grandparentscation

I have very few complaints about Florida but one teeny tiny detail that I don't love is that we are now pretty far from both of our families. Luckily, there is this really great invention by the name of air travel that we owe for successfully bringing our family to us on several occasions since we've moved here. Two weekends ago Simon's parents were able to come down for the first time and the kids were in grandparent heaven.

I didn't do an awesome job getting pictures but I'll throw you what I've got, as usual.

Phoebe quickly started calling Grandpa, "Papa" and Grandma, "Papa" which made nothing confusing at all. 

We took them to pretty much the only place we take visitors ... the beach. Grandpa built Theo a sand race car and Julia a sand airplane and heaven help my sand construction skillset next time we go to the beach because I don't think there's any way I'll ever emulate anything 1/2 as fun. 

Phoebe kept Papa-she on a very short leash and decided that THIS was the beach trip she wasn't going to be scared of the water or waves triple her height and Grandma had (got?) to go along for the entire ride.

Unrelated to anything but we packed a picnic lunch as we often do and we always chuckle like good parents about that one time the seagull plucked an entire cheese stick from Theo's unsuspecting little hand. WELL, this trip a rather bold seagull plucked 1/2 an uneaten and not small turkey wrap from MY unsuspecting big mama hand. Look who's laughing now. Not me. 

I can't write a post without touching on the weather and it was pretty perfect for daytime swimming and evening walks after dinner and ice cream face smearing. 

Simon thought Phoebe could totally handle a cone. Which, I guess she sort of did.

We opted to go to a much smaller but much closer local beach on Sunday evening rather than the real deal that we'd gone to on Saturday morning and it felt like allllll of Tampa had the exact same idea because it was super crowded but everyone still had a blast.

Julia was nine months old when we moved away from Wichita for Simon's residency and we have such wonderful memories living just a couple blocks from his parents for the first two years of our marriage. While it certainly felt like residency dragged on and on and on it also feels like just yesterday that we were walking Julia and the empty stroller she refused to enjoy over to the grandparents for a Sunday dinner.

The visits never feel long enough and Phoebe is still waking up in the morning looking past my smiling face and shriek-asking for, "Papa?!" while I offer her a plate of chopped mother liver for breakfast. So it's safe to say no one can wait for their next visit. 

No pressure, Papa Squared, no pressure at all.