Our time with Andrew (10-1-2015 to 10-16-2015)

Well, by popular demand (thank you for your comment, Cathy), I decided to finish out the blog for this trip, even though this is a week (or more) late.  Some of my pictures of Andrew were just too good not to share, especially the sandbox ones.

So we were at the Doctors Froeschke for 15 days.  The first week John had to travel to Galveston, so we (hopefully) were helpful to Bridgette as she was dealing with the last few days (hopefully) of morning/evening sickness.  We did a lot of book reading to Andrew, especially Grandpa who for some reason seemed to be points ahead of me.  Some mornings they had read 20 books before breakfast.

And we continued the daily popsicle ritual when he got home from daycare.

John returned Thursday night and we went to the zoo on Friday, except Bridgette who had to go to work.  I accidentally left my camera in the truck so no pictures from the zoo.  But we checked out the rhinos (his current favorite), the water buffalo (a close second), and of course the goats in the petting zoo.  Then he played in the water park, which was great because it was really hot and humid.  I wouldn't have minded running through some of those water sprays.

Saturday we all went to a Halloween pumpkin patch kind of place, with lots of exotic animals there too.  Andrew really enjoyed this.  We started and ended with pony rides, but he got to see and do a lot of things here.

Bridgette fell in love with a guinea pig, but we managed to leave there without adopting it.

We had a little rest, then Andrew tried out the tricycle, then we went on a hayride.

He loved playing on the hay, and in the pumpkin patch he has to try to move every pumpkin.  Then he found a palm frond that he became quite attached to and drug it around for a while.

And there was the python.  The biologist parents were excited that he wasn't afraid of it anymore.  Me, not so much.

We finished the day here by climbing on the posts, then we headed back home, plenty tired.

We did work in a birthday cake celebration for John today, since he was out of town on his birthday.

We managed to get in a little sandbox time on Sunday.

 John had a four-day weekend, so we had one more day for fun.  It was a fishing trip on Tampa Bay, launching their pontoon boat at Alfalfa River.  We didn't have too much success, although John caught one sheepshead, which is Bridgette's project fish, and Grandpa and Andrew snagged two small mangrove snappers, which I failed to get a picture of.  Grandpa let him work the fish in the water for a while, so Andrew really liked that.

John drove over and scared up a bunch of seagulls on the water, so Andrew got all excited watching them.  Then we had a small pod of dolphins performing around the boat for a while for our entertainment.

After the parents went back to work, we finally got some rest.  But then it was time to think about getting ready to leave.  Fortunately, Joe had a little help washing the motorhome.

The Halloween costume (rhinoceros) arrived the evening before we left, so we got a very short preview of that.

He wouldn't put the headgear on, so hopefully by Halloween that will change.

Finally, it was time for final reading on our last night, so Grandpa (of course) got the honors again.

Arriving in Florida (10/1/2015)

Our plan to meet Kayla for breakfast this morning got us off to an early start.  We pulled out of the campground before full daylight (7:10 a.m.), and met up with our own Duck Dynasty.

We met up with Kayla and had a really nice visit with her.  I'm sure she had some misgivings since she had only met me once, briefly, and I don't think she had ever met Joe.  But she put up with us, and the restaurant worked out great, had enough room for us to park everything.  Kayla is a busy gal, working two jobs and signing up for a full load of fall classes this morning.  Should help make the 6-7 months that John is deployed go a little faster for her.

When we left her, we fueled for $2.119 and got on I-75 at 9:55 for the last leg of our journey back to Florida to see Andrew and his mommy and daddy.  We crossed the Florida state line about 10:15, with about 200 miles to go.  We got to John's about 3:00, parked the RV in their driveway, and waited for everyone to get home.  Andrew was shy when he got out of his daddy's truck, but it didn't take long for him to warm up to us.  He soon started bringing out books for Grandpa to read to him, until it was time to go eat.

The next morning started out with more books.  The stack below is what Andrew and Grandpa read before breakfast!

John took the day off, but Bridgette had to go to work, so we hung around the house for a while, then went over to Day Care to get Joe and I signed up as "authorized personnel" so we can pick Andrew up next week when John is out of town.  We met the rabbit and some turtles, but didn't get to see the goats.

Andrew has changed a lot since we left here in June.  He's talking up a storm, full sentences, and most of it we can understand.  He's big on rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses, and he wants to know what sound everything makes -- most of them he knows.  He is so funny.  Bridgette is still in the throes of the first trimester of pregnancy so she's nauseated and weary on a daily basis.  Hopefully, we can ease her load while John is gone next week. 

It's hot and humid here in Florida, we are hoping the weather breaks pretty soon.  I think I will take a break from the blog while we are here, and maybe pick it back up when we head west, in a couple of weeks or so.  No one would want to see all the pictures of our grandson that we will be taking, I'm sure.