There's A First Time For Everything

So I'm back from Florida and the vacation was much needed and greatly appreciated! But a list of "my firsts" began within ten minutes of being in the Karmie's suburban...AKA " the burbie"  Here's the story....

Our first 'stop' on the way to Florida was at a nearby McDonald's. Our original intent was to buy a 50-piece chicken nugget to share amongst the five people in the burbie. But long story short, Colton wanted a kid's meal and a bunch of deals were going on so we ended up with like $20 worth of food! Included in that food was a bigmac. After revealing that I had never eaten a bigmac (the reaction on their faces was priceless!), I was soon forced to take a bite. Which I was more than willing to do...I'm all about new experiecnces! So it was in the backseat of the burbie, that I bit into my very first bigmac.

Next on my list of firsts was riding in a wheelchair in the back of a taxi cab. The faithful burbie had broken down around 2am on our way to Florida so we had it towed somewhere in Tennessee and had a taxi take us to a nearby airport in hopes of purchasing a rental car for the rest of our trip. The ride was quite a new experience in itself, as I'm told we got lost quite a few times. (I had fallen asleep in the strapped-in, shakey wheelchair) But nonetheless, we made it to the airport where the car rental shop didn't open until 5:30am. Being that we had a long wait until then, we crashed on the floor of the airport. No joke, we laid flat on the floor and covered ourselves with blankets and extra jackets. And to be honest, that didn't bother me at all...I saw it as another exciting part of our adventure!

Our journey to Florida continued on in the back of our twelve-seater rental van thing? It was quite roomy and we were all very sad to return it at the end of the week. But anyways, next on my list of firsts was eating lobster. Our first evening in Florida (after exploring our mansion of a home) we went to a seafood restaurant located right on the beach. I have never really been a huge fan of seafood, but once again I'm always open to trying new things. At dinner I took a bite of my first lobster, and my first bite of crab. It was super delicious and I really enjoyed it! Our dinner was followed by some time at the beach, and we ended up getting our clothes soaked, but it was sooo much fun and totally worth it!

My memory of the week isn't the greatest, so I'm probably forgetting some of my firsts but I do remember playing a game called "Bananagrams" for the first time, and now I'm officially addicted! (pretty sure we played it every day!) It's sort of like scrabble, but that's all I can really tell you...just buy it for me for my birthday and I'll teach you how to play ;)

I'm beginning to forget the other things on my list.....but I know there were a lot of them! As of right now, I'm realizing that my back is peeling from being in the sun and I'm honest when I say that this is the first time I've peeled (other than my face); my skin usually turns a nice brown without the occurance of a sunburn but apparently I'm getting old or something? Who knows?

Well, that's all I have for tonight. I'll be sure to make a second post if I remember all my other firsts---I had quite a plethora of them! But now I'm home, safe and sound. Definitely ready for a night in my own bed! Goodnight

Real quick--as I was proofreading this post, I remembered a few more. We made another stop to McDonald's at some point and it was quite an experience. The whole thing was pure chaos; we ended up waiting for like half an hour! (Derek got the whole thing on video and I'm sure it's hilarious!) There was another man there that ordered like two things, waited forever to get his food then went on his way. (We had talked to him about the whole waiting thing and joked around with him while he was there...he was telling other people that came in after him that it wasn't worth the wait. He was pretty funny!) Anyways, no more than five minutes after he left, he came back in and said "Back for round two!" They had messed up his simple order. When we finally got our food, I was told that they didn't have parfaits (all I ordered was a parfait and hashbrown), and asked if I would like a walnut salad....that in itself made us all laugh. So of course I took it, and once again Derek got some great video footage and took a picture of this "great walnut apple salad." I guess that counts as another first....I've never had one of those before...

And the other first I remembered was my first crepe. I get excited about this one because it was SOOOOOO GOOOD! On our way home from Florida, we ended up stopping for breakfast at an ihop about ten minutes from home. All of us kids were snuggled together in the back, sleeping, when Mr. and Mrs. pulled into the parking lot. They watched and waited patiently as we slowly woke up--stretching and rubbing our eyes, and pulling blankets over us (this was how we knew we were back in Ohio....it was freezing!) because we all sensed the great temperature difference between Florida and Ohio. Eventually we were all somewhat awake, or at least able to function, and headed into ihop. It was here that I had my first [nutella] crepe. Mmmmmmm, I'm officially hooked!

First spring break out of Ohio.....SUCCESS! What a great senior year memory! A big thank you again to the wonderful Karmie family <3