Finding My Maternal Side: Our Florida Vacation

As I write about our week in sunny Florida, I'm looking out the window at mounds of snow. However, if I look up in the sky the sun is shining and the sky is the perfect shade of blue. It's almost like I'm back in Florida, except then I look back down and the snow is still there. I also know what's coming tomorrow. Another winter storm, a predicted 3-6 more inches of snow.

My in-laws rented a house for a week in Cape Canaveral. The house was on a quiet dead end street with a trail leading to the beach. The house was geared towards vacationing families; fully stocked with beach toys, beach blankets, beach chairs, and a beach umbrella.

Mike, E, and I went to the beach everyday except for one when the temp dipped to 60 with some pretty strong winds. E spent hours digging in the sand with his shovel or his front end loader. He'd make occasional trips down to the water to splash and scoop water up with his shovel. He would giggle when the waves crashed against his legs. Then he'd head back up to our camp and begin digging again. Outside parenting is easy, when Mike and I weren't digging with E, we'd relax in our beach chairs watching the waves in the ocean. There was plenty of good people watching on the beach as well.

The majority of our time was spent at the beach, but we joined the rest of the family for some day trips. We were about an hour away from Disney World but decided not to do the theme parks. For the cost, Mike and I didn't think E would get enough out of it. We did check out Downtown Disney one day. It's basically just an outdoor mall and it didn't really feel like Disney. But they had a huge Disney store which E liked since he is obsessed with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. There was also some construction going on and E's other obsession is construction vehicles so seeing the crane and excavator at work was probably the highlight of Downtown Disney.

We also spent a day at the Kennedy Space Center. E liked looking at the rocket ships and the various videos each exhibit had. There was also a kids dome play area which was great because towards the afternoon, E was done walking though exhibits.

I was worried about how E would handle vacation, from the pane ride to being in a strange place for a week. He did so great, much better than I expected. The plane ride was fine, he was asleep within minutes after takeoff on the way down and slept for over an hour. The rest of the time he was content looking at books and I was prepared with lots of snacks. On the way home he was a little more restless, probably because we had to get him up at 4 in the morning to make our flight. But he did well as long as he was sitting on Mom or Dad's lap.

As far as being in a strange place for a week, he adapted well. Sleeping was a little rough, mostly on Mom and Dad. He didn't get many naps in because there was so much to do. And he was up around 5am each morning and crawled into bed with Mike and me. Sometimes he would fall back asleep and sometimes he would just roll around.

I smile as I look through the pictures of our vacation. We had such a wonderful time escaping the cold Minnesota winter and it was good for E to spend time with his grandparents and aunt and uncle.