Adyson's First Vacation: Orlando, Florida-April 2009

Just after her 9-month birthday, it was time to take Adyson on her first vacation. Well, actually Debbie was assigned to handle the C-USA tennis and golf championships in Orlando. But why shouldn't we parlay this into a full-blown junket, right?

The first day was just plain awful. We were all up at 6 a.m. Tuesday morning, just one day after returning home from Kentucky. We got to the airport with no problems, and we actually made it to Orlando (after stopping in Houston) with practically nothing to complain about. That's when the real fun began.

Deb thought it was going to be smooth sailing at the rental car counter. Instead, she drew a guy who wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. Making matters worse, Budget didn't have a single car to rent out. That's what they told her anyway. "Just sit down and we'll call your name when it's ready." Yeah, right. More than an hour later, we got in line at some place called E-Z Rental (what? Acme Rental wasn't available?). We got a 2009 Nissan Pathfinder for the same price as the whatever car Budget was going to give us. Finally, we were on our way.

By this time, we were starving. Gotta eat something, and finally we decided on McDonald's. Nothing big happened there, except for the fact BD almost ran over the Brevard County sheriff in the drive-thru line!

By nightfall, we realized that it had been almost two (or three) days since Adyson had a decent bowel movement. So we had to stop at CVS to get some baby constipation medicine (and no, it wasn't something you give orally). About an hour later, it was flowing down there like you wouldn't believe. She probably went about five times in the next 12 hours.

On Day 2, we ate brunch at a place called The Omelet Station. Not bad. Then, it was off to the Kennedy Space Center. Lots of great stuff to see with the Apollo space program and whatnot. And then we stopped at a beach in Cocoa Beach, Fl. The video (which will be uploaded soon) basically tells it all. Ady was terrified of the water once she felt how cold it was.

A quick trip to Kentucky

Debbie got a strange phone call the week before Easter and learned that her father, Terry, was in the hospital in Burkesville, Ky. There was only one proper thing to do -- load up, jump on a plane and head to the Bluegrass.

Forget about medicine and some pharmaceutical voodoo. Debbie knew the best medicine anyone could receive was to get a surprise visit from their granddaughter. Once we landed in Nashville and drove to Kentucky, we busted into Terry's hospital room and he bolted straight up out of bed. Debbie didn't tell anyone that we were coming in, so the entire family was shocked that we could make a surprise visit on such short notice.

The best thing about the entire trip was that Terry's condition improved almost overnight, and he was released on Saturday. The second best thing was that Ady got to spend Easter in Kentucky with all of Debbie's family, who doesn't get to see her that much over the course of the year.