Two weeks ago, we headed to the Sunshine State for a little vacation time with Jeff's family. As a child, my family vacationed in Florida in the same area for years, and I was so excited to go back! And we were very interested to see what Jack would think about his first trip to the beach.
So, we checked in our 50lb bags, ate a Cinnabon (what? I'm pregnant!), hopped on the plane, and we were off! We'd been doing some prep work with Jack, talking about airplanes, pointing them out in the sky, talking about how they go fast, how we'd get to go on one with Nana and Papaw....Jeff's cousin even works for Southwest Airlines, the airlines we were flying, and sent him a little airplane and Southwest T shirt. He was happy and excited to get on the plane! He loved sitting on Daddy's lap and kept saying, "Fast! Fast! Fast!" on the take off.
A friend of mine had given me a toddler flight vest, so we thought we'd try that. It's a little vest that clips into the adults seat belt, so they're at least strapped in somehow! He didn't mind it....and we didn't mind pulling out the iPad for a little Mickey Mouse! PS, Mickey (or Mi-tey) is the new obsession.
We met up with Jeff's brother and sister in law, Andy and Alison, once we landed. We clicked Jack's car seat into the rental car and we were off! Jack was already loving being the center of attention!!
We spent a lot of time on the porch....from wishing he could get out of jail, to jumping in puddles with Daddy, to just plain looking cute!
Turns out Jack's not a big fan of the beach. He didn't like the sand, didn't like the sea weed, didn't like the waves chasing him....basically, not a fan. I wish I would have taken pictures of his beach breakdowns, but you know, I was busy trying to defuse them! He would just stand and point at everyone...."Sand? Sand? Sand?" every time he looked at a foot that had sand on it. And heaven FORBID it get on his hands!!! Oh, the horrors! :) Needless to say, we spent most of our time at the pool!
Jeff did take him into the ocean a few times, and really, as long as he was being held, he didn't mind it too much.
Jack decided that he'd rise with the Florida sun each morning....at 5:30am. Never mind that he went to bed a few hours late, 5:30am was the wake up time. And it's hard to sleep through a toddler standing up in the crib, 3 inches from your bed, yelling, "Dada? Mama? Dada? Mama?" So we'd groggily pull him out of bed and plunk him in our bed to watch an episode of "Mi-tey" before we actually got up.
It was so nice to be surrounded with family that helped entertain Jack! I thought many times, no wonder people in the old days lived with extended family! :)
We took lots of family pictures...
and more family pictures....
and more family pictures!
Needless to say, Jack was plain worn out by the end of all the fun activities! The flight home was....well, interesting. A tired toddler, does not a good traveler make! The iPad was more of our friend than we could of imagined. We had a quick layover in Houston, and moved up towards the front of the plane....and the people sitting in front of us moved about 3 minutes later. :) He was pretty much ok when we were in the air and the iPad was playing something he loved, but it all fell apart when we were approaching Dallas and the pilot asked everyone to turn off their electric devices. Oh, the screaming, the crying, the gnashing of teeth. He finally fell asleep on my shoulder as we were landing. Good timing, Jack.
He crashed HARD once we were in the car,
and even took a long nap when we got home before getting up for an hour to eat and head to bed.
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