The trip down and back were lessons in patience for me: when Kyle and I take the boys to Florida, we make the 11-hour trip in one straight shot, at night, while the boys sleep. We get there right as the boys are getting a little stir crazy, hand them over to their doting grandparents and crash. It's a pretty sweet deal.
My parents, however, have a slightly different philosophy when it comes to traveling. They believe in the experience. For them, it really is all about the journey and not the destination. Usually because they have no clue what their destination is going to be. This is awesome if you're over the age of 6. If you are a toddler or an infant, mine and Kyle's way is usually the best.
Anyway, it took us two days to get down there, including spending one night in the Wal-Mart parking lot in DeFuniak Springs, and one blown-out tire on the interstate 15 miles from my in-laws house. Thankfully we were 150 miles from them. Once there, the boys and I settled in on what was to become the most relaxing, enjoyable time I've spent down there. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with the in-laws. However, when Kyle goes with us, it's constant--let's go to Gainesville and catch a game, let's go tailgating, let's go have dinner with friends, etc, etc, etc. We never have time to just be there and soak in any relaxation.
One thing that happened on the way down was that my phone died. Completely. Kaput. At first this stressed me out, but once my father-in-law drove me to get a new phone, all was well. Still, I didn't have anyone's numbers, which wound up being great, because the pressure to call people was off. I officially had NO plans for an entire week. Something that hasn't happened to me in a long, long time.
Our days were spent sleeping in, playing in the yard, picking oranges and grapefruits in the yard, cooking dinner, and one of my all-time favorite pastimes: spending time in my mother-in-laws kitchen, drinking wine, eating olives (or tapenade!) and cooking dinner.
My future sister-in-law, Erin, celebrated her birthday while we were there, and mine fell on the day we left to come home. The day before we left to come back to Mississippi, Erin and I took Jack to Disney World, his first trip to the Magic Kingdom.
When the boys, my parents and I left to come home, I couldn't wait to get back and see Kyle. This was the longest we'd been apart since before we even started dating, and we usually don't do well apart. I had really missed him, even though having so much family around me the entire time really helped with that. Still, as we left my in-laws and I knew I had not one, not two, but three long days in the car (and nights in the tiny Airstream), I started to miss home more and more. Seeing Kyle, and my kitchen (of course), were such welcoming sights.
Still, as I stand in my kitchen, putting up things, going through the mail, wondering what to do about dinner, I find myself thinking about Ocala and my in-laws, and when we'll head that way again. It appears I have two homes, one just as comfortable as the other.
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