Family Vacation - Day 1 (yes, it needs its own post)

Sean decided to take some time off in October. Our friends, Aaron & Katie, live in Ft. Lauderdale. They have a little girl who just turned 1 (so 3m behind Sid). They told Sean we should come for a visit - and that is exactly what we did. We've been wanting to take a trip solo with Sid as our first true family vacation. We decided to book 4 nights on Anna Maria Island before heading to stay with the Richie's. With a little research and a lot of convincing myself we could handle this with a toddler - we booked our first family vacation! Sunny Florida here we come!

Day 1 -

Jack picked us up on Monday morning to drop us off at DFW so we could catch our flight to Tampa!

Everything was smooth sailing. That is until we got up to check our big bag. We were 4 pounds over the limit. It was either pay $100 or pull 4 pounds out of the bag. Once we heard that price tag - we began to dig and stuff! This was no easy feat, as we had everything shy of our kitchen sink with us! Finally, after 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of shorts, and 2 electric toothbrushes the guy let us slide (with a little extra weight).

That blue bag was the heavy one!

We made it to Tampa in less than 2 hours of flying time! Sid was amazing on the plane! I nursed him during takeoff and he immediately fell asleep. He got a solid 45 minutes of napping in before I think he got uncomfortable and woke up. But once he woke up, he was in the best mood. He just snuggled on my lap and looked all around. He looked at the American Way magazine and then ate a snack or two. Never once did he fuss or try to get down to walk around. I didn't even have to pull out one toy! Great job, little trooper!

Once we arrived in Tampa, everything was smooth sailing. That is until we tried to pick up our stroller and car seat that we had gate checked. I saw no where to pick these items up off the jet bridge like usual. I asked the lady behind the ticket counter (making sure she heard me say GATE CHECK) - she told me to proceed to the BLUE area. I said, "Ok so that's different than the regular baggage claim, bc these were GATE CHECKED?"  To which she replied, "Yes - not the red area. The blue area."  So off we went. You guessed it - our items were left up at the gate. We had to get them tracked down and then transferred over to us since we had already left the terminal. Thankfully this process only took about 30 minutes. But ticket lady, if you're reading this - next time please pay attention to the question. You could've saved this mama from a lot of extra stress!

Carseat and stroller back in our possession :)

Next was picking up the rental car. Everything was smooth sailing. That is until we got to the garage to actually get in the car and the guy said, "Hmm, I don't see any full size cars." Really? I've been wearing this baby for an hour. It's hot and he's heavy! He checked a few rows over and found us our car! We loaded up and off we went to Anna Maria Island! 1hr and 6mins to our condo. Sid, once again, did amazing. He didn't need one toy in the car. Just happy as a clam riding next to the pretty water and over the scary bridge! It wasn't until we went to get him out of the car that we noticed his orange squeeze pouch all over the rental car seats :) Don't worry - it cleaned right up (le sigh!).

Everything was smooth sailing. That is until we pulled into our condo and found this sign on the door...

Panic was setting in. Did I miss the memo that not only was check-in at 3, but that if we weren't there by 3 we just couldn't check in??? It was 4:15! We called the first number. No answer - but we did leave a frantic voicemail that we had just arrived with our infant (er, toddler!) and we had no where to go! There was a pool maintenance guy pulling out that Sean flagged down asking for any information. He didn't know. There was one more number to call for reservations. Next thing I know, Sean was walking through the lobby to come let Sid and I in through the other door. I wanted to burst into happy tears!!! There on the front desk was our packet with keys attached. This mama was breathing again!

Our unit was beautiful and the perfect location. We were on the bottom floor, corner unit, with immediate beach and pool access! Perfect for Sid! Super easy to make quick trips in and out. Which we did a lot of!

Sean had to get some work done so I fed Sid and we worked on unpacking. Or maybe I should say scattering. That sounds more accurate. We had to make a run to the grocery store because we had nothing to feed us! 

By the time we did all of that, it was Sid's bedtime. I was already feeling anxious about this because I just wasn't sure how he was going to sleep. When I opened the pack n play, I was pretty grossed out. There were other baby's drool stains all over it. And I was about to use it for MY baby. I did bring his own sheets - but I had to just suck it up and get over the fact that the bed wasn't ours. It was nearly impossible to put together. Sean finally succeeded. Then everything was smooth sailing. That is until we went to give Sid a bath. No tub!!!! Just a ginormous standup shower. Problem solver daddy threw a towel over the drain and off they went to shower. Sid slept great. The mattress was at least 2" too short in the crib, and I about had a nervous breakdown at that point. But we just folded up a towel to fill the gap and it didn't bother Sid one bit.

I'm sure you're thinking that's all that could possibly go wrong in a days time, right? Wrong!!! Sid went to sleep, mama and daddy opened a bottle of wine and got our dinner ready. We went really fancy!



Cheetos, Totino's party pizza, and a rotisserie chicken. Oh, and wine. Basically all the random stuff we bought at the store earlier.

Everything was smooth sailing. That is until we went to take the pizza out of the oven!

BURNT! But that's not the worst part. WE SET THE SMOKE DETECTOR OFF!!!! Sean sprinted to open all the doors and I started flailing my arms, trying to waft the smoke away just outside of Sid's door! Oh. My. Gosh. Sid did not wake up!!! I have noooooooo idea how, but he slept right on through. We scraped the burnt off, chowed down, then went outside and ate key lime pie!

Travel days are always the hardest. Glad that day is now over! We all slept very well. Finally, everything truly was smooooooth sailing :)