It was a Familymoon!

I know I’ve been posting less but truly I have less to say these days. It is all going well here.

Last week my kids were out of school.

Time for a Familymoon!

We hightailed it to Fort Lauderdale, the 5 of us, to spend the week with Al’s parents. Allegiant Airlines has started flying there direct and we got tickets $44 each way. COOL. My kids had only met his parents once at the wedding. We had a great time although Al’s kids had to have felt some pangs as they WERE in school and couldn’t go. His parents have a smallish condo, so they got us a place (which was so sweet and generous of them) at Lauderdale By The Sea.

It was beautiful and quiet there. Lauderdale By The Sea is a little village with cute shops and restaurants right on the beach about 20 minutes from my new inlaws. We stayed in a one bedroom suite here and it was glorious. It had a murphy bed and pull out sofas and we were all completely comfortable. I highly recommend this for a getaway beach vacation that is quiet and relaxing.

There were many positives to our Familymoon, but I will say that we missed private time. There was no sharing of showers and the kids felt no hesitation about knocking on the door and then barging in our room. The positives of our trip far outweighed any negatives though.

With our marriage, my children gained Step Grandparents, which was an added bonus.

Al’s parents are great. They were very engaged with the kids last week, spent hours talking with them, introducing them to their friends, and making a sincere effort to get to know them. That just made me appreciate them more because my kids kind of got jipped in the grandparent department. My parents are great with them and involved with them, but Stanley’s parents are in England and they see them only every few years. They are more formal and reserved and therefore my kids don’t know them well. I know that Stanley’s parents love them very much, but they aren’t involved in their lives much.

Al’s Italian family is polar opposite.

There were hugs and kisses and more hugs and kisses every day.

Plus there was food and food and more food.

Al’s Mom, who I am to call “Mom” gave me Nanny’s meatball recipe.

I think I’m in la familia!

My 16 year-old son was mesmerized by their family tree and who came over when. He started working on a family tree. I didn’t have the heart to remind him he wasn’t an Italian immigrant. Ha! We even had dinner one night with Al’s Great Uncle, Uncle Sonny (what else?) who is 96 years old and still drives.

He has a red Mercedes, and a girlfriend.

I said, “How are you doing?”

He said, “Eh, I’m doing everybody I can.”

The Boy thought he was the coolest thing ever. Which is awesome since he doesn’t think that about many adults these days. It was awesome.

In addition to family time, we also got to do some South Florida things that we had never experienced as it was our first time there. For example, we took an airboat ride in the Everglades. I loved it. It was beautiful. I was very nervous about it because I hate reptiles of every sort, but it was gorgeous out there and not at all like I anticipated. I expected a swamp, not at all. It is covered with lily pads and flowers! 2 gators were sighted but nothing else, thank you Jesus.

Al took this photo with his phone!

We also drove down to the Keys one day which I really wanted to do since I have been watching Bloodline on Netflix.

If you haven’t seen it, you should watch. It’s very good and set in the Keys on Islamorada. I was trying to find the house used in filming but ran out of time. I did however find a list of filming locations and went to several of them. I think they are filming again now or will be soon. The kids were laughing at me as I was threatening to climb over the fence of the Inn they use as the family home but the fence was too high.

But I mean, just look at this place! Gorgeous!