Waits Family Annals

Connor and Ethan had a blast together.  Connor loved following Ethan around, and Ethan liked having a shadow.  Something about Ethan you must know: he has an obsession for Spiderman.  He wears his Spiderman costume EVERYWHERE.  When we were there we introduced him to Venom, and found some Venom, and Spiderman costumes at Walmart for under 3 bucks.  We couldn’t resist, and we dressed them up.  Of course Ethan was pretty much in one or the other all week.

Had to capture a moment with Granny.

I love this picture of Connor and Ethan in the Grocery Store.  And they were entertainment for us while we went shopping for makeup.

Of course there will be moments of frustration, and bossiness.  Connor is a great hitter.  I cannot stand it, but that is the stage he is in.  Ethan took it like a champ, and Jaclyn had a great attitude about it.

I still dont know what is up with Connor not wanting to share his bath with Ethan, but on the last night we made him.  I have a bath time pic with me and Jaclyn, so we had to do another one.  And I think its funny to see him so upset.

Okay, back to the good times.  The good times that will get you into trouble.  And here was the most popular one.  Ethan would gladly take Connors shoes and socks off so they could jump on the matress in Grandpas study.  Oh and what else would they do together?  Get all of Grandpa’s big books off the shelf and Connor would pile them on Ethans belly.  I caught that on tape.

Some great moments, on Grandpa’s chair: Ethan watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Connor with his Angry Birds.  Both in their new Cowboy boots.

On the last day at Jaclyn’s house.  Saying goodbye was hard.  We had so much fun.  The flight back was really horrible, but Connor did great.  I will never fly Delta again.  I will always fly Southwest, even if it means three layovers to get to Texas!

I have always loved Texas.  Growing up we would drive there at least every other year to visit my Grandparents.  I have great memories of those trips (of course not the travel part.)  The last time I have seen them was during our trek out to Pittsburgh.  We stopped there for a few days.  That was six years ago!  It was time to go back.

I had an extra bonus, my cousin lives there now too.  I am very fond of my cousin Jaclyn.  I have great memories of her growing up, and we lived together while going to school in Provo.  We both met our husbands while living together, and got married within a month of each other.  We have two boys, and it was just time to get them together.  I was super excited about this trip.

In the past six years, my Grandparents moved into a smaller house and closer to my Uncle Mike.  We got to see him a lot during our visit, and another bonus was that my mom flew too!  The week went by way to fast.  What did we do most of the time???  Eat ice cream, and play the best game made, Rook!  I was always Jaclyn’s partner, and we were unstoppable. (this of course depends on who you ask.)

Whats a trip to Texas without a Cowboys shirt, and some cowboy boots, and a hat?  Also, a trip to Cabela’s with Great Granpda, and some train conducting with Great Granny.

Here is Connor and me with my cousin and her family.  It was great to spend the week with them!

Connor with his Great Grandparents, giving them a laugh!

These boys together were a hoot! Still making a good time!

Us with Uncle Mike and Nancy.  It was great to meet Nancy and see Uncle Mike again. I think we resurrected his love for Rook.  It was fun to go to Cabela’s with them, and a great Texas Roadhouse.And lastly, I couldn’t go to Texas without the four generations of Marquette’s. Great visit.

And we return to Busch Gardens. I know Liz explained it to me several times, but I still don’t understand how we got a second day free. Regardless, we did. Huzzah!

The second day was more about the adults. Busch Gardens has an awesome, I don’t know what to call it… a feature– “Child Swap”. They let one parent wait in line, while the other stays out with the kid(s). Once the one parent rides the ride, they get a card that let’s the other parent skip the queue and ride the ride. Awesome! Take note other parks– this is a must. We took advantage of this several times throughout the day.

We found these airplanes for kids. The attendant let Connor and his friend fly unattended. She loved it. Smiling. Posing. Charming. Connor, on the other hand, hated every second of it. He gave everyone stink eye. Whined. Disinterested. At one point it looked as though he was trying to gag himself in an effort to get out of the plane. Hilarious.

The man who drew Connor’s portrait happened to have a connection to us. He was from Pittsburgh! He graduated from the Art Institute here. He did his first caricatures here in Kennywood. Now he’s the art director for Busch Gardens there.

The park was a little slow, bad for them good for us. Lines were under 15 minutes. Then there was the rain storm in the afternoon. It’s as if Mr. Weather knew Connor needed a nap. So for the duration of his nap, the park shut down due to weather. When he woke up, the park resumed, but with even less people. Lines were so short we could essentially stay on the coasters and ride multiple times in a row. We rode so many rides! By the end of the day, I couldn’t even look at a coaster. That’s when you know you’ve spent a great day at the park.

The Machins took us to Ybor city in Tampa. The old-school trolley was pretty cool. The driver even hollered “All Aboard” for the benefit of the kids. Soon after, the kids fell asleep. During the naps we visited some really fun stores (there were a few that weren’t tattoo parlors or bars ).

That night, the Machins got a baby sitter so we could go on a double date. It was a blast. We went to this small Japanese restaurant and ordered a Sushi boat. In most Sushi restaurants we’ve been to, the “Boat” is a pre-defined list of sushi rolls. Here, we were able to pick our own rolls! Again, fantastic sushi. Afterward, we went to the theater and saw Drive with about four other people (two left in the middle). The movie was fantastic as well.

Rain in Florida is different than rain in Pittsburgh. If it’s raining in Pittsburgh, it’s gross for hours before, during and after. It’s saturating and everywhere. In Florida, it could rain for ten minutes and be done. On one side of street, it’s pouring; the other is dry as a bone. We experienced some of that while driving to and from Sarasota.

On our way to the beach, we stopped off at a Cuban market for lunch. Delicious! While ordering, one of the guys wasn’t gelling with my English, so I switched to Spanish. It felt good to speak Spanish again, but I felt so out of practice. And, man, people talk fast!

While at Siesta Key beach, Connor loved running and chasing the gulls. He would get really far from the tent just chasing bird after and bird, arms stretched in attempted flight. It was fun to chase him and bring him back only to start the process again.

The other thing he would do was hilarious and gross. While we would hold him in the ocean, he would lean in and lick our shoulders or cheeks or whatever he could because of the salt. So gross! And hilarious!

The sun provided quite the show. While it was high in the sky, I couldn’t get passed how hot and bright it was. The sand is white and reflecting everything back in my eyes. You would think with the sun pounding this super-fine white sand, it would burn your feet, but the sand was cool and comfortable. Amazing! Then, as the sun lowered, it revealed a beautiful beach sunset. I took SO many pictures. I left a lot of them out… but I can’t bring myself to delete them (I’m sure one with the initials V.R. can relate to that quandary).

Sarasota was beautiful! An amazing beach, and so much fun to spend time there with such good friends.

Coming home from Busch Gardens, we got Chinese take-out. Aside from the order getting messed up, it really hit the spot! Nothing picks me up from utter exhaustion than nice, greasy Chinese food. Yum!

In my dish of orange chicken lay a hot pepper. Our friend’s son commented that he thought the pepper would be super spicy. As any good friend would do, I bet him five dollars he couldn’t finish the whole chili. His father approved the bet, and his mother was not in the house at the time. So he agreed to the bet.

He took one bite, and spit the whole thing back onto his plate. He exclaimed that it was very difficult to chew. He cut it into smaller pieces and ate the whole thing bit by bit. I was surprised and happy to fork over his five dollars. He was very proud of his accomplishment; and he may have his first hair on his chest now.

The Machins took us to Busch Gardens on Friday. It was a lot of fun. We haven’t been to an amusement park in years! Of course, this was Connor’s first trip to a park. There were parts he liked… and parts he did not.

When we first arrived, we wanted to ride the Cheetah Hunt (0 to Cheetah!). Unfortunately, due “inclimate weather”, it was shut down. We waited for a while, but then the message switched to “technical difficulties.” We ate lunch and continued through the park.

We rode some wooden roller coasters, and smaller kid rides. When Connor went to sleep, Liz and I ran to Shiekra and Kumba. The freefall nature of Shiekra was a hoot. It takes you up 200 feet, holds you over the drop… then down you go. Lots of fun. Kumba was full of twists and turns; good coaster.

Coming back to Connor, he was in better spirits. We introduced him to some characters from Sesame Street; they were fast friends, exchanging kisses and hugs and what not.

At the end of the day, we took Connor and one of the Machin boys on the log ride. If you check out the picture, I think it’s pretty clear how much he liked it.

And it’s 80-something in Tampa! At the beach we were reminded why the Gulf of Mexico is so nice. The water felt like warm bath water. We could swim and play without going into hypothermia (thanks, Lake Eerie!). It was wonderful. Liz and I both had creative ways of putting on sun screen, so we both ended up with creative sun burn patterns on our backs. A lot of hand prints.

The beach was relaxing and beautiful, but we were unable to stay forever because the Machin’s sons were being babysat at home. On the road home, the car gave a slight shutter, and Richard murmured, “Uh-oh!” Everyone looked at him and asked what was wrong.

“Um… we’re out of gas.” The car immediately started to slow down. Always thinking on his feet (just not enough to keep the tank full ), Richard did not put his foot on the brakes. Instead, the hazard lights went on, and we costed two blocks. The car lost enough momentum, I jumped out and pushed… about ten feet to the gas pump! What fortune! What could have turned into an arduous and terrible experience is very much a fun and enjoyable story!

Enjoy the rest of the pictures of the beach:

We left Wednesday morning to fly to Tampa, FL to visit the Machins. We were nervous about the flight because of the nearly two-year old bundle of raw emotions we were travelling with. When we fly to Vegas or Salt Lake, it is a longer flight and Connor usually decides to freak out for a period of time. We scheduled our flights so he would be flying during nap time. Then we figured we could distract him with Curious George on the iPad and what not. It worked! We made the trip without incident, and Liz and I were able to spend a lot of time playing Mario Kart on the DS.

I have given the flight more space on this blog than it deserves. So, on to the festivities!

We snapped a picture of where we parked. Last time we took a trip, I ended up running back and forth clicking the panic button on the keys. In the rain. In order to avoid that, we made sure to tag the picture with GPS coordinates so we could easily find it when we got back. Ha! It worked flawlessly. (Is this a good time to tell you how much I love my iPhone?) I guess that’s not really a festivity.

First things first. When we landed, Liz made the important  trip to go and get the necessary ingredient for a great week. Ice cream! But not just any Ice Cream, Blue Bell Ice Cream. Liz’s favorite Ice Cream on the planet! I’m not going to tell you how much Ice Cream we ate that week, suffice to say, we are all lactose intolerant now. We did have other meals that were not solely Ice Cream, but every meal had some kind of Ice Cream side. And so the feast began!

And of course, the kids had to bathe together.

That, my friends, was day one.

Yes, we traveled 2,000 miles to go to a Red Robin franchise that doesn’t serve burgers with “some pink.” Not completely true. We traveled that far to visit my parents who live in Provo, and Liz’s parents were able to come up for a weekend, and we happened to eat at Red Robin. While eating, I was told to take LOTS of pictures. So I set the camera to the multi-frame setting and let her rip at the side of Liz’s head. After 12 pictures and figuring out what that sound was, she turned and gave me this look. Perhaps it was time to stop.

I shifted my focus to the other members of the table… primarily the boy, and Liz’s parents since they were leaving shortly. I wanted to get as many pictures with both sets of grandparents and Connor. Hit the jump for the rest.
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