Happy 100th to me!

100th post that is. It may have taken me a while to get here, but that nice round number makes me smile nonetheless.

So back to Florida.

We left for Florida on a freezing cold morning and were greeted by a smiling Charlotte and the warm sunshine. Ah ... heaven. During this trip, Piper experienced many firsts. Her first trip to the beach; her first time to a zoo; her first safari (mine too); her first time feeding a giraffe (mine too); and her first experience with flip flops. The last left her with a tiny blister between her toes, but she loved all the rest and the smiles on her face throughout the trip made it one of my favorites also.

One of our first stops on the trip with Aunt Char was to buy a much needed pair of sunglasses for the peanut, and if I had known how big a hit these sunglasses were going to be, I definitely would have bought more than one pair because they're bound to break at any moment. In general, Piper LOVES accessories: hats, anything for her hair, shoes, and now sunglasses. She sports them day or night, inside or out. Basically she's a movie star in the making. They're huge, pink, sparkly, and absolutely rock.


From CVS, we went to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center where Piper was introduced to turtles. Her reaction was actually less than I thought it would be, but I blame that on her exhaustion, which is very obvious in this pic with Char ...


We did so many fun things that it would take me all night to list them out, but by far the highlight for Piper was going to Lion Country Safari, and we 100 percent owe that excursion to a snow storm in the northeast. We were supposed to fly back on a Tuesday, and when Stanton dropped us off at the airport that morning, our flight was on time and everything looked good. Then, one by one, every flight into the northeast was canceled, and all of a sudden, we had two extra days to spend in Florida. Besides lugging all of our gear out to the rental car while sweating profusely and cursing under my breath so Piper couldn't hear me, and obviously us both missing Reid, I was psyched for the extra time. We drove ourselves back to Char's, did a load of laundry and hit the pool. The following day, we headed to Lion Country Safari, and I will fully admit that I was super excited about this trip. I know I can be pretty cheesy, but I've always wanted to do a drive through safari and was finally getting to do it, and in a rental car no less! Let the fun begin.

After a stern lecture from the attendant about keeping our windows closed and doors locked, we headed into the park. First stop, ostriches. The birds were huge, and literally right outside the window. Piper took one look and started signing and saying "more" over and over again.
By the time we hit the zebras and rhinos, she was trying to open the door ...

After the drive through tour, we had lunch, where I asked Piper if she wanted to go feed the giraffes, one of the activities at the little theme park they had. She started giggling like mad and signing for eating (tapping her finger to her mouth). So off we went to find the giraffe feeding station. We did it once, and then before we left, we had to do it again. And when we left the park, Piper cried her eyes out. She had the BEST time and still starts giggling and tapping her finger to her mouth every once in a while. When she does, I say "did you feed the giraffes?" and she dissolves into giggles. Freaking hilarious and adorable, rolled into one. We had the attendant take our pic with Manofwari, the giraffe we fed the most and Piper's eyes are closed, but we do have a decent one of her actually feeding him. This was the second time around and she had absolutely no fear, just pure delight!
Just like seeing Heidi, it was great to see Char and to be wrapped in friendship. It's not as if we don't have friends where we live now, but sometimes seeing someone you've known for more than a decade makes all the difference.

I feel like I have so many memories of this trip that I'll have forever, and for that reason, I so wish Reid had been there to share in them with us. The good news, though, is that in a very short amount of time, all three of us will be making new memories on vacation in Turks and Caicos!

One more blog and I'll have made my 10 in 14 goal. I've actually really enjoyed the exercise, and while I can't promise a ton of posts from vacation, I definitely want to keep up the pace when we return. No more months of one post. That's just crap! I'm here to say that the next 100 posts will come a lot more quickly than the first.