Our Most Exciting Spring Break Yet

We're homebodies. I'd say we take "staycations," but to be honest we just tend to stay home, doing boring everyday things. Trevor constantly regales us with assurances that everyone else goes away but us. This break, we bit the bullet and ventured really far from home. We decided to visit my parents in the St. Petersburg, Florida area. My husband hates to drive long distances and couldn't leave home for the week. Since I balked at driving all that way on my own, we looked into flights. After realizing how expensive such a venture would be, we opted to leave Sean home (he didn't want to go anyway and the two boys together can be such a pain to deal with, with their constant sibling friction). Trevor and I made the trip, leaving on April 1st (I contemplated waking him up to tell him the trip had been cancelled, but couldn't bring myself to carry out such a cruel prank) and returning Sunday evening on the 5th.

While it is true that the boys together tend to murder one's patience, it is equally true that the key to the bad mix is Trevor. And, since I left the easy son at home, I had to deal with the fact that I still had the difficult one with me. He had a great time, but did, indeed, kill our patience from time to time (walking on the grass outside and then coming in barefoot, forgetting to close the front door, mimicking my every move at meals, making snide comments, honing in on the particular habits which annoyed my mother and instead of curtailing those things for the few days of our visit, insisting on doing the very things which annoyed the most - this is trademark behavior for my pre-teen son). Alas, at one point my mother looked at me and said, "I feel for you."

It would have been a wonderful break if I had simply gone by myself, but we did have fun nonetheless. We went to the beach.

We also explored the local park with its awesome outdoor exercise equipment, visited the neighborhood pool at my parents' retirement community, ate out almost every day (including a wonderful salad bar buffet restaurant called "Sweet Tomatoes," ate ice cream every day, and watched movies and episodes of one of my parents' favorite BBC shows, Monarch of the Glen. While my parents and I visited, Trevor spent his time listening to his I-pod and watching television in the guest room. I think one of my favorite things was an impromptu visit from my sister and her husband (they happened to be in Orlando and drove over for a brief visit). My second favorite thing was looking at all the photos around their house and on digital photo displays.

I think one of Trevor's favorite things was catching a gecko. He kept trying the first few days (thus the walking outside barefoot and leaving the door open) and we were convinced he'd never catch one of those quick little creatures scurrying around beneath my parents' bushes. Finally, my dad offered him a large fishing net. My mother and I scoffed because the openings were so big a lizard could easily slip through. But, in the end, it was the net which assisted him in his goal. He caught the tail of the gecko under the handle of the net and managed to scoop up the little guy.

I had to laugh when Trevor told his dad that he worked on his manners while he was gone. Dad asked what he meant by that and Trevor explained that he said "please" and "thank you," prayed for the meals when asked (he often balks when we request it), took his plates up to the counter (something which is hit or miss at home), and went to church without begging to bring along his I-pod. I'm sure my parents will laugh as well, because his behavior could have been better if he were ... well, a different boy.

All in all, we had a wonderful, long-overdue visit with my parents. Our flights went smoothly and Trevor took videos of the take-off. We managed to secure seats next to one another, with a window seat for Trevor. Trevor has plenty of stories to relate to his classmates. We'll have to convince Daddy and Sean to make the big trip with us next time so we can try out Disney World some day. Some day ...