The evolution of vacation

Tight quarters!

We just recently took a family vacation to Florida to visit/invade my parents who are escaping the Canadian winter to stay in a condo for a month. Overall it was a wonderful week - with that said I have learned a few things from vacationing with my kids!

1) When you go on vacation with your kids, you get to spend a lot of time with your kids.
2) When you go on vacation with your kids, you have to spend a lot of time with your kids...
3) A toddler is not interested in sitting on your lap for any length of time - this includes the 3-hour flight where they are required to sit on your lap
4) Saving money on flights by going with a "discount airline" is at a cost - no leg-room, no inflight movies, no food and apparently no cleaning staff
5) IPads are saviours!
6) If you call something a diaper bag - the airline won't charge you the "carry-on" fee
7) Strollers pose a high security alert - at least that seemed to be the case based on the amount of time the Airline took to "clear it"
8) You can lose a soother on the plane
9) People are generally sympathetic to a travelling parent with young kiddies - even when your kid is crying/yelling for several minutes or slapping the head of the person in front of them (that really happened)
10) No matter how many challenges - giving your kids the experience of travelling to new places is totally worth it!

I will have so many memories from this trip. It was great to have so much time with Nan and Gramps. I loved how much time Cooper spent in the pool each day - at least 5 hours and we estimate about half that time was spent under water. I loved that we did it and we survived - a good reminder for when we plan the next adventure!