First broken bone

Maxwell is in 6th grade this year and it is his final opportunity for flag football through our park and rec department.   He loves it!   Tuesday evening was his first practice...
I dropped him off at practice as normal.   About 30 minutes into practice, I got a call from him coach that he took a hard fall and was still saying his arm hurt a lot.  I grabbed an ice pack and headed to practice.  We sat until the end of practice so I could be there for a parents meeting.  He said the ice helped a lot.  

We came home and after a brief look and discussion with Matt, we assumed it was a sprain but wanted to bring him to urgent care just to be sure.  

After a short exam and 2 xrays, we were surprised to learn that he actually broke it!  He has a buckle fracture in his forearm from the fall and landed on his arm and/or wrist.   The urgent care doctor said they heal really well and surgery should not be needed.  He put him in a splint and told us we would hear tomorrow from either our primary care or an orthopedic doctor. 

Oh and no sports, PE or recess while in the splint!    :(

Friday we had our appointment with the orthopedic specialist.   Confirmed the broken bone.   Confirmed no sports.  Flag football was over for the season.  :(   No soccer....it's a longer season and I asked about later practices and he did not seemed thrilled at all at the idea.    But that will be a discussion once the cast comes off.   The cast will be on for about 3 weeks.  At that point, if everything is healing well he will get it off but go back into a splint to complete the recovery process.  

Maxwell is really bummed about the while situation.  We have started going on daily walks to get some exercise since he is so limited right now.   We are hoping with the cast he is able to do a few more things at recess since the arm is more protected than in the splint.   It's going to be a long 2 months for him....

Florida Family Vacation - Day 7 and departure

Hotel Day

For our final full day in Florda we decided to skip our second day to Universal Studios and stayed at our hotel to swim in the pools.   Our hotel shared an outdoor area with a couple of other hotels, which allowed for a lot more space and activities.   We were able to use 3 different pools, a splash pad, and there was a mini-golf course that was closed for renovations.  :(  They also a pool bar and grills that patrons could cook there own food on.  After 5 days at amusement parks and a marathon day at Kennedy Space Center and the ocean, we decided to stay at the hotel and swim all day long.  We went to WalMart and grabbed some food for the day and made our way outside.  It was so crazy hot and humid that day; being at an amusement park would have been miserable.  We also had to wake up at 4AM the next morning for our early flight home...relaxing and enjoying fun family time at a much slower pace was exactly what we all needed.

A quick lunch break in the hotel room to cool off!

Lunchables for the kids.

Enjoying some time together while the kids swam

Matt enjoyed being able to grill us hot dogs for supper!

 

View from our hotel room

After a fabulous and long vacation to Florida we were all ready to get home.  Even though the alarm went off at 4AM, no one complained (maybe it was the krispy kreme donuts we had picked up the day before for breakfast) and we were off to the airport.

Good Bye FLORIDA!

 

Florida Family Vacation Day 6 (part two)

Finally, the beach - Cherie Down Park!!

After we left Kennedy Space Center we made our way to the ocean and found the most perfect beach area.  (Well I spent a lot of time researching area beaches before we left and settled on a neighborhood park beach area that would not be full of tourists).  The park had a free parking lot, bathrooms, showers for rinsing (which we learned were not working) as well as grills and shelters for public use.  We easily found a parking spot and the beach area was not very busy at all.  We were clearly some of the few tourists in this section.  We were on part of the space coast beach area so we could see the Kennedy Space center in the distance and were also very close to where the port for cruise ships.  We watched 2 cruise ships sail off to sea.

The sand dunes were sea turtle hatching areas.   We didn't see any since were not there in the evening.

Kennedy Space Center in the distance - would be an awesome location to watch launches!

Matt enjoying a float in the ocean

Disney Cruise Ship!

After a not so fast and very sweaty change to our regular clothes we headed out to a small seafood restaurant/bar on the pier.  It was essentially in the port for all of the cruise ships and was a very local place to eat and drink.  Matt had a shrimp reuben sandwich and I had bacon wrapped BBQ shrimp skewers.  SO DELICIOUS!  The kids had grilled cheese sandwiches.  ;)

Delicious drinks for Mom & Dad

Sad that our time at the ocean was ending

 

Florida Vacation - Day 6 (part 1)

Florida Vacation - Day 6 (part 1)

Kennedy Space Center

Our sixth full day in Florida began about 4 hours before we wanted to even be awake!!   At approximate 3 AM, the fire alarms in our hotel started to go off.   It took a few minutes to wake up and figure out what was going on.   The kids were so good about quickly getting up and finding some flip flops and heading out the door.  Fire safety 101 had to be reviewed at 3AM...don't touch the doorknob without checking the door for heat first.  Door felt fine so I quickly peeked outside and the hallway was clear and we quickly cleared the hotel.  It was obvious pretty quickly that there was not a major fire and in time learned there was no fire at all.  We still had to wait for the fire department to arrive to check and clear the entire hotel before we could go back inside.  I was a bit concerned that the excitement would keep the kids awake...thankfully every went back to sleep pretty easily.   We all slept a little later than normal and we got a later start than we had planned.  

Matt was really looking forward to going to Kennedy Space Center.   At first the kids weren't so sure but the more we looked into and talked about it the more excited they became, especially Maxwell.  Our hotel was about an hour drive from the coast.  It was a beautifully HOT and HUMID day which made for a great drive to the Kennedy Space Center visitor complex.  We arrived, took a few pictures, and got on the tour bus to head over the Apollo/Saturn V center.   During the bus ride we were taken all over the Space Center grounds and saw many launch pads, some of the largest buildings in the world where they build and assemble the various space craft, a few alligators, and learned a lot about the history and future of the space program.  It was fascinating and it is not even possible to explain how massively huge everything is!  

We could see the tops of 3 alligators in this pond.

Vultures outside the Apollo/Saturn V visitor center...GROSS!

After the Apollo/Saturn V Center we headed back to the visitors complex and explored the Rocket Gardens.  The self-guided tour was not as self-guided as we had thought and it made some parts a bit frustrating but overall we had a great time.  We all learned a lot and were very glad that we spent a few hours learning more about the space program!!! 

Ending our trip to Kennedy Space Center with a few failed family selfies and a stranger getting a good family picture!  :)