I think we have dubbed this trip the official "1st Annual Cousins' Vacation" in honor of Kenzie and Evie spending their first overnight together at a place other than their houses. We hope to be able to do something like this annually. Kenzie had a blast! We had a great time too.
This all started about a month ago when Julie and Eric let us know that they had a 2 bedroom condo in Palm Beach as part of their annual Florida beach trip and that there was one night when no one else was using the second bedroom. They were awesome enough to offer us the opportunity to stay with them for the one night. Our plan for this summer has been to not take a vacation. We are in the midst of preparing for baby #2 and we have a lot going on this summer so it seemed like our best option. So an opportunity to spend a night away from home on the beach was a welcome idea. Julie and Eric were planning to stay in Palm Beach this year so the drive wouldn't be too bad and being away just one night would allow us to test the waters with Kenzie in a hotel. In her two years of life (okay about 2 weeks shy of 2 years) we have never actually stayed overnight in a hotel. Last year our vacation consisted of staying at Julie and Eric's house for a couple of nights and at my parents' cabin/townhouse in the mountains of Tennessee so we were never actually in a hotel. The reason we were leery of this idea was basically just that she doesn't do well with a lot of noise at night and we have worried about figuring out how to sleep with her in the room with us. The plus to this place is that in addition to 2 bedrooms, there was a common area which meant we could put Kenzie down for bed but not have to turn in ourselves immediately. As she gets older I'm sure we will figure other ways to work it, but for now this was a great compromise.
Thursday morning we set out bright and early. We weren't as bright and early as we would have liked. See, as it turns out, on Wednesday Kenzie developed some sort of weird runny nose and she ran a very low grade fever that night. We almost nixed the trip. After chatting with Julie and Eric we determined that if she seemed okay on Thursday morning we would go ahead and come down but we would keep our distance from Evie so we didn't get her sick. Kenzie woke up her normal self on Thursday morning so after a bit of extra debating we headed out. We had already packed and were just waiting to see what we would do so that saved us some time. The drive down was uneventful. We stopped a few times to potty... or to let Kenzie potty. Okay, okay... me too. Will was doing some impressive gymnastics on my bladder for part of the ride down. Right as we were about to hit Palm Beach... Kenzie finally decided to nap. This was good and bad. Good because it was likely she would not want to nap the remainder of the day... and bad because there was no way this was going to be a very long nap.
Sure enough, as soon as we put the car in park at the restaurant, Kenzie woke up. Typical. We had a pretty good lunch at the Thirsty Turtle.
Unfortunately though, this lunch experience was the beginning of the "Kenzie is going to refuse to eat anything" ordeal we had for the entire trip. I don't know if it was because she still wasn't feeling up to par or because she was out of her norm... but she refused to eat just about everything we tried to give her on this trip. In bad mom fashion, I think my kid lived on whole grain goldfish, milk, and fruit for this entire trip. Good thing it was only 24 hours. She has eaten fairly normally since we have gotten home. Weird kid.
After lunch we headed over to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center. Kenzie probably could have stayed all day just watching some of those turtles. It was a nice thing to do with kids. It doesn't take long and only asks for donations so you can donate just a bit and not feel bad if your child has a breakdown or something and you have to leave. We didn't have that problem... but we have been in the position before of wondering if something was worth the cost when you didn't get to enjoy it fully.
After some beach time we went over to the lagoon pool at the hotel. It was awesome because it is entirely shaded in the morning.
They have a waterfall... and a water slide. Steven went down the slide first and then we decided to send him down with Kenzie. Her first time was a bit iffy but as soon as they hit the water at the bottom she started saying "Wheeeee again!!!" and wanting to do it over and over. So Daddy took her twice more.
I cannot take credit for this video either. Thank you for sharing it Julie!
After swimming a while it was time to head in and start packing up to check out. We were checked out by 11am and went to a pizza lunch with Julie, Eric, and Evie before heading back to Apopka. This was (thankfully) the last meal that Kenzie would refuse. The pizza was awesome though! I can't remember the name of the place but it was so good!
The drive back was also uneventful. Kenzie slept the ENTIRE way home. We even stopped once to let me go to the bathroom and she slept through the car being put in park. Way out of the norm for her. We tired her out. She was so tired that when we got home she just sat in Steven's chair, holding a banana, and staring aimlessly at the TV. We let her watch while we were unpacking and she didn't move. We put her to bed early but I would say that her utter exhaustion was the sign of a successful trip. Can't wait for the 2nd Annual Cousins' Vacation next year when there were be 3 cousins and Evie will be old enough to fully enjoy the experience too. =)
This all started about a month ago when Julie and Eric let us know that they had a 2 bedroom condo in Palm Beach as part of their annual Florida beach trip and that there was one night when no one else was using the second bedroom. They were awesome enough to offer us the opportunity to stay with them for the one night. Our plan for this summer has been to not take a vacation. We are in the midst of preparing for baby #2 and we have a lot going on this summer so it seemed like our best option. So an opportunity to spend a night away from home on the beach was a welcome idea. Julie and Eric were planning to stay in Palm Beach this year so the drive wouldn't be too bad and being away just one night would allow us to test the waters with Kenzie in a hotel. In her two years of life (okay about 2 weeks shy of 2 years) we have never actually stayed overnight in a hotel. Last year our vacation consisted of staying at Julie and Eric's house for a couple of nights and at my parents' cabin/townhouse in the mountains of Tennessee so we were never actually in a hotel. The reason we were leery of this idea was basically just that she doesn't do well with a lot of noise at night and we have worried about figuring out how to sleep with her in the room with us. The plus to this place is that in addition to 2 bedrooms, there was a common area which meant we could put Kenzie down for bed but not have to turn in ourselves immediately. As she gets older I'm sure we will figure other ways to work it, but for now this was a great compromise.
Thursday morning we set out bright and early. We weren't as bright and early as we would have liked. See, as it turns out, on Wednesday Kenzie developed some sort of weird runny nose and she ran a very low grade fever that night. We almost nixed the trip. After chatting with Julie and Eric we determined that if she seemed okay on Thursday morning we would go ahead and come down but we would keep our distance from Evie so we didn't get her sick. Kenzie woke up her normal self on Thursday morning so after a bit of extra debating we headed out. We had already packed and were just waiting to see what we would do so that saved us some time. The drive down was uneventful. We stopped a few times to potty... or to let Kenzie potty. Okay, okay... me too. Will was doing some impressive gymnastics on my bladder for part of the ride down. Right as we were about to hit Palm Beach... Kenzie finally decided to nap. This was good and bad. Good because it was likely she would not want to nap the remainder of the day... and bad because there was no way this was going to be a very long nap.
Sure enough, as soon as we put the car in park at the restaurant, Kenzie woke up. Typical. We had a pretty good lunch at the Thirsty Turtle.
Unfortunately though, this lunch experience was the beginning of the "Kenzie is going to refuse to eat anything" ordeal we had for the entire trip. I don't know if it was because she still wasn't feeling up to par or because she was out of her norm... but she refused to eat just about everything we tried to give her on this trip. In bad mom fashion, I think my kid lived on whole grain goldfish, milk, and fruit for this entire trip. Good thing it was only 24 hours. She has eaten fairly normally since we have gotten home. Weird kid.
After lunch we headed over to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center. Kenzie probably could have stayed all day just watching some of those turtles. It was a nice thing to do with kids. It doesn't take long and only asks for donations so you can donate just a bit and not feel bad if your child has a breakdown or something and you have to leave. We didn't have that problem... but we have been in the position before of wondering if something was worth the cost when you didn't get to enjoy it fully.
 |
| Kenzie made friends with a few of the turtles |
 |
| Don't worry... that isn't a real turtle our child is potentially causing major head trauma |
.JPG) |
| Photo Credit: Julie (my camera is not this great... rather my lens is not great) |
After we hit up the turtle place we stopped by Publix for a few things before heading back to the hotel. Kenzie seemed to like the hotel experience. We unpacked some stuff... not much because we were only staying one night and hung out for a while before dinner. We tried to put Kenzie down for a nap but because of her nap in the car earlier, she was having none of that. Instead we read books and colored. Kenzie loved the view from the balcony too. She kept saying "upstairs" because we were so high.
 |
| Daddy kisses! |
After some chill time we headed out to meet Steven and Julie's cousin and her family for dinner at Yard House. It was really good and an awesome deal. If you go early enough there are 1/2 price apps so we just got a few and split them. We have one here on I-Drive so Steven and I definitely plan on going back sometime. After dinner we went out to the beach where Steven's cousin, Kristi took some photos for us of Kenzie and a couple of the cousins together. She is an amazing photographer. If anyone ever needs a recommendation for a family photographer in Palm Beach, let me know. I know a great one!
We had planned on trying to go swimming when we got back to the hotel, but due to Kenzie's lack of an afternoon nap, she was not having that either so we ended up just putting her down for bed. She was asleep in just a few minutes. At that point though, we were exhausted too and we ended up joining her pretty quickly. Now, after all my worrying about sleeping in the same room with Kenzie I have learned one thing. I am way worse at it than she is. She slept just fine. I had to "rock" her twice (though once was just because she was chatting it up in a state of sleep and I couldn't sleep because of it), but really it was me with the issues. Every time she shifted or anything... I was up. Maybe it was some weird hypervigilance mom thing but I had a terrible night with regards to sleep. Then to top it off... I woke up with a runny nose. I initially thought it was because we ran her humidifier all night and that just caused problems for me. Now, a day later... I think I caught whatever Kenzie had. The plus is that it seems to be fast moving and isn't terrible. She has been fine for a couple of days now so hopefully it keeps moving quickly.
The next morning we got up fairly early so that we could make sure to have some beach and pool time before we had to check out of the hotel. Kenzie had talked about the beach and "pool water" for a few days at this point so we owed it to her. Kenzie was initially unsure of the beach. She always does this. I think she has a weird aversion to the really soft sandy parts of the beach. They make it hard to walk and she gets nervous. She is okay once she is on the packed sand. We went into the water farther than we have ever taken her thanks to a reef just off the shoreline that makes for very calm waters. Once she got used to the idea, she kicked her feet and laughed but she never did let go of my arms. Steven and Julie went out to the reef to do a bit of snorkeling. They said they saw some pretty good reef fish while out there.
 |
| Photo Credit: Julie |
After some beach time we went over to the lagoon pool at the hotel. It was awesome because it is entirely shaded in the morning.
 |
| Photo Credit: Julie |
After swimming a while it was time to head in and start packing up to check out. We were checked out by 11am and went to a pizza lunch with Julie, Eric, and Evie before heading back to Apopka. This was (thankfully) the last meal that Kenzie would refuse. The pizza was awesome though! I can't remember the name of the place but it was so good!
The drive back was also uneventful. Kenzie slept the ENTIRE way home. We even stopped once to let me go to the bathroom and she slept through the car being put in park. Way out of the norm for her. We tired her out. She was so tired that when we got home she just sat in Steven's chair, holding a banana, and staring aimlessly at the TV. We let her watch while we were unpacking and she didn't move. We put her to bed early but I would say that her utter exhaustion was the sign of a successful trip. Can't wait for the 2nd Annual Cousins' Vacation next year when there were be 3 cousins and Evie will be old enough to fully enjoy the experience too. =)
Comments
Post a Comment