I will start with the drive that we took to Florida, Josie's Great Great Grandmother had been asking to meet Josie and she hadn't been doing to well so the timing was right and Carol could get the days off so we decided to make the drive to Tampa to see all of the family!! We left on Friday February 27th at 9 a.m. and surprisingly Josie did great! She made it all the way to St. Petersburg Florida before the meltdown began!! That was almost exactly ten hours into the trip, as one can only expect a four month old will only make it so far before she can't take it anymore. Carol did have to ride in the back seat most of the way to keep her entertained, she is a little needy:) I think she gets that from me! Josie's meltdown didn't actually start till 10 p.m. and she was only able to keep it up for 15 minutes and then she passed out cold. We made it to the hotel at 11:30 and she was knocked the F*** out!
The next morning Josie got to see her Great Grandparents and they were so happy to see her again!! Of course we did not get to hold Josie for the rest of the weekend, because she was being spoiled by all of the rest of the family! We went to see Great Great Grandma and she also was very excited to meet Josie and hold her hand! Josie loved it and Great Great Grandma said she thought that Josie fit into the Avery family perfectly! Josie also got to meet her Great Uncle Paul and Great Aunt Janet. They didn't have a hard time bonding with each other either!! We spent most of the day hanging with the family and playing with Josie. While we were visiting Great Great Grandma we took Josie out back by the fountain and let her sit in the grass for the first time! She absolutely loved it, she wouldn't stop grabbing it and standing in it, we even let her fall face first in it! She didn't like that too much but it was hilarious for me and her Mom. For lunch we took Josie to her first ever tea room, it was actually my first visit to a tea room too. The tea room was called Limoges and it's located in Dade City a quaint town outside of Tampa near Zephyhills which is where the family winter home is located. We had a wonderful lunch and look forward to taking Josie back to Limoges every chance we get, after all she was the hit of the place, all the ladies having tea couldn't get enough of her! After lunch we went back to the house and relaxed in the beautiful 85 degree weather. Great Uncle Paul and Great Aunt Janet were nice enough to make us steak and potatoes, which were wonderful and then we headed back up to visit Great Great Grandma before retiring for the night!
We woke up on Sunday and went back to see all the family. I dropped off Carol and Josie at the house and then I drove to Cocoa Beach to pick up Josie's Gamma Debbie. She was fresh off of a great cruise to the caribbean and wanted the chance to see her Grandma and we were able to do that for her so I went and got her. When Debbie and I got back we went straight to see Great Great Grandma and we were happy to see that Cousin Brigid and her mom Great Aunt Theresa had gotten into town and were enjoying Grandma and Josie!! We all visited a while and we also took the now famous 5 generation picture!!! We went to dinner after that and a little mexican place that wasn't worth the time. We went and visited a little longer and then retired to the hotel to get ready for the long drive home :(.
After a busy weekend the four of us got up on Monday at 6:30 and started our wonderful drive home, of course we had to swing by Mari's donuts for the obligatory donuts and chocolate milk or coffee whichever you prefer. We drove and we drove and we drove! We stopped near Charleston SC to see my old friend Trea and her three beautiful babies. Trea has been in my life since I was just a baby, we grew up together and she and her sister used to pick on me to no end! Believe it or not I still miss them terribly! We enjoyed our two hour lunch at Cracker Barrel with all the kiddies!!! It was wonderful to see them all! Then back to driving and driving and driving. Josie made it to the 10 hour mark again, then the meltdown began but this one lasted a little longer than the first, Josie cried at full bore for over one hour! It was absolutely fantastic!! One of the highlights of my life to be honest!! She finally went to sleep and then the snow started but it was beautiful and not too bad to drive in. After we made it home Josie went right to sleep and we were in awww that we had all survived the first road trip of Josie's short life and it will not soon be forgotten!!
Good job daddy..yet another month documented.
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