All my bags are packed...

This is what we did last weekend...

Saturday:
-Woke up and (Chase) ate breakfast
-Took the dogs out on a nice long run! I love Saturday morning "family" runs! I imagine how amusing it must be to see our crew coming down the sidewalk... 2 adults, a baby in a jogger, and 2 very large dogs! It's a great family activity though and it's fun to be out doing something together that we all love!
-Eric and I ate breakfast while the dogs and Chase played on the lanai. It was so neat to see how Chase entertained himself out there. We kept telling him to come inside where it was cool, but he was perfectly content outside... playing with his cars and sweeping! He loves to sweep.
-Chase took his morning nap while we washed the dogs outside in the yard. Another perk of living in Florida: in over a year that we have lived here, we have never had to wash the dogs in the bathtub! That was always a huge mess back in Maryland.
-When Chase woke up, we all ate lunch together
-After lunch, we decided to work on some planning details for our trip. Eric and I sat on the couch in Chase's playroom and read through our guide books while Chase played with his toys.
-We were just thinking about getting Chase situated for a haircut when we heard a knock on the door. It was our next door neighbor, and he wanted Eric to come outside and help him capture a snake that was in his backyard! So we all walked over and took a look at the big black snake that was nestled in a climbing vine near their back door. The next 45 minutes or so consisted of Eric and our neighbor Stephen running around, chasing the snake with a shovel and rake, while the women and the babies screamed and huddled together on their lanai! It was great fun. In the end, we lost the snake... only to find it 10 minutes later on our doorstep when we decided to go back inside! So then the fun started all over again! We eventually chased it back over into the neighbor's yard where we lost it again in the bushes, and we haven't seen it since! We have the best neighbors, by the way. I think I mentioned that when we first moved in, they brought us a big basket full of stuff and threw a cookout so we could meet the other neighbors. They have a 15 year old daughter who babysits Chase and a 2 year old son who plays with Chase! So that works out really well! Now we just have to hope for some good new neighbors on our other side! Not that the current ones aren't nice... they are! In fact, the guy got us a great deal on a new air conditioning unit when ours broke down about a month ago because he works for an HVAC company. But their house is for sale right now so we're wondering who will move in! Anyone want to move down to Tampa and become our next door neighbors?!
-Anyways, after the snake fiasco, we finally gave Chase his haircut (see pic above) and ate dinner.
-That night we watched "27 Dresses," which is definitely a chick-flick... cheesy, but good!

On Sunday (my birthday!), Eric woke up early with Chase and let me sleep in! Then we decided to ride our bikes up to the pool. Chase is finally getting braver in the water will spend a lot more time swimming before he wants to get out and run around. He also loves the kid's fountain area and he runs right in! After that we had lunch, went to the grocery store, Chase took some naps, and we packed for Europe!! It felt good to get everything packed and ready to go! As I was starting to set things out, Chase kept trying to climb in my bag, so I helped him in. I SO wish that I could take him with us!! I can't even imagine what it will be like without him for so long. For dinner that night we met some friends for some good Italian food and to celebrate my birthday! It was a fun weekend!

For the next few weeks we'll be on the other side of the pond! Actually at one point we'll be back on the mountain where the photo at the top of this blog was taken! Can't wait!