Carson's First Trip to Florida

With a car packed full (mostly of Carson's gear), we left the house at 8am Wednesday morning for the Sunshine State. Somehow our normal 7hr trip turned into an 12hr record long journey. Well, Carson travelled like a champ a slept pretty much every time he was in the car (I think driving down the highway acts like white noise for him). We made an effort to stop every 1.5 - 2hrs to wake Carson up and make him stretch his legs. Usually we took 30 minutes to feed and burp Carson, and we even took an hour for a nice picnic at the Florida State Welcome Center... And next thing you know, it's 8:30pm before we arrive in St. Pete. Jana seemed to enjoy me not rushing down the highway, but as relaxed as we were it made for a long day.

Surprisingly, Carson actually slept wonderfully in Florida. A couple nights he didn't even get up until 5 and 6am. Jana found herself waking up around 3am waiting for Carson awake anyway. Carson seemed to do wonderfully and even met some new people. Of course he left his marks on Jana's parents' house and the Kelpaki's house... still not much progress on the spit up front. Polly had a neat aquarium swing with several bells and whistles that Carson really took to (which made for a nice spot for him to hang out), but he didn't seem very interested in playing with Reese & Madi's toys.

Several couples at Jana's 10-year high school reunion also had young children. It was great to see several old friends and watch their families grow. It's sort of comical to watch people chase kids around. Some people commented on how weird it was to take their kids to their old high school (but I figure it's better to do that at almost 30 rather than 16).

We're glad Carson got to spend some QT with Jana's family. Carson certainly has some great aunts and there's certainly no shortage of love for Carson in the Albury house. Bob and Peggy were great to put together a great BBQ for Carson on Sunday with a bunch of friends and family from the area. With a house/yard full of people, Carson did pretty good mingling through the crowd.

Everybody there was excited about the Tampa Bay Devil Rays making it to the World Series, but Carson had a hard time staying up for the late games. The Rays lost 3 games while we were in St. Pete, so it's not looking good. I had an inclination to give Carson a "Rayhawk" but had to reject that notion. Carson's hair has started to thin out anyway... I can't tell if he just has bald spots forming or if its his head that's growing.

Before we left for Georgia, Carson made a quick stop by the St. Pete Fire Department to see his favorite Firefighter/Paramedic. I'm not sure if it was all the bright red around or if it was simply Joy, but Carson was all smiles there (could be a career indicator).