Florida or Bust!

Unfortunately that is quite an apt title for our recent vacation since we got off to a bit of a rocky start. Our scheduled departure was for Saturday morning since we intended to split the drive down into two days on the way to the beach. Friday morning around 4:30 am, Josh started crying. I didn't think too much about it since he had done the same the morning before. Regardless, I went into try and comfort him and as soon as I picked him up, it was clear that the only play that Josh and I would be going that day was to the doctor; he was so hot! At this point his only symptom that I could point to was the fever. The doctor checked him over and as soon as she looked into his mouth, proclaimed that was the problem. She didn't think it was strep but had him tested and it was negative so basically all we knew was that he had some sort of virus that wasn't strep. Later that day, I noticed the backs of his legs where he often has a bit of eczema looked extra red but just attributed it to the fever.
Fast forward to Saturday morning when Josh woke up with a rash around his mouth, on his ears, on his hands, on his feet and let's not even talk about the backs of his legs. Since we were supposed to head out, we thought we should take another trip to the doctor so off Brad and Josh went. The doctor took one look at the back of his legs and immediately diagnosed hand, foot and mouth disease and told Brad it was the worse case he had seen and if he had $1000 lying around, he would run a viral load just to see how high his counts were. Bottom line though was he said that we could go ahead and proceed with our vacation plans and he would do so if it was his own son so off we went as planned.
We arrived in Florida mid-afternoon on Sunday with a rough looking Josh and rain. Yes, rain in the sunshine state. We got checked in and once the rain let up a bit decided to give the pool a try. Unfortunately it was pretty cold so we moved our part in to the little indoor pool and the kids were happy as clams to get in any water. By dinner time, the rain had moved out so after dinner, we went for a walk down on the beach. Josh wasn't too sure about the sand at first but Emma took right to it and was quickly off on a hunt for sand dollars and sea shells.
After a good night of sleep, Emma woke up and was immediately sick to her stomach. We hung around the hotel room for a couple of hours and she seemed to rally so we headed off to the pool and saw some pirates. Emma ate a great lunch and we thought the morning was just a fluke. After lunch we headed back for naps. Emma took a great nap, woke up and was again, sick to her stomach. Once again, we waited it out for some time and then decided to give the beach a go. Thankfully this was the last time that she was sick and even with not feeling great all day, we still got in some good pool and beach time.
Through the rest of our trip, Josh looked better and better so Brad could no longer convince any kids that seagulls tried to eat his face off and everybody else felt good. We spent all of our days on the beach and in the pool. The hotel had a great pool and in addition to pirates, we also got to see a mermaid. They both loved the sand and Emma tried to build many a sand castle, which Josh delighted in knocking over. Neither was too excited about the water and Emma definitely did not want to put down since there were lots of tiny little fish and she was afraid they would bite her. The funny part was that we also saw a crab and that she wanted to follow around. The final night, Brad took Emma down to the beach after dark so they could look for crabs. They didn't find any but she thought she was so big down there with Daddy and got to look at some constellations (her word, not mine). All in all, it was a terrific trip even if dining out with Josh is a bit of a challenge these days. Hopefully we can start making this an annual tradition! Here are a few photos to start with more to come soon.