caleb got really into it and looked really focused!

The time there was a little more relaxing for me, too, because I don't have too do the cooking or have too many other responsibilities. So, I was able to do a lot of reading, which was nice. Nana got to do many of our activities with us as well, and it was so nice to get to spend time with her.

Toward the end of our time in Largo, it was sounding like Barrett could possibly be getting home a little earlier than was planned, so I decided to come home with the kids on the 18th. It ended up that Barrett came home the exact day of his original itinerary, but it was actually good the have the week and a half here before he returned. I had so much to get done in preparation! Barrett finally made it home on Thursday, July 30. His flight got delayed a couple times, but he walked out into the airport around 2pm. As soon as Isabelle saw her daddy coming out of the terminal, she got down out of my arms and ran straight for him and gave him a big hug! It was so precious to see! Caleb was standing right behind her and gave him a big hug as well. It felt wonderful to be reunited again!

We had the next week to relax and spend time as a family (especially since it rained most of that time) and begin to unpack all of Barrett's stuff.