Nash - Chat - Fla and Back Again

We took our first cross country trip with Critter in early April. Please hold your laughter and horror as I describe our original plan:

Tuesday, drive to San Francisco and fly to Nashville. Wednesday, drive to Chatanooga. Wednesday night, start driving to Florida. Thursday, complete drive to Florida. Friday, hang out in Florida. Saturday, drive back to Chatanooga. Sunday, hang out in Chatanooga before driving to Nashville. Monday, chill in Nashville. Tuesday, fly back to San Fransisco and drive back to Paso. Just in case you forgot as we apparently did, Critter was six months old.

Most of the trip went according to "plan" except that instead of Critter and I driving back with the rest of the gang from Florida we caught a 1 hour flight from Orlando to Chatanooga. It may be the best decision of the year. It ended up taking the drivers twenty hours to get back to Chatanooga due to the Spring Break traffic coming out of Florida - Oh my.

Our first hint of trouble came as we sat at the Gate in SFO and I took Critter's temperature. It was 101F. I freaked out. Critter had never been truly sick before and we were about to get on a three hour flight. We ended up on the phone with the pediatrician sitting in our seats asking if we should get off the plane. They said it was okay to go, but if the temp got over 102 we needed to head to a hospital. Thank you, that is very comforting.

Critter ended up doing great because he slept for most of the flight. We were able to see my sister, Kelly, during our layover in Dallas. Critter was his happiest of the day with Kelly (no surprise there:)).

We finally arrived in Nashville and when I saw Tim's family, I cried. It had been a long day and my baby was sick. To Tim's surprise, close family friends, the Grahms from Papua New Guinea had randomly met up with his siblings in Nashville and suprised him at the airport. They were lucky enough to meet me with tears streaming down my face - lucky them:) Tim loved getting to see them and I enjoyed meeting another part of his very exotic other life.

The rest of the week was spent with Tim's siblings - Brian, Susan (wife of Brian), Julie, and Linda as well as lots of their friends and family. It is always fun to be with Tim's siblings. I am so blessed to be a part of his family. They make me laugh and they also challenge me to be a more real, honest person. I love my in-laws! So much in fact that sometimes I am offended by the word in-law because of its negative connotation, but that is another subject.

We drove to Florida to see Tim's Dad now known as Grandpa Steve. We didn't get to spend as much time with him as we would have liked, but the time together was good. We ate seafood on Anna Maria Island (see beautiful beach pictures) and then headed over to Grandpa Steve and Donna's house for a BBQ/Family Reunion. It was a great BBQ and we were grateful for all the family that came to hang out: Aunt Linda, Joselyn and her five (beautiful and way too fun) kids, Papa Emmerson (Tim's Grandpa) and Grandma Kay, and Donna's son and his three boys as well.

The week was a blur of travel though a few high points in no particular order were The Waffle House at midnight, seeing the Hawkins (Susan's Parents or my Outlaws), spring in Tennessee, eating so much junk food I wanted to barf, the crystal, clear blue water off Florida, the wisteria growing like weeds up tall trees, and...coming home.

On that note, this blog is a perfect example of why blogging needs to happen immediately after a trip and not two months later when the special details are all hidden away in my brain where I cannot seem to find them!

Warning: This slideshow is long so you might want to grab a snack for endurance. Also, we have a lot to learn about photographing the actual trip versus Jude during the trip. You will see very little of Tennessee or Florida, but a lot of Critter with people who love him.