Florida Vacay!

We drove to Florida.
With a 17 month old kid.
And survived
And had fun

FLORIDA VACATION 2015

We loaded up the car, grabbed the baby and took off at 3am in hopes Henry would either stay asleep when we moved him to the car seat or fall back asleep quickly in the dark car so we could get to St. Louis and be halfway to Nashville where we stayed the night the first night. WRONG. He was awake from the minute we put him in the car until 11am. Blah. Talk about a backfire. 

 

The trip at 0miles. Adventure commence. 

 First vacay pic

 

By 7am Henry was antsy to get out of the car (after all it had been 4 hours). We stopped at chick-fil-a and changed him out of his jammies and let him play in the play place since it was rainy outside. 

 

Then we hopped back in and tried a movie to distract him, which kinda worked. 

 

And he FINALLY fell asleep. 

 

And then he was wide awake and full of energy an hour later (he normally sleeps 2-2.5hours at home). Nap fail. And yes that is my turkey baster which happened to be one of his favorite toys I brought to keep him entertained in the car. 

 

Walking around downtown Nashville on the way to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Henry reached up and wanted to hold Daddy's hand even though he was in the stroller. How cute is that. 

 

Country music hall of fame. We had to do something Nashville and tourist-y while we were in town for the night. 

 

We stopped for lunch inside the pretty atrium and had sandwiches from this cute little cafe and some fresh fruit. Then we did the museum. 

 

Ronnie Milsap exhibit. I absolutely love his music and grew up listening to him so this was neat to see. 

 

A cool wall of gold and platinum records. 

 

George Strait and Reba. 

 Downtown Nashville is really pretty :) Then we checked into our hotel. I thought ahead and got us a two room suite that was the same price as normal rooms around town so that we could put Henry in his pack n' play in one room at 7pm (his normal time) with his sound machine and then we could sleep in the other and watch a movie or whatever. Vacay Win.

We went to our favorite restaurant in Nashville for dinner that night. The Loveless Cafe. It's amazing, talk about the best home made southern food ever. We were waiting for a table in some old rocking chairs. Photo op. 

 

And then we gave our kid his first beer....root beer. 

 

He was just thrilled to be out of the car honestly.  But sadly for him, he had another 8 hour day ahead of him. We started out at 8am sunday morning. No point in everyone getting up early and being tired if Henry wasn't going to sleep in the car anyway. We had breakfast at the hotel and then hit the road. This day seemed to go faster and we got lunch at Whataburger which made for a very happy husband.

 I promise my son is back there safely...see VVV

 

He played with his giraffe and I filled a small cloth box full of toys and random kitchen utensils that he always plays with and cups and such. Lots of new things he had never seen to keep him occupied exploring. Things that light up and make noise and move and such too. 

 

I set it next to his seat so he could reach in and grab things and throw them back when he was done if I wasn't sitting next to him the whole time. I also brought a bunch of books including his poke-a-dot books which keep him busy forever. 

 

He did eventually nap again, thank God. 

 

I'm trying to soak in all his sweet baby details before he gets old. 

 Mini magna-doodle and light up bracelet from the dollar store were big hits too.

 

Taylor got tired of driving so we just let Henry take over instead. 

 WE MADE IT!!!!! Praise Jesus. It wasn't bad but it was REALLY good to get out of the car and see this. This is the view from the back sliding door of our condo. How sweet is that. 

Our time in florida To be continued......