Trust me. I do this all the time.: Tour de Florida

**Realizing now that I did not post about my weekend away with my girlfriends. Guess we’re going out of order on this one!

It really has been a crazy busy beginning to our summer! 8 days after Sam finished school and only 55 hours after I returned from my last trip, we were all out the door on our way to Florida! Chris was scheduled to attend a conference in Miami for 4 days and the rest of us weren’t busy at all soooo…we tagged along. Sort of.

We landed in Tampa on Thursday evening and all spent the night at Grammy and Papa’s house in Sarasota. For the first time ever, we had four seats on the plane! Somehow I ended up in a row of three seats alone with both children while Chris played on his phone across the aisle, I guess that’s payback for my 4-day girls trip! I can happily report that at age 5, Sam is officially “no big deal” to fly with! Tablet, videos, coloring, snacking – he’s good! Annabelle, on the other hand, is still a bit of work. Not as hard as Sam was at that age, but still a bit hard to please in one place for a few hours. And she’s in a bit of a a totally new interest for him. I call this picture “Role Reversal.”

After a quick run for me and a bit of work for Chris, he and I left the children with his parents, visited Grandma at her place, and then hit the road to Miami. By ourselves. Glory. Last spring we had 36 hours alone in Galveston, but it was in the middle of our move and really not the least bit relaxing, when I reflect on that very special season of my life. Before that, it was our trip to Scotland – when Sam was a year younger than Annabelle is now. To say we needed this time away is an understatement!

Of course the time away was probably more enjoyable for me than him. I had 3.5 days to read by the pool, run (20 miles in 4 days, not bad for a vacation!) venture to the beach, shop, sit at Starbucks, get my haircut and sleep in. Chris was working while I did all of that, poor guy. This was the first time that I really really enjoyed having so much uninterrupted quiet time to myself. By the end I felt completely rested and refreshed. Ready to see the crazy little ones again.

Our kid-free evenings together weren’t too shabby, either. We got two date nights out alone, both complete with excellent food thanks to the yelp app. Friday was a Peruvian Ceviche place – delish! We also had two nights out with clients, always nice to eat at nice restaurants on someone else’s dime. And one of those dinner came with Chris’s old boss and co-worker from his last job, and it was wonderful to catch up with them.

Tuesday afternoon, after one last lunch alone along the water and a late check-out, we ventured up to Orlando to meet up with the Fam. Sam said he didn’t miss us, and then spent the next two hours coming up to me to give me random hugs. He shared his jelly beans with me “because I came back.” And Annabelle got upset for several days when we got home every time I went somewhere without her. Guess its time for mommy to hang around again!

Grammy and Papa rented a 3 bedroom unit through their vacation club, and I can say that vacationing with plenty of room for everyone to spread out at night is definitely the way to go. So much more relaxing! And so many opportunities to push buttons on the elevator, always taking turns with the inside/outside one. On Wednesday, the kids, Grammy and I took advantage of all the resort had to offer while the men worked back upstairs. Playground, spying for alligators and turtles in the lake, swimming in 4 different pools (including a kiddie pool and hot tub), and a pool party with prizes and popsicles! Sam finally took a real nap, and I got an hour more of alone time at the “quiet pool” while they slept. We even ate at the poolside restaurant that night so that Daddy and Papa could swim with the kiddos after dinner.

Thursday was set aside for LegoLand! All in all it was a fun day for everyone, but the park could certainly stand some improvements, especially in the area of staff competence and professionalism. And I was disappointed at how few rides there were for Annabelle’s age group – she was even too small to ride the tractor ride in Duplo Village! We managed to distract her from her exlusion for the most part (she is very sensitive to being left out right now) with the help of train rides, popsicles and pushing buttons on water cannons. BUT it was the right size park for our kiddos and what they can handle at their ages and stages. We were able to do everything we wanted to without being rushed or overwhelmed. Sam rode his first roller coaster, 2 actually, and I am so proud! He said he liked it, but check out his face in the pictures! The longest line of the day was about a half hour. The kids enjoyed breaks from the rides in a couple of playground areas, including one with air-powered cannons. Sam loved the Star Wars Lego displays, and the adults were impressed with all of the creations. There were a few meltdowns, but that is to be expected on a long hot day. And I MUST compliment my daughter, who at the age of 2 lasted the entire days without a nap or completely falling apart. We ended the day with a bright blue slushie and a splash pad, which was perfect. And then they both passed out in the car.

And that nap was apparently enough to give them enough energy for another poolside dinner. This time it was carry-out pizza by the “quiet” pool, which of course was no longer all that quiet. But we weren’t the only family there! We all had a blast swimming together, especially Annabelle, who spent about 10 minutes being thrown from Mommy to Daddy and back again – not caught by the parent, but landing in the water to be scooped up, wiping hair from her eyes and demanding “do ‘gain!” She was jumping off the wall without hands or help, gaining all kinds of confidence. It is so fun to watch her grow confident in the water this year!

Friday we managed to get a little more pool time in before saying goodbye to Grammy and Papa and heading for the airport. We hit a lot of traffic, which inspired some aggressive driving, in a stick shift car…and a boy who’s tummy bugs him on 3 minute freeway rides. He lost his cookies as we pulled into the parking garage. Poor guy, but what a sport! We stripped him and changed him into different (although already dirty, oops) clothes in the middle of the parking garage, he was still a bit clammy when we boarded the bus to the terminal. “I’m ok, I’m ok” he kept assuring us. My mommy heart felt terrible that we didn’t have more time to ease him through it, but we didn’t want to miss the flight…which ended up being delayed a half hour.

At one point in the flight I heard Annabelle compliment her brother, “Good Sharing, Sam!” They did not sleep or rest the entire flight. Sam spilled his apple juice and Annabelle was cranky, but we made it through. Got our bags and to the car pretty quickly, and stopped to pick up some dinner supplies. And then they passed out – hard. We pulled off the freeway, the slept. We pulled into the driveway, no one woke up. Opened and closed both car doors, unloaded the car and then didn’t move at all. I made dinner while Chris sat in the car with them drinking a beer. We had to wake them to come in and eat. Annabelle, who’s always being pulled from her bed, rolled with it and managed to eat. Sam couldn’t hang. Passed right back out on the couch, sitting straight up. Chris put him to bed in his clothes. He was passed out for the night at 6:30. Annabelle sat at the table reminding us, “Sam nigh night…” which was code for “can I go, too?”