Vacation Recap

Let me start by saying it was great to take a family vacation somewhere warm and sunny and on the water.  Let me finish by saying we will probably never do it again.

Our vacation got off to an interesting start...

We showed up to the airport at 8:30am for our 10am take-off, only to find out that they had canceled our flight without informing us (not for inclement weather or anything like that)... and put us on the 7am flight earlier that morning (again, without telling us), which we were informed we had "missed."  I found that information to be highly irritating and unreasonable and proceeded to lose it on the woman who was "just the messenger."

We eventually made it on the 5pm flight after being told that we needed to turn around and go home to get Niall's birth certificate because he needed identification.  I didn't realize that toddlers needed to carry around their driver's license, my bad.  At this point, Niall hadn't napped or eaten a proper dinner, and missed his bedtime while in the air.

All of those factors created the perfect storm: Niall screamed bloody murder for an hour and a half, broke out into hives from getting so worked up and scratched, clawed, hit and kicked Matt and I until we couldn't hold him anymore.

I kept my composure while everyone around us huffed and puffed and turned their heads to see if our son was being beaten to death, and then I promptly burst into tears the second I stepped off the plane.

But things got better.

We went to the beach...

climbed the coolest tree ever...

went on a riverboat cruise, where we got to see BIG boats, BIG houses and BIG pelicans...

saw a crazy man wrestle an alligator...

got the best ice cream sundae from the coolest ice cream parlor EVER...

(ice cream coma)

took a stroll on a busy fishing pier...

And I even got to take a morning to myself and just watch the sun come up and the waves crash on the shore...

But then things got worse again.  Niall woke up every single day at 4:30 am and refused to go back to sleep until his afternoon nap.  And then the doozy came on Wednesday, when I got food poisoning and projectile vomited green bile for 12 hours.

It's been a lot of up and down and all-around craziness, but it was worth it this ONE time.  I think we'll stay in the tri-state area on the next one ;)

The flight home was light years easier than the flight there and now Niall is waking up at 6 again, so I'll take it.  Strangely enough, it's good to be home.  And tomorrow is Niall's birthday, so we have lots of good times ahead this week with all of the exciting holidays and events over the next few days.

 Niall loves your votes!