Vacation Journal - Day 2 - Part 2

We decided we wanted to stay so off to the hotel room Dan went for a beach blanket, the beach tent, Ry’s paci for her nap, and my kindle. As soon as he left Ry started screeching, and was in need of a good nap. It took me a good ten minutes but she finally fell asleep. Once Dan got back with the tent we moved her inside. Stupid first time parents set up the shade tent with the opening facing the sun. We moved Ry to get her into the shade, and sure enough nap time was over.

She spent the next 45 minutes fussing, so we packed up, headed back to the room, put Ry in her stroller and headed out to lunch… oh wait, Ry and I did that, while Dan was still on the beach trying to fold up the tent! Apparently, the practicing he did in the hotel room the night before didn’t help.  

 In an effort to get back to sleep we walked along the boardwalk for a good mile, and then headed back onto the main drag to find something to eat. We stopped at Oasis Café because they had these really fun looking swinging chairs. That was the only thing fun about it. The food was mediocre at best, and the “famous” Mojito was absolutely disgusting. Dan Comment: The swinging chairs were pretty relaxing, my food was pretty good, and if you order a drink with a plant in it, you really shouldn’t expect it to be good.

In typical Ry fashion, she didn’t fall asleep on our walk until we were almost the full mile out, so she slept through all of lunch.  After we ate, we headed back to the room to give Ry a late lunch. When we got there, the maid had finally just arrived to start cleaning so we headed down to the pool deck to feed her. After Ry ate Dan and Ry took another swim while I took out my ‘fancy’ DSLR camera to take some pictures of them swimming. When we got back to the room Ry was due for another nap, unfortunately, again, she struggled to go down. We threw her in her stroller and headed out for another walk before dinner.

 

We ate dinner at H20 café. The food here was much better than lunch – the seared ahi Tuna appetizer was amazing and came with an awesome sauce (maybe peanut satay-ish). Once again, Ry slept through all of dinner so we didn’t feed her until we got back to the room around 7.

 

Bathtime followed, and after a good 50 minutes of struggling she finally went to sleep around 9:09. My poor girl. It is so sad to watch her fall asleep as it seems like she is in pain. Maybe we will see a tooth pop through in the next few days, to help explain why my super happy baby has been super cranky.  After Ry was finally asleep we spent some time on YouTube to figure out how to fold up our tent.  My goal for Dan for the end of the vacation is this.  But for tomorrow I'll be happy with:

I mean it doesn't look that hard, does it?  Post Vacation Update:  Dan never figured out how to take down the tent, good thing Mommy did.  

Vacation Journal - Day 2 - Part 1

Day 2 - Part 1 

A little addition to day 1 – After Ry was asleep and I had finished writing. I walked into the bedroom to find Dan with the beach tent fully up. He put it up so he could “practice without looking like an idiot on the beach… 

Day two is still going on at 8:39pm as we have a very cranky girl who just won’t fall asleep. Ry woke up around 5am for a bottle and after Dan fed her she didn’t want to go back to sleep. Finally around 7 she fell asleep until 8:50, which completely screwed up her schedule, and as a result Ry was the crankiest I think I have ever seen her. We all ate breakfast in the hotel room before heading down to the pool for a swim. The pool water was warm, but the air was chilly and the sun had not come out yet. 

After swimming for a while we decided on an impromptu trip down to the beach. As soon as we got there Dan rushed down to the water with Ry, so I didn’t get to capture her first toes in the ocean picture. I made Dan repeat the occasion and this is what I captured:

Vacation Journal - Day 1

Today we packed up and headed down for a little fun in the sun in Fort Lauderdale.  We left our house at 7:30 (on the dot as planned!) and headed to Grammy and Grampy’s to drop Kipu off and bum a ride into the airport.  We had a 10:50 flight, and arrived at the airport around 9.  We had checked two suit cases and the base to Ry’s car seat free of charge… thank you Jet Blue! Getting through airport security wasn’t bad at all.  We asked one of the TSA agents prior to approaching the checkpoint the best way to get through security with the snap and go and car seat.  Traveling with an infant is so different!!  We ended up folding up the snap and go, turning the car seat upside down on the belt and carrying Ry right through the scanner.

Once through we had about an hour wait before we boarded, it was off to Starbucks for Mom and DD’s for Daddy.  It was at this point that I realized I didn’t have my iPhone and had a mini meltdown!!  Boooo!!  Cranky Mama!!!  After we had our treats I decided I would approach the gate agent with my sweet little girl in my arms and ask her if anyone had checked themselves into the seat between Dan and I.  (Whenever we travel together I always book the window and the aisle under the assumption that middle seats are the last to go, and no one will object an upgrade from a middle seat to a window/aisle.)  She said they hadn’t and that she would keep her eye on it and try and move them if they did.  Thanks so much Jill!!  We were one of the few rows on the plane with an empty seat, and that extra room is so nice, especially with an infant.

We fed Ry during takeoff with the hopes that she would avoid any ear popping.  Unfortunately she was getting cranky and we had to start the bottle earlier than Momma would have liked.  Ry fought sleep like crazy on the plane but ended up getting in a 45 minute nap before we landed.  

After picking up our bags and heading to baggage claim we headed out the rental car bus.  Nothing more fun than a cramped bus with a stroller.  We booked through Enterprise which allows you to pick your vehicle based on size booked.  There were no cars in our class out there and jokingly Dan mentioned wanting a Kia Sorrento (which we own), sure enough, around comes a Sorrento so off we went!

Traffic getting to the hotel was awful.  It took us a good 25 minutes to go 1 mile on A1A.  Parking at the Marriott Beach Place is a bit of a pain.  You are allowed to park on levels 4-5 of the garage, but getting up to the level takes forever, especially with a cranky baby.   Poor Bug had been cooped up for such a long time.  We got to the hotel and check-in was a breeze.   I had called ahead and reserved a pack-n-play for Ry and they offered a high chair as well so we took it.  (Sorry to Dan who I made lug Ry’s portable highchair.)  When we got up to the room I unpacked while we waited for the pack-n-play to be delivered from housekeeping as well as some packages I had shipped down earlier during the week from Amazon.  It took forever for them to arrive and now I didn’t have a cranky baby anymore, but I did have a cranky hungry Daddy. 

We took a quick trip to Wal-Mart to get some food and diapers for Ry, and then stopped on the way back for Easter dinner.  Much to Dan’s dismay, we didn’t have Easter dinner at Hooters (which is attached to the hotel), instead we went much classier, Chili’s.  

Ry was probably the crankiest we have ever seen her at dinner at Chili’s.  I think a combination of overtired, strange location, and residual ear pain contributed to this.  Dinner for Ry primarily consisted of “puffs” and MumMums.  Hopefully this isn’t a trend. 

After dinner a quick stop at Whole Foods , and then back to the hotel to start Ry’s bedtime routine.  Bed time wasn’t until after 9 tonight for Ry, so who knows what time DADDY will be up during the night!!

Photography Fail

It has been so long since I last blogged, and have so much to catch up on that has happened these last few weeks.  Sorry Ry, these will all just all have to go off of memory.  Ry had her friends over a few weeks ago for a play date, and we thought it would be a good idea to do a photoshoot of the girls in Bunny Ears and matching Tutu's.  As you can see, this was an epic fail. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Egg-celent Sunday

This Sunday we headed over to Sunday dinner at Ry's Great Gram's.  It was an extra special Sunday because we all got to meet Ry's new second cousin Toby.  Ry did have one minor incident where she may have accidentally pulled Toby's hair and made him cry.  Watch out Ry - at the rate you are going Toby is going to be bigger than you one day soon!!!

Ummm... Grampy, who is that you are holding?

Hold on Grampy, I'm coming.

OK G. Uncle B, I'll stay with you and the claw!