Preaching & Prescriptions: May 2010

May 9-14 we went to the Florida Keys with our good friends Matt, Katie, & Claire. They drove from Arkansas and we flew from Iowa. We rented a house on Cudjoe Key about 25 miles east of Key West. While there we did a lot of relaxing, swimming, eating seafood and visiting. We did a little bit of fishing and sight-seeing including an evening on Key West. We had a great time with the McEntire's (as always) and came home rested and relaxed!

The boys prepare for our flight from Chicago to Miami. Gabe loved the airplane and was so good on all the flights. Andrew did about as well as you would expect a 10 & 1/2 month old should.

Super tired in Florida.

Our house... 116 Spanish Main, Cudjoe Key, FL.

Claire and Andrew. She loved the baby... good thing since one is going to join her real soon!

The beach at Bahia Honda State Park. Andrew had fun crawling in and eating the sand.

You can't really see it in this picture but he has sand all over his mouth. We had to spray sunscreen directly on his head because he would not wear a hat.

Gabe liked splashing in the waves and playing in the sand.

Heading out to fish by the bridge on the west side of Cudjoe Key. They were SO tired but did great!

Goofing off on the boat.

This is the only fish I caught. It's a whopper!

So tired....

Andrew liked to take a dip in the pool. Gabe & Claire had the most fun when Aaron was swimming. They fought over who got to jump in to him, etc..

Andrew ate so many things and liked everything. Here he is eating a piece of Mahi Mahi (aka dolphin). He also ate conch fritters, shrimp, coleslaw, key lime pie, grouper, french fries, corn, black beans, rice, watermelon, tomatoes, yogurt, nutri-grain bars, and many things I am forgetting.

Here is one restaurants variation of the conch fritter. These were more like hush puppies. Yum!

We were at the sunset festival in Mallory Square in Key West. They have all sorts of street performers performing for money and vendors selling art and different items.

Andrew & I in Mallory Square. You can see Matt, Katie, and Claire just behind us.

The McEntire Family

These guys had audience members holding the ropes that held up their ladder.

The Flatau Family

If you put money in this guys bucket he made this strange whistling noise and acted like a robot fixing a bike. He would also give candy to the kids. When Gabe did it the guy made a motion like Gabe was crazy.... Let's think about this, who is crazier.... the kid who is afraid of you or the silver painted man with a whistle in his throat? This is a picture of Claire.. she wasn't one bit afraid of this guy.

Little buddies. Gabe wouldn't hold my hand because he only wanted to hold Claire's hand.

Riding the shuttle bus from returning the car in Miami. Andrew was so thrilled at riding on the seat, he smiled the whole way to the airport.

Proof that Katie and I were on this trip together! This is at a restaurant on Key Largo called Alabama Jack's. They were out in the middle of nowhere and had been voted the best conch fritters in the Keys. They were good!

I was trying to capture how pretty the water is in the Keys.

We had a rough trip home complete with flight delays, Andrew falling and smacking his face on a metal window sill (bloody nose, people staring, screaming baby, etc.), dead car battery when we got to Des Moines, and getting home at 3 in the morning on Aaron's birthday.

Here is a picture where you can see the bruising on Andrew's face. I took him to the doctor and they didn't think he broke anything so we just have to keep an eye on it for now. He is eating a cupcake for Aaron's birthday.

We made german chocolate cupcakes & grilled chicken breasts for his birthday dinner. Andrew & Gabe got him a new video (Spiderman cartoons) and coloring book. I got him a new gun... some kind of hand gun... a .45 or .44 or something.

Then later that night about midnight Aaron got sick. REALLY sick. He drove himself to the ER at about 4 in the morning with horrible stomach pain. They admitted him for 24 hour observation and didn't really find anything wrong. He got out Monday morning and has been feeling good. His stomach is still a little funny feeling. We suspect he got some kind of food poisoning. Thankfully it wasn't anything too serious!