The Kirk's - Boys-R-Us!

Our Trip Down South



From an 8hr straight shot to a 10+hr stop-a-thon.



This is the fifth year that we have driven down to see our Judy Gram around Christmas. She is our adopted 94 year old Gram. She is an awesome lady, who lives by her self, despite going blind - she took some blind education classes this last year to learn how to get around without using your eyes. Pretty Cool.



We left on a Friday and we were surprised that the traffic out of Atlanta wasn't that bad, Kaiden got to sit in his 'big boy' forward facing booster seat instead of the infant car seat he was used to. Unfortunately the novelty of facing forward wore off much sooner than I had hoped. We did also bring along an array of DVDs for our portable players - thinking we would watch a few different movies and keep Kaiden entertained/distracted. Well we pretty much watched CARS 100 times and had to stop every two to three hours to let Kaiden get out of his seat and walk around. Which worked out fine for me since I have the added bonus of the baby kicking the bladder and didn't mind the extra potty breaks!



Once we got down to FL, the first night wasn't so great. Because we got there so late, we just had mom drop us off at our hotel, and let her take the van and Troops, over to Judy's and she would just return in the morning to get us. Well Kaiden got sick - horrible chest congestion and coughing, plus runny nose - the whole deal - not good. We had no way of getting to the store and unfortunately there were none in walking distance. So we were pretty much up every hour on the hour taking turns sitting in the bathroom running a hot steam shower to try and help open the congestion - we looked GOOD the next morning!



Once we got some Vick's baby rub - which I did decided to smear on his feat and it worked great - and some vapor bath - Kaiden was a new kiddo! We were all pretty tired the first day, but other than that we had no issues. We got to visit a few different beaches - Kaiden LOVES the ocean. Him and Daddy got to swim in the heated pool - so much fun, and then we spent a lot of time pulling up his board shorts while he walked in the waves and chased seagulls on the beach.



It was a really great time - Judy loved Kaiden and although he was a little shy around her, he can almost say her name and he gets a huge smile on his face if you show him a picture of Judy or even just say her name.



KK



UPDATE: We got a call a few days after returning from FL and were told that while chasing a cockroach around her apartment with RAID, Judy tripped on the rug and fell which left her with a broken hip and emergency surgery. The good news is she is doing GREAT, and she has been moved to the rehab center and is making progress everyday in her rehab. So any extra prayers you have laying around, please send them to our Judy so that she can get out of Rehab and back home - hopefully in time to enjoy her 95th birthday bash in February!