Visit with the Cullums in Tampa

Visit with the Cullums in Tampa

Please check out the above link to Amber's blog for some great photos and great summary of our trip to Tampa! Emily and I visited Amber, Sam, and Bennett from March 28th-April 2nd. Jeremy joined us Friday through Monday. He would have liked to have come for the whole trip, but we needed to conserve some vacation days for when baby #2 gets here in September!

This was the first time I flew solo with Emily. I worked up quite a bit of anxiety about this 2 hr. direct flight, but everything went well. We flew out of Lexington which was different for us. Our Louisville airport is just a few miles away so normally we can easily take a cab or have family drop us off.  I wasn't as familiar with Lexington's airport, but luckily it is small enough to not be overwhelming. Emily was a very good girl. It helps that at this stage, I can shamelessly bribe her with snacks, movies, books, etc. and get nice, quiet behavior. :)

Amber and Bennett were ready and waiting to pick us up in Tampa. It felt great to see them! Amber has kept me up to date with plenty of photos and stories about Bennett, so it almost didn't seem like it had been over a year since I'd seen him.

The weather in late March/April was GREAT! Most of the time when I have traveled to Florida, it has been during the summer. I was kind of expecting the stifling heat to be there already, but the weather was really pleasant and not humid. We spent lots of time playing at different playgrounds and enjoying outdoor activities. Emily loved having a whole new house to explore with lots of different "boy" toys to play with. Bennett had a huge train collection and lots of little cars. With two 2 yr. olds in the house, there were definitely times when they both wanted the same toy, but they got along well most of the time and it was so fun to watch them.

Highlights of our trip include:

~ Aquarium trip. Emily has been to the zoo probably a dozen times, but this was the first time we had taken her to the aquarium. I hope to take her to the one in Northern Kentucky this summer.

~Amber cooking for us on several nights.

~Lot of fun late night conversations with Amber. Well, not too late. We ARE mothers and still sacked out at 11:30 at the latest! ha!

~Saturday beach trip to Treasure Island. B. loved the water and Em. loved playing in the sand. They were both adorable.

~ Sunday morning play ground time and visiting Hyde Park Village's Fresh Market. Lots of good food, snacks, vendors, and people watching.

~ Davis Islands. It was wonderful to be near the water, see the boats and planes and let the kiddos run and play. A relaxing way to spend our last night with the Cullums.

~Watching the Final Four UK/UL game with KY friends! (Go Cats)

~Being with Bennett on his 2nd birthday!

~Watching a Yankees spring training baseball game with Jeremy. The facility was really nice and much larger than I expected for a spring training venue.

On our flight back, Jeremy was with us so everything was much easier to manage. We "discovered" a wonderful local eatery off of Old Frankfort Pike called Wallace Station. The drive was beautiful and the food was great--probably the best hamburger I've ever had! We will definitely go there again!

Somehow, I realize I don't have a photo of Amber and me. How is this possible? Probably because we are always taking photos of our kids!