Another Holiday Road

As I sit here watching up to 7 inches of snow get dumped on Chicago yet again, it seemed like a good time to finally post some pictures and write a little bit about our Florida vacation. It was great. Very warm, very relaxing, and very fun. We swam, we ate, we drank, we read, we played tennis, we even took some exercise classes!

I will admit that I almost had to post when we first got there to say that pride goeth before a fall. With all my FLORIDA-ing in our last post, I doomed myself. We got to Midway Airport, checked in, and found they canceled our flight just as we got to the gate (for no good reason, other than they needed our plane in Milwaukee). We got rebooked onto a flight to Orlando, not West Palm as originally scheduled, which was farther away, but had the one advantage of being a direct flight. However, said flight was FIVE HOURS later, so we had to just hang out at the airport which is oh so much fun with a toddler. She napped in her stroller for about 40 minutes and that's the best I can say about it.

Once on the plane, she was okay, if a bit squirmy (we didn't buy her a seat - never making that mistake again!). Nearing the end, though, things were a bit bumpy and she'd been eating mostly crap all day, so of course, she threw up. On me. Good times. I had a change of clothes for her, so freshened her up when we landed. Then we realized our bags hadn't made it to Orlando with us. Big surprise there (AirTran sucks). Mac spent quite a while arguing with the baggage people while Eliza and I wandered around the baggage area. Then we all went off to collect our rental car...and Eliza and I wandered around the car rental area while Mac stood in line forever. It was really late by the time we got our car and at least Eliza fell asleep on the drive to Port St. Lucie. We were all happy to get to bed, I'd say.

Sadly, though, our bags weren't destined to show up until noon or so, so this is what I had to wear:

So like I said, pride goeth before a fall. Suitably chastened, we went to Target to pick up some clothes to carry us through and then had a glorious time.

Eliza loved playing with Sam and Jack, sons of our friends Andy & Jeanne, who are the ones who persuaded us to go Club Medding with them in the first place.

Eliza couldn't have been happier with being outside in warm weather!! BTW, Andy and Jeanne took most of these pictures with their amazing zoom lens. Good stuff and we are very grateful.
On Thursday, Eliza went to Baby Club Med for the first time, which is their daycare. She did okay, but was pretty overwhelmed. So imagine her dismay when these strangers not only kept her for the day, but then dressed her up in a costume and put her onstage! We, of course, were thrilled, but as of right now, she doesn't seem destined to follow in my footsteps.

Comfort from the thumb and the sippy cup:

Full on meltdown, at which point they took her offstage. Awww....Fortunately, they had slushies on hand for all the talent and Eliza discovered a new favorite beverage:
We were pretty bad with having the camera handy, so didn't get any other fun pictures until our last night there. Here is Miss Eliza on the beach, contemplating life:
Big shadows:
See you next year, Club Med Sandpiper!!