Florida...Sometimes things just don't go as planned...

I'm in Florida visiting my sister Latisha. After sending the kids off to school at 7:30, we left for the beach. It's a little over an hour long drive. Picture this: beautiful sunny day. Me, my sister, our books, new very cool beach chairs...4 hours on the beach with no kids. Sounds wonderful. The perfect day/visit. That was the plan.

Here's how it really went: We had delicious Hoot-A-Nanny (no idea how you spell that) Pancakes at 7:15 before rushing the kids out the door to make sure they didn't miss their bus. Correction...we rushed Kaylee and Dustin out the door while Brandon complained about his stomach hurting and then proceeded to sit with intestinal difficulties on the toilet. Tisha gently proded him along...afterall, Brandon was not in our plans. He didn't have a fever and did eventually get a little diahrrea out. Miraculously, he made it to the bus stop before the bus came. However, he said he really wasn't feeling well, so Tisha didn't make him get on the bus...would you want to be sitting next to a kid with intestinal difficulties on a 45 minute bus ride?

We got back to the house and Brandon did indeed use the bathroom twice, so it was good we didn't send him on the bus. It was Spring Fling day at the elementary school, so after using the bathroom, Tisha convinced Brandon that he did want to go to school. So, we drove him to school (25 minutes) "on the way" to the beach. Tisha sent an extra pair of underwear and shorts in Brandon's backpack...just in case.

We arrived at the beach a little before 10:00. It was cloudy and cold. So we decided to go across the street to Chick Fil A and get chicken biscuits for Second Breakfast while we waited for it to warm up some. Half an hour later we paid for 3 hours of parking ($3.75) because we were planning on leaving at 1:30. It was still cold, though, so we left our chairs in the car and decided to just walk for awhile to warm up. It was a nice walk...sort of. The sand wasn't great for walking, but we did visit. And it was good to exercise some...especially good since we had two breakfasts. We even jogged some. After 1 1/2 hours of walking we decided we were warm enough to sit and relax and read for awhile.

We got our chairs (have I mentioned how nice and comfortable and cool they are?) and headed for the beach. On the way back to the beach, Brandon's school called. He was spending a lot of time in the bathroom and had...stuff....running down his leg. Yikes. What to do? Tisha called a friend who picked Brandon up and said that we could stay the rest of the time we were planning to at the beach. However, we had guilt (especially Tisha), so instead we sat in our new, cool, comfy chairs under the cold cloudy sky for 10 minutes and then left for the slightly-over-an-hour-long-drive back to Lakeland. You can't even tell that we were on the beach for almost 2 hours during normal peak sun hours. Lame and disappointing, but we still had fun.

We picked up Brandon and next on the agenda was Cuban sandwiches for a late lunch. They were good, but I'm not crazy about mustard and these were definnitely mustardy.

Then we went to Verizon to get new phones. I knew that Tisha and I were both up for new phones on April 28th, but I was hoping that as long as we signed a new contract, they'd let us go ahead and get our new-every-two phone upgrade a few days early. Wrong. They said that the computers wouldn't let them do it early. Ironically, the other three phones on our shared plan are up for renewal. I did find a phone that I want, though, so on April 28th I will be getting my new phone.

On a plus side...Tisha, myself, Kaylee, and Dustin did go see Hannah Montana the movie. It was very cute and I loved the soundtrack. Afterwards we ate supper at Crispers (my first time and it was delicious) and then had Cold Stone for dessert. I'm basically in love with Cold Stone.

It was a good day. : )

Me with the Tampa Bay. in the background as we crossed the 9-mile long bridge.

Tisha happily driving. And driving. And driving...

At Crispers...