Not one to do things quietly or small, Zoe decided 9 months was long enough to wait before taking her first flight. The plan all along was to drive down to Florida and back for Thanksgiving and then about a month beforehand my Mom calls with the idea of us flying, and when Mom and Dad offered to pay, well, that sealed that deal! Thanks again guys, but let's not pretend here, by us flying down, that gave Grandma and Papa more time with Zoe, and that's a good enough reason for me!! So, just like Daddy, Zoe's a natural born aviator, and although she's been sick and throwing up alot lately, sinus infection drainage coming up, no worries. BUT, on her first flight, she took it like a champ. The poor guy who sat in our row had Zoe next to him, 2 girls under 10 flying alone on the other side of the aisle and an 18 month old behind him... Basically he lost the airplane seat lottery in a big way. At the end of the flight he told us how happy he was that the nearest baby to him, Zoe, was so well behaved. The week flew by with going to get Madison and having Matt and Erica bring TnT over to meet Zoe. For those of you not in the know, TnT are Travis and Tyson, the LaGrows twin boys, they just turned 2 and are so much fun, and they loved baby Zoe, cause the told us so, which was better than some of the other words they use... If you know Matt or Erica, you'll know what I mean :-) Monday we all hit Disney, me, Brooke, Maddy, Zoe, and even Mom and Dad. It was great to get Zoe on the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Carribean, Peter Pan and of course, Small World. The lil punk almost slept through small world, she was napping on my chest in one of those baby backpacks all through the line, she woke up literally as I was stepping into the boat, so she saw the whole thing. I was really impressed on how well Zoe did on Space Mountain wait for it Okay, I'm kidding, they wouldn't let me taker her. BUT my other daughter conquered her fear of roller coasters and hit all the mountains.... Space, Thunder, and Splash, each more than once. So proud of Madison. I know Brooke encouraged her a bit, but she made up her mind and wouldn't you know it, she loved it!
Tuesday brought more family into the fray, and Zoe met her Great Grandma for the first time, I think a bit of bond formed, she just looked at Nana and smiled, very cute. As we've noted, Papa Joe and Zoe look alot alike, and Zoe understands that looking at Papa is like looking into some twisted carnival mirror, but those two have something special going on. When lil miss fussy pants got a bit rowdy in the Peter Pan ride, Grandma tried, she really did, but as soon as she got in Papa's arms, no noise, sleepy time.... it's incredible, I still say it's because my Dad thinks like a baby. Sleep, eat, poop, sleep, poop, eat, sleep.... you get the idea.
We took some family pictures with a great photographer in a downtown Mt Dora, which has a bit of a Key West feel to it, very fun. Hope the family liked it, we just saw the proofs today and they look amazing. Thanksgiving was a day for mixed emotions, I almost felt like it was safe to wear a Cowboy jersey again, almost. And I don't blame it all on Roy Williams, yes he did fumble the ball after a huge gain at the 10 yd line, but the defense allowed New Orleans to fly 90 yds down the field in less than 2 minutes to beat them.... How do you get beat deep on 3rd and 10? Ask Terrance Newman.... Ok, enough of the Cowboy rant. Dinner was at my sister's house and it was AWESOME! I have to say well done to my sister, Scott, and her daughters for putting on a super Thanksgiving feast. We had fun playing games on the Wii and Brooke's game of "telephone pictionary" where you write a phrase, then the next person draws a picture based on the phrase, then the next person writes what they think the picture is, and so on, until it comes around. I think my favorite one started out as "E.T. phone home" and in the end it became a picture of a decapitated bunny rabbit. So yes, I drew a picture of a choclate bunny with it's head flying off and sword slicing through it.... Hey, I worked with the phrase I was handed.
I have to take this time to say a little something about my sister's youngest, Rachel. Rachel, who is 12, and I have not always seen eye to eye on things, but she was the biggest help to us out there and she LOVES her cousin Zoe! She met us at the airport late Friday night, and stayed with us at my parents every night she could. Rachel is not into fashion, she'd rather wear shorts and have a softball glove on than anything else, but she and her sister got Zoe the cutest little dress, sweater, and oh yes, "boots with the fur!" Which we promptly left in my Dad's car and he's sending it to us.....ooops. BUT we love it, it's so cool. She also went on our "turkey trot" with Brooke, Zoe, and I, we did a lap around my parents neighborhood on Thanksgiving morning which turned into a full run as Zoe let us know she was hungry and wanted to eat...NOW!
All in all it was a great trip, I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving.
Don't know how I almost forgot this, but we brought something back with us, that Zoe really loves. It started with my Mom, but she would raise Zoe's hands above her head, and ask, "How big is Zoe?" and of course the reply is, "Sooooooooooooooooooooooo big." Well now Zoe does the arm thing on command.... guess we have to keep that one going
