Family Vacation to Manasota Key

Whew!
We made it home this weekend after a fantastic family vacation.
It feels like forever ago that we left and were dealing with the BS of flight delays, missing connections, and early morning takeoff.
But once we arrived we were in full on vacation mode. We met my in laws at an amazing beach house in southern Florida and though it can be tough vacationing with little ones, we had lots of help and Charlotte had a built in playmate with her same-age cousin.

She's such a copycat, and he's such a leader. They played hard every day. 

The weather was mostly great, with 3 out of our 5 days being next to perfect. There was a red tide advisory and it produced a pretty annoying cough. I had heard of it before but wasn't familiar with what it actually was.

A little scared of the water, but Charlotte coaxed him in. 

We spent the nice days on the beach just steps out of the door. The beach along the water was loaded with shells and sharks teeth, but we had a nice sandy spot where a new deck was going to be built. So the kids had a spot to play without getting washed away into the sea.

Excited about just about everything

On the less nice days, we lounged around just like we would at home, but it was better because we weren't at home. And I would eat lots of things like dip, and drink things like lime-a-ritas.

We captured one of Lena's finer moments.

My little beach baby

Lena did so, so well the first few nights. Slept completely through the night 12-13 hours. It was amazing. I of course couldn't sleep because I was obsessively checking on her. Then she went back to normal, and then worse than normal, which is really hard when you have a screaming-in-their-sleep baby sharing a room with you. And you can't take her out of the room because there's 10 other people sleeping somewhere. So in that respect, it was good to get back home and into our own spaces. 

Coming back home from a busy trip with lots of people has been tough on the girls (and ME.) It's been a rough week to say the least. I don't know if they're adjusting, sick, being babies and toddlers, or what. But yesterday there wasn't a moment except for the 30 minute nap overlap that at least one kid wasn't crying. 

By the time we got home I felt like I didn't need a vacation in a while, and we live to plan our next trip. But after all this needless whining and protesting, I'm ready to leave again. alone.

But overall, a beach vacation was totally manageable with the two kiddos and I'd definitely do it again. Just not for a little while. :)

Where is the best beach you've ever visited? 

Our Vacation to Disney World! (The Resort)

My first post on Disney was our travel experience. You can read about that here.

We stayed at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa. We did a lot of research when it came to where we would stay. We checked out hotels and resorts off the Disney property, and decided that it'd be nice to take advantage of Disney's Magical Express (where they take your luggage to and from the airport for you) and the free transportation. Then we had some deciding to do when it came to where we'd actually stay on the property. We looked at the value, moderate, deluxe and deluxe villa resorts. Of course, I immediately check out deluxe vilas, because I am a spoiled snob and I wanted to see if it was something even close to our price range. 

Simply put: they're not.

However, we were directed to a phenomenal website where there are great deals for the deluxe accommodations. We made a request to see what was available, and it still was outside of our price range, so we continued to look elsewhere until we got a last minute deals email. We made another request and there were two room types at Saratoga Springs that were available. We decided to go for a one bedroom villa since Charlotte goes to bed much earlier than we do, and we didn't want to keep her up too late and ruin a perfectly fun vacation. But since it was a "last minute deal", we were leaving in TWO weeks.

The resort was beautiful. It wasn't Disney overload, and our room was perfect.

View from balcony looking in. Full kitchen, so we didn't need to dine out for every meal with two little kids!

Our view. It was so peaceful and calm. No wailing kids or anything obnoxious.

We had a few groceries delivered so we could enjoy a quick breakfast at "home" instead of spending $50 dining out.

There was a pack n play available, but Charlotte slept on the pull out couch, which was her first time sleeping  without being stuck in a baby jail. There's something funny to me about seeing her sleep somewhere besides her crib or a pack n play. The first morning, she waited until she saw a light turn on to call to us. Later that day, she napped in our bed while we were out in the living area. It was completely quiet when we saw a little figure scamper towards the door. Charlotte had silently opened the bedroom door, and wandered out, but didn't know the layout of the place so she was headed for the exit. 

After we caught the escapee. Love that bed head!

Lena slept in her car seat in our bedroom. That's all I have on that.  She's little, and doesn't do a whole lot. What she did do, was sleep really well the entire trip. She gave us 7+ hour stretches every night. She got a little congested on the last two nights and was coughing a bit. I think it was just the air in the hotel or something. It would have been really nice to have packed the baby saline spray, but I didn't think of it. (Something to consider when traveling with your littles.)

Saratoga Springs is very close to Downtown Disney. We learned that we could walk if we wanted to, but there was ferry transportation also. We did both. The resort is enormous, so you have to be okay with doing a little walking to get where you want to go, I think if you had two small kids who weren't in a stroller (think 4 or 5) you may want to take advantage of the bike rental. They're really cute carriage-like with a surrey, and the whole family can ride on one.

The pools were fantastic. I'm a moron and forgot swim diapers, but fortunately the shop had some available in packages of one or two, That's a lot better than needing to buy a package of 20. Charlotte loved swimming way more than she did this summer. The pools have a great activity schedule which would be great to take advantage of if you have a little more time to spend there. 

She wanted to do this SO.BAD. but looks terrified. She went down 3-4 times.

Lena loved the pools too.

High Rock Spring Pool

The Paddock pool (my favorite)

There are also quick dining options at the resort, but we never went. Overall, I really liked this place, but would definitely like to check out the Animal Kingdom Lodge next time. :)

Next up: our experience at the parks!

Our Vacation to Disney World! (The Travel)

Last Saturday we left for our family vacation to Disney World. It went so well! There is of course some anxiety associated with traveling with a toddler and a 10 week old, but it went pretty much as I expected it.
I did a ton of research before leaving, and I write this to maybe help others out if they are planning a trip to Disney with their little ones.

We drove to Chicago to fly to save a couple bucks and I still don't think it's worth it. The ride there is always fine, but when you get back, all you want is to be home as soon as possible. Driving 3 hours in the middle of the night is no way to end a vacation. The drive there went great, Lena slept almost the whole time, and Charlotte was happy for the first two hours, and then I popped in an Elmo DVD and she was content for the rest of the trip.

We were sort of disappointed upon airport check in that they wouldn't let us take our stroller through the airport because it was too heavy to gate check. This is one of the things I went back and forth over and over on, but we ended up taking it, just to have to check it. It wasn't a big deal, but if you have a Baby Jogger City Select and you fly out of Chicago, you will have to check it with your luggage. I was thankful we picked up a travel bag the day of our trip!

Charlotte and Lena both did great during the flight. Charlotte was really excited to "fly in the sky" and said it over and over (and over and over), and as soon as we were above the clouds, she immediately crashed (bad choice of words) and slept the rest of the flight.

Proof that Lena was there. The only pictures we have are of her in a carrier or in her car seat.
Poor second child. 

She slept this way the whole time! 

Airplane head

Once we landed, we made our way to Disney's Magical Express, where we boarded a motorcoach to take us to our resort. It was around 11:00-11:30 when we got on, and Charlotte was wound up!! She never stays up that late, and she basically got a 2.5 hour nap, so she was ready to party. We waited forever to get moving, and since she's never been on a bus either, she was pretty psyched about that too. "a bus! a bus! a bus! OH TOODLES! a bus! toodles! toodles! oh toodles! a bus!" Anything that has Mickey ears is "oh toodles" even if it's Mickey Mouse. Sometimes she'll say "mouse" but it's usually toodles. She wasn't bothering anyone, but she was so slap happy. Lena was doing alright, as far as little babies go. It's good to be a portable milk machine sometimes. We were all so ready to get to our resort.

We stayed at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and it was really nice. We arrived at about 12:30am and were so, so ready to just go to bed. But this resort is enormous and sprawling and after we checked in, we had to get on a golf cart shuttle to our room. So we had to fold up the giant stroller again and watch as the bellman hung it precariously on some dolly thing attached the cart. (seriously...consider renting a stroller if you have two little ones), then after our cold cart ride, we arrived at our room and finally got settled in for the night.

I'll post about our resort later, as this post is about the travel. Saratoga Springs is very close to Downtown Disney, and they have ferry shuttles to take you back and forth, or you can walk. We did a lot of both.

Staring at strangers. 

We traveled to and from the parks by the complimentary shuttle service, which is great, but there is some waiting involved. For the most part it wasn't too bad, but it was sort of a pain folding up the big double stroller each time we got on and off. Our stroller specifically is a challenge because it doesn't fold up nicely when it has both seats on. It is the perfect stroller while in use, but it is a little bit of a beast when you're trying to fold it up quickly. So that's something to consider if you have one and plan on traveling with it. The bus drivers were usually very helpful and quick to remind me (if I seemed frazzled by trying to hurry) that "you're on vacation, take your time, we're here to make it easier for you." and I thought that was very sweet.

I would say if there was any challenging part of the trip, it was getting to and from our destinations. That being said, it was a very small challenge.

This post has been like 3 days in the making as coming home from vacation usually leaves you busier than you care to be.

Have you traveled with your babies or toddlers or do you say NO WAY until they get a little older?

Call Me Crazy

In two days my husband and I are taking the girls on vacation.
Before Lena was even born, we knew we wanted to take a warm weather trip in November or December. People were not shy to tell us that we were crazy, and that it would be stressful, and basically our lives would be ruined forever. But we love vacationing, and when Charlotte was 14 weeks, I flew with her (without Marcus) to Florida and the trip went great.

So after throwing around a few ideas, we decided to go to Disney World. We aren't planning on doing the parks thing every day, and we also plan on going back to the resort for nap time. Maybe a late nap time.

The weather looks good, and the place we're staying has a toddler friendly pool so we can spend some time there too.

I'm ready for the pool!!

Charlotte went through an enormous growth spurt between September and October and so many of her clothes don't fit. Thankfully, I have a friend who loaned me some of her daughters things so Charlotte doesn't need to wear a tiny bathing suit. (although I love her little belly showing)

What do you mean it's too cold? Why must you tease me?

I'm just excited to go on our first big trip as a family of four, and even if schedules do get all cuckoo, it's not like I need to go back to work once we're back home. We'll get it figured out. Lena has chosen not to sleep between the hours of 5pm and 11pm and is not easy to keep entertained, so maybe some laser light shows or fire works will keep her happy while we're gone. 

How old were you on the first vacation that you can remember? 

When I was 7 we went to Washington DC because nothing is more fascinating to a first grader than the Jefferson Memorial.

A Weekend Away

Over the weekend we spent some time at my in law's condo in Suttons Bay. We haven't been up there as a family since Memorial Day, and I spent that time pretty miserable. I ended up in the ER for a mystery ailment that I'm pretty sure was gallbladder/pregnancy related.
But that's beside the point.

My husband has a building project about 20 minutes from there and he travels up every Thursday for work. So  I loaded up the girls, Darby, and about 20 bags and boxes to come up and meet him. Let me tell you, the packing and planning is so.much.crazier when you have an infant along. I remember we brought Charlotte up when She was about the same age as Lena but I wasn't on my own for packing.
My plan was to leave around 8 am, but we didn't get on the road until after 10:00. There's just so much to think about! But we managed, and we had a perfect trip.

We really haven't spent much time doing "nothing" as a family. There's always something to be done around the house, mounds of laundry, basement crap, general non-relaxation. Going away was exactly what we needed.

We checked out the completed project my husband managed for his job and after that went to the local children's museum.

This place used to house mental patients. Now they just pose on the porch.

Escaping Shawshank

"helping"

My parents joined us for a couple of nights and even watched the girls so Marcus and I could go on a date!

I had two cocktails which was one too many because suddenly my husband got funny again. Okay, that's not nice, but we had a great time out and need to try to get out on a more frequent basis. Those kids are draining!

We played some life sized Jenga. My mom was very frazzled by it. Every piece was "stuck" and she didn't grasp the idea for several rounds. :)

Marcus lost

I think the trip was a good practice for our upcoming vacation to Disney! We won't have help from my parents when we go, but it gave us an idea how the girls would do on a long car ride and sleeping in a new place. It went really well, and we had a lot of fun, so there's hope. 

It's been a busy November so far, and it's going to stay that way until December, and then it's Christmastime! I bought the Elf on a Shelf book this year. I know Charlotte is young, and I wasn't planning on doing the whole "Santa" thing but I gave in. I love the idea of starting little traditions now.

Do you have any traditions you do with your family, or remember fun ones from growing up?

Phone Dump

I was swiping through my photos yesterday and realized they pretty much sum up what's been going on lately (besides my ER visit. no photos, please!)  side note: 10 years ago if I would have said "swiping through my photos" it would have made it sound like I was manically spreading them out all over the place, or possibly "making it rain" with my pictures. Sorry. Tangent.

So here's my phone dump, and not in exact chronological order.


I discovered that my house had a mouse. And that made me INSANE.

yeah. that's mouse crap.

So naturally, I assumed mice made a home in my dishtowel basket. I chucked it outside and ran.

No, I'm not trapped under a rug. That's my view above rotund belly at 22 weeks. 

Have you heard of this? Best invention ever. Darby traveled three hours without panting or pacing (a problem she developed since we got the mini van) and was calmer than normal during the thunder storm we had over the weekend.

SO WORTH IT

 She sort of looked like a helper dog.

So chill. So chill I might just pee in your bed this weekend instead of telling you it's time to go out.

Yeah. She peed on our bed in the middle of the night. It was unrelated to the thundershirt. It was the night I was given morphine and I think I slept a little deeper than normal. She also had a chill pill before bed (she also doesn't sleep during the night while we're up north.) I'm sort of relieved it was her and not me.

Dad. Your jokes are lame.

Completely fascinated with the storm sewer grate. 

She looks so smart ever since her auto accident. 

 I picked up a potty to get Charlotte familiar with it.

Just testing the waters

Off to the hives to collect honey

I must get my power seller status back!!

Yes! Another positive rating! 

Eyes on the water, Captain Charlotte

She tells us she knows how to swim, but we don't trust her.

Ruby. Your face is squashed in.

And that?  is hilarious.

                                       

                                                      Watchin Elmo with my baby sister

We came back from my not so great weekend (everyone else had a nice time...) and fortunately caught that bastard mouse, but I'm not sure he was working alone. I need to set out more traps. 

I've also been feeling much better and have moved forward eating regular food. My doctor is hesitant to do much testing while I'm pregnant, so hopefully whatever that flare up was, it doesn't happen again. 

That's all for now, folks. 

The Time When I Went Shopping With My Husband

Marcus and I took a little trip to Chicago this weekend! We were invited to a friend's baby shower on Sunday, so we thought we'd make the most of the weekend and get away just the two of us.
We met up with friends, played cards, ate way way way too much, but best of all, I got him to go shopping with me. I'm being serious.
It ended up being a lot of fun. Mostly, funny. Marcus does 99% of his clothing shopping online. He basically knows what size he wears and hopes for the best once it arrives. We were at H&M and both found some things to try on. Mine happened to be regular priced maternity items, and his were super clearanced  hipster pants. We both crammed into one fitting room and I knew this was going to be funny. I made a comment about  it being like a Hinder song being in the dressing room, but he wasn't sure what I was talking about.
He had no idea what to do with the clothes once he was done. "Do I hang them back up? Where do I put them? That shirt is $24?!"

We both had success, and continued over to Top Shop for even more ridiculousness. The racks were filled with crop tops and hot pants - neither of which are things that I could make work for me. We headed up to TopMan for Marcus and he couldn't help but point out every item that he has seen at Goodwill and announcing that it should be $1 and not $65. There's something funny about seeing a dude shopping and saying out loud "this should be a dollar. i'm not joking. I would pay one dollar for that."

We made our way to a Starbucks and it took way too long to find considering it's a Starbucks in Chicago, but we chilled for a bit and planned our dinner. We were still so full from having dip dish pizza at lunch, we waited about 8 hours before eating dinner and we still weren't hungry. So we had a popcorn appetizer and called it a night.

It was a really nice trip overall. We picked up a little souvenir from The Disney Store (a little minnie mouse) for Charlotte and I felt so oddly sentimental about it. It was the first time we got her a toy while we were away and I feel like she's old enough to make the connection between her Minnie Mouse and the Minnie Mouse she sees on TV. And I don't know...I can't put my finger on it anymore, but I just felt all sappy about it and even got teary while in line. I think I just really missed her. We saw a lot of children there and I think it would be fun to bring my little girl some place soon.

Anyway, that's all for now.
Oh, by the way, Charlotte loved her Minnie. She hugged it immediately and fell asleep with it tonight. My heart has broken into a million little pieces.

It's Been a While!

Life lately has been sorta busy. Okay, not that busy, but I just haven't kept up on the blog.

Charlotte has started walking and it's absolutely awesome. She's so stinkin sweet (in my humble opinion).
The only real difference so far is the likelihood of falling, but there have been no injuries so far. She manages to have a look on her face that says "don't throw that at me!!" even though I'm not holding anything. She's always prepared to make a crash landing.

Marcus and I went to Las Vegas about a week ago for a long weekend. His brother and his wife joined us in the fun, and boy, was it fun! (I never know to say: my brother in law and sister in law, or marcus' brother and sister in law or what. i could say my brother and sister in law, but that isn't exactly the relation...whatever - they're close family.) We stayed at THE Hotel at Mandalay Bay for the 3rd time. We really like it there, but decided for future trips it's time to check out some place new! We just get so many good email offers it's hard to pay 3x as much some where else.
Anyway, the food just about everywhere is the best quality and absolutely delicious. You end up paying a premium for drinks most places, but there are lots of happy hours with half off stuff! We met up with a friend of my brother in law who works for a club in Vegas, and that was an adventure in itself. Ha! He took us to a club where we had our own table with bottle service. The Vegas club scene is serious business, folks. There is no joking around, you must either be looking hot or attempting to look hot the entire time. That's exhausting. I was wearing a short strapless dress and still managed to look like a grandma compared to some of these girls. An amazing grandma, maybe. :)

We were more than ready to come back home to our sweet little nugget of a child and get back to work.
A few days before we left for our trip, my old boss contacted me to see if I would be interested in working there again. I used to do massage therapy, but over time it got to be very wearing on the ol' joints. So about 3 years ago, I left that job for a complete career change. I grew to really like the job I have now, but thought maybe doing a couple days of massage would be great!  I would work two afternoons a week. The stars aligned and everything seemed ideal. I had childcare all lined up for the additional 8 hours a week. So I agreed to it! The day after we returned from our trip, I went in to my old work place, and it felt great. But as soon as I started working, I could feel the pain in my wrists immediately, but I completed my afternoon.
And that weekend, I was looking ahead on my calendar, and discovered not only did I need to find child care for the last two weeks of February for my current 20 hr a week job, but now I had to find someone for the extra 8 hours I just took on. I had a handful of people who could help out an hour here and there, but many of them are several miles away. It started to fall apart. Everything that lined up so perfectly was pulling apart and it was a struggle to make it work. So I had to let them know it wasn't go to work. It was so quick, and I felt super flaky. This isn't something I normally do, but at the same time it's what I needed to do.

So that's life right now. I'm starting to feel more settled with my decision, and life shall resume as usual.
Right?

Eurotrip

It's probably about time I get back to business on the blog. Well, as business-y as a casual blog can be.
Marcus and I returned safely from our Eurotrip late Thursday and it feels good to be back in the comforts of our own home. Leaving Charlotte was not easy, but after we were gone, it honestly was great. Since the trip was so far outside our regular routine, it didn't feel wrong that she wasn't there. I think if I were at home carrying on like normal and she were gone (for whatever reason) it would have been much, much tougher.
We had such a good time visiting our friends, Kris and Tiffany. Marcus grew up with Kris and now he is an Air Force pilot stationed in Italy.
I'll give a quick run down of the places we visited, and follow up with some more photos and stories in the near future. To attempt to create one big post would take too long...

We flew from Chicago to London where we had a 5 hour layover before our destination to Milan. Kris and Tiffany were kind enough to pick us up from the airport and drive us all the way back to their place (about 3 hours).
We spent time some time exploring the area and taking in the views:


We were greeted by these mountainous beauties at every turn




Lake Barcis



Lake Barcis again

 Marcus and I took the train to Venice for a Day:

We went to the opening day of Oktoberfest in Munich!!

A big highlight of our trip

And ended our trip with a few days at the breathtaking Lake Como :

A view from the hotel where we (sort of) stayed

It was an amazing trip, I'll be sure to share some more photos and details in the near future. We missed the conveniences of modern day life here in the states, and it took a few days to get used to not checking my phone every 30 minutes (or more!). But the experiences we had were priceless.
More to come...