The past few months we have been SO excited to meet our wonderful friends that we met from Holland in Florida. Lynne and her family are in the USA for a little over one more year, and we are trying to get together with them as much as possible while we can. It looks as if their next move will be far away again, although I have my fingers crossed for another US move!
As you know with me, there usually is some sort of drama that follows me. Getting ready for the trip was NO different! We bought a car in Minnesota when Bubba was born and had them install a cruise control. It's never really worked consistently, and I've taken it in 3 times in Minnesota and they told me it was OK. Since it's still not working, and my warranty was almost up, I took it in two times here. Each time, they got the wrong parts in, or the parts didn't work. Finally, the last time, they said that it was hooked up wrong from the get-go and they had to unplug the electrical system in the front of the car, because the wires were burning. They just took the whole steering column out, and replaced everything. Only problem was they were missing one little switch. They told me to come in on Friday before we took off for FL and they would have the switch in and it would take 10 minutes to connect.
So, Friday morning, I had a 100 things to do. I had to finish packing, pack up the car, clean the house, etc. First thing in the morning, I threw on a pair of yoga pants, and put Bubba and Johnny in the car and headed to the dealer QUICK, so I could get back and get everything else done! I was REALLY nervous b/c a BIG round of storms was headed up from the south and we wanted to try to get out of town by 5pm so we could beat the storms to Atlanta and wait them out in a hotel. Then drive the rest of the way on Saturday. If it weren't for that long line of tornadoes, we would have drove right through.
So, I get to the dealer, and after 40 minutes of waiting in the lobby with my kids, they come in and whisper to me that they ordered the WRONG part again! Let's just say that I was NOT calm about this news. Seriously, it's the 6th time I've been into the Dodge Dealer and it takes me a 1/2 hour to drive there and 1/2 to drive home! So, this is the SECOND time I drove there for a WRONG ORDERED PART! I told them this was NOT OK, and was not happy. They asked me to leave the waiting room.
I left and went to the office of the Service lady and demanded that they give me a car to use, since all the electrical of my car needed to be disconnected for ANOTHER week! I told her I was NOT driving 18 hours all together with a car that had NO cruise or electricity! She told me they had NO cars available. I stood my ground and told her that this was not acceptable, and they were going to do something. Seriously, I bought a BRAND NEW Dodge mini van, had THEM install the cruise, and because they installed it wrong, it's wasted HOURS and HOURS of my time at the dealer! It wasn't MY mistake in the first place! It was a BRAND NEW CAR WITH A BRAND NEW CRUISE!
So, after talking with her manager, they said that they would pay for a rental car for the week. It took an hour for Enterprise to come get us and bring us to the office to sign papers.(Keep in mind I had NO toys, books, or snacks for the kids since it was just a 10 minute appointment! Enterprise finally picked me up in a DIRTY van and I told them that it had to be cleaned before I would take it. So, they brought it in the back, and while I signed the papers, they cleaned it. All of a sudden they called from the back, and told the lady that while they did a maintenance check, it didn't pass and we couldn't take it for the trip. She told me I could take it to a Firestone and get an oil change done, and then they'd let me take it! This was when I put my hands on my head, looked around the room, and said, "I BETTER be on Candid Camera or Punk'd because this is getting to be RIDICULOUS!"
After she was on the phone for a while, she told me "Not to Panic" but there were no minivans or SUV's available, since we had the big hail storm earlier that week. Don't panic???? It's now 11am and I am so mad I might have a heart attack! The lady called another Enterprise store north of Charlotte and found a minivan, and they had to go get it. So, an HOUR later, I got my car, and headed BACK over to the Dodge dealer to empty out my car, and put everything in the new minivan.
The customer service lady came out and said she felt so badly about everything, and my voice started shaking, in true Katie Curtis fashion! I told her I understand that she feels bad, but no one does anything to try to speed things up and make it better. I had filled up my gas tank earlier that morning on my car, and they just gave me a car with less than 1/4 of a tank of gas. Now I had to go fill up with gas AGAIN. I ran over quick at 8am, and now it was 12:15pm. My son was going to be late for school, had NO backpack, or water to take with him, AND I had to go through a drive-thru to feed him on the way. This has been a huge waste of my time, AND now money! I was on the verge of tears. She went into the cashier and brought out $60 to pay for the first tank of gas. Although that was a very kind gesture, I was still really upset, and stressed out! By the time I got home, as 1:15, I had 3 hours to get everything done, including showering before I had to get Johnny at school and meet Erik up in the city to leave. The baby fell asleep in the car for 15 minutes and now was awake this WHOLE time too! UGH...just a BAD BAD DAY!
So, I went to go pack the car, and opened up the "stow-and-go" to pack the sand toys and this is what I found! NASTY~! This was the CHERRY on top of my day that I had! Seriously, not sure I'll rent from Enterprise ever again since they had TWO dirty cars for me that day!
On the way to Atlanta I was a nervous wreck. We drove 45 minutes out of our way to avoid the tornadoes, and we got to our hotel just east of the city before the storms hit! I had my weather radio on my lap in the front of the car, and when I turned it on, Erik just looked at me and said, "D-O-R-K!" As a BIG weather follower, I knew these were going to be bad. Good thing we left NC, as over 70 tornadoes touched down, and some in my county! When we got to the hotel, something good FINALLY happened to me! They up-graded us to a suite for free, and Curt-Dog was loving his own room and TV!
The next morning, after the boys all ate at Erik's FAVORITE thing- the continental breakfast- we got in a swim before we hit the road for the last 5 hours of our trip to Pensacola, FL.
The kids were HYPER and so excited to see each other when we got to FL. It was Alan's birthday so we unpacked, and celebrated his BIG day! The place we were staying at was nice, but didn't have smoke detectors. So, now I had to make a BIG fuss again to get what I wanted. (They are TOO laid back for me in the South!) The rental place said to me, "What do you want us to do ma'am?" I replied, "What do I want you to do? You WILL have a working smoke detector on EVERY floor before I go to bed tonight according to the Florida Rental Code!" By 7pm we had the detectors installed and ready to roll!
While we cleaned up dinner, the kids found "Treasures" outside in the sand. Johnny's BIG find was a buried baseball! This kid was AMAZED!
We headed down to the beach to check it out. The kids were LOVING it!
This was
Bubba's first time in the ocean and he loved it the most! He couldn't stop laughing every time a wave washed up!
Bright and early the next morning, Lynne and I took the two little ones to the grocery store to load up for 10 people for the next 7 days!
The first full day of vacation was off to a great start! When you have your
BFF next to you, a Starbucks in your hand, and the beach in sight, you forget all the stress that has been weighing on you and start to relax. NOW the fun can begin! Days two and more to come tomorrow!
Video is Andrew in the ocean for the first time. Best part of the video is how quick on his feet Erik is! I can see my sisters laughing at it RIGHT now! Makes me smile!
One day we went into town to eat lunch and mini golf in the morning. It was a hot day and we found the perfect kid-friendly restaurant called Flounders.
There was a mist area as well. This was needed to cool the kids down as they played in the hot sun!
We just got back from a WONDERFUL week in Florida! I have a TON of pics to post and stories to tell! But will have to do it in the next few days when I have more time to sit down! Here are a few pics until then! 
