Vacation's over *sigh*

Last week I traveled in our big group (six adults and two under three) to West Palm Beach to spend time pool side and attend a cousin's big day (Bar Mitzvah).

Since there was so much luggage- special occasion clothes, beach clothes, toddler stuff- E and I used a luggage service, lugless.com, to ship our big bag ahead. It was super easy and made our travel days SO much easier! You do have to plan ahead, since your luggage will ship out before you do and will return home after you do, but my goodness what an awesome option. The customer support rocks, and in all I had more unfounded anxieties about using a luggage service for the first time than real anxieties.

We stayed in a lovely hotel, sponsored by Ranger's grandparents. I was sure the hotel would be stuffy and that I'd be hovering over Ranger to keep him from breathing on anything...but I was very wrong. Everyone was great with Ranger and his 18mo cousin. They picked up on their names and greeted them enthusiastically every morning. When Ranger started moving shells from one container in their lobby to another...I worried it would be frowned upon. But we were met with only smiles and assurances that it was ok.

Ranger loved the beach, and woke up on our second full day saying "beach!" his favorite thing to do on the beach was to find shells and collect them in our bucket- I saved some and surreptitiously returned others to the sand. He also loved the pool. My son is so pale it almost hurt to look at him in the water! Liberal application of kid's sunscreen prevented sunburn (phew).

I have posted pics below. You will see Ranger's hat- he was reluctant to leave it anywhere, but sometimes I helped him leave it behind so I could have a great way to end an activity ("where's your hat? Let's go get your hat"). I also snapped some shots of him dressed up. He did not want to take his tie off all night! His good behavior lasted as long as the candy I was passing him-about five minutes before I pulled him into the hall and set him up with Bubble Guppies on the iPad.

The last day - half a vacation day, half travel, Ranger had had enough of vacation and wanted nothing more than to sit in the room with the curtains closed. Our travel portion went super smooth (except...well, if you're driving on A1A keep in mind the speed limit is 35 and cops are posted every fifty feet or so...to "protect the elderly community"). The flight was turbulent and I had to make the decision to disobey a posted instruction (seatbelt sign) or risk wetting my pants. I hate breaking rules, but I got up anyhow.

Reentry has been hard. For one thing our routine was completely off, as to be expected when sharing a room with a two year old. Ranger fell asleep every night around midnight, regardless of what we tried. But he then slept to 9am or later (felt great but also like we were sleeping away pool time!). So getting him back onto a normal schedule has been hard. For another thing, while we missed the snow some folks had last week, it is still chilly and windy here and I can't seem to feel warm when I'm outside.

We have one more group thing, a wedding in June, before my delivery date. Maybe we'll get out to the beach some this summer...but right now it feels like I need a vacation (already).