March 2019

March 2019 included a birthday, a trip to Florida, a lot of Robotics, and 2 surgeries!

March started and ended chilly in Indiana.  We got in a hike with the boys and the dogs one weekend when Thomas was home for a long Spring Break.

 Bailey and Remy enjoyed the (somewhat) warmer weather, asking to go outside more often. 

And we celebrated Remy's first birthday!

And then Thomas and I spent the last long weekend of his Spring Break in Florida!  I wanted to make sure we got far enough south that we could count on great temperatures.  So we headed to the national park and northern keys area.  We had a GREAT time!

We left Indy early and arrived in southern Florida by 9 a.m.!  We toured Miami and then headed to Biscayne National Park.

We completed two of the walking paths / hikes at Biscayne.  It was a perfect day to sightsee.

Mangroves

The Biscayne NP Visitors Center

We had a delicious seafood dinner on Key Largo  and sat out under the stars at the hotel.  Exactly what we needed after a cold winter!

The next day we traveled through Everglades National Park to get to the western coast of Florida.  Everglades was exactly as I pictured it, but with a lot more variety of landscapes than I realized.

We took an airboat tour that was a highlight of the trip for me.

We saw dolphins...

Mangroves, egrets, blue heron, eagles, fish, fish, fish...

And Everglades raccoons, which are smaller than the ones we're used to.  A whole family of them came to greet us.

We went to an animal rescue sanctuary as well.  This lion was cracking us up, showing off and finally falling asleep in this position.

And we got to hold a baby alligator named Snippy!

On our way back across Everglades NP we stopped to do a couple of the boardwalk hikes and see the Native American reservations.  We stepped out of our car in front of an entrance to the hike and Thomas told me to freeze.  There was an alligator about 5 feet in front of us.  No fencing or anything.  He was headed back to the water.  Crazy.

On a Boardwalk in Everglades National Park

We had two more really good meals (seafood of course, and then Spanish for dinner) and I asked Thomas to plan our last day in Florida.  He got to work and planned a different visit to Everglades.

On our last day we started at Starbucks after sleeping in and then headed to the Visitors Center which we had not seen the day before.

The Park Rangers suggested we take a different drive through Everglades called Flamingo Road.  It allowed us to bisect the park and see 9 different kinds of ecosystems.  Off we went.  We stopped at all the trails and completed them except for 1 or 2.  We did not do Gumbo Limbo because there were 6 snakes spotted on the trail that morning, including 4 that were hanging from trees.  They were banning dogs from entering the trail.  No thanks.

The Anhinga Trail was perfect for spotting wildlife.  Thomas was in heaven.  I loved how close it all was, and I loved all the lily pads.

Thomas really wanted Cuban food before we left so he found us a great restaurant before heading to the airport.  Thomas and I travel really well together.  It was a lot of fun!

I had to get back to Indiana though because I wanted to be there for Brennan to have his 4 wisdom teeth removed.  Poor kid!  Not the Spring Break you wish for at 17.  He decided to pass on the Florida trip though to chill at home before surgery.  He did great!  

Robotics competition season kicks off in March and it was busy.  The team had a couple of open houses at the workshop and 2 competitions that Brennan and David attended.

 The team scored high enough to go to the State competition in a couple of weeks and won an Engineering Award.  (Brennan isn't in this photo)

  And then surgery #2.  Thomas called David to let him know he had sprained his ankle jumping off a tall curb/retaining wall on the way back to his dorm after class.  Luckily he was with friends.  It ended up not being a sprained ankle but a broken heel bone (lengthwise!) and two fractures.  He had surgery at the trauma center in Indy last week.

The same day that Brennan had to return to the oral surgeon for an issue with one of his wisdom teeth areas.  Poor kids!

The dogs were concerned and slightly confused but enjoyed having Thomas home for a few days.

Friends sent him a candy bar bouquet!

And then we took him back to school for classes.  He's got a lot of work in the last 5 weeks.  We're thankful for friends loaning us items like a rolling knee cart, wedge pillows, shower covers, etc.!  He'll have an interesting time getting around an urban campus for awhile!  But, he's doing great and the pain is minimal.

 So that's our March!  I'm looking forward to lots of healing in April!