We were only about 30 minutes late from the time that we had pick for our departure - naptime. Not too bad, but the kids were super cranky, ready to sleep and we are doing last minute packing and tying stuff down in the boat. And we are off! We get on the interstate (a VERY busy one at that) and all of the sudden, my Dad pulls over because, apparently, something had flown out of the boat. Into the middle of the interstate. And he was going to get it. I was really nervous and scared, but trying hard not to show it too much because I didn't want to scare the kids. He comes back, with a life jacket that had blown out of one of the compartments that had come open. Sweaty, panting, but not empty-handed! And we're off again!
Morgan immediately wants to watch a movie - Grandpa has a DVD player in the car and this is a luxury that we don't normally have. I told her that she could watch a movie after nap, so she proceeded to go right to sleep. Wish I could say the same for Bennett. We had missed The Window, and now he was overtired and cranky. The rest of the trip to Sunrise, FL was spent trying to get Bennett to go to sleep, asking Morgan to not talk so loud with her headphones on, and keeping a steady flow of snacks running through the car to keep the natives from getting too restless. About four hours after we started, we pull into the hotel parking lot and get checked in. My Dad has to find a place to park the boat and when we get out, we realize that one of the trailer tires is low! Needless to say, it had been a long day and we were wanting dinner and beds and dealing with a tire just didn't fit into that plan.
We went out to TGI Friday's for what might go down as Bennett's Worst Meal. I keep saying that he's at that age where you can't really take him out to restaraunts, but yet, I keep taking him! It's really my fault for bringing an overtired toddler who's been pent up in a car all day to a restaraunt, but needless to say, I really just wanted the food to be eaten and us to leave. I was all about a means to an end! After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and got the kids ready for bed.
Bennett was in a portable crib, and Morgan wanted to share a bed with Lance. I put Bennett down in the crib and tried to escape to the bathroom for a few moments of privacy. That's when I heard a loud *thump*. THUMP THUMP. I ran out of the bathroom, to find that Bennett was standing up, holding onto the crib railing and shaking it with all his strength. Against the wall. That we shared with another room. So, we moved him to the end of my bed and watched as he continued the show there. Morgan kept complaining that she couldn't go to sleep because Bennett was keeping her up. I was up and down, laying him down, wrapping him in a blanket, HOLDING HIM DOWN, anything to make him STOP! He continued and I was curled up in a ball, nearly in tears when Lance made a brilliant suggestion. IGNORE HIM. He will eventually stop. And he did.
Here's the little stinker, the next morning. Happy as a lark, acting as if he didn't keep us up all night. Loving up on Daddy.
The next day held a lot more promise. We were a mere 1 mile away from FLORIDA'S LARGEST MALL and the guys agreed to drop us off there after breakfast. After all, we couldn't check into the house until 3pm and the remainder of the drive was around 4 hours, so we had time to kill. When we walked out to the car, we took notice of the tire that was previously LOW and we realized that it was not low, it was FLAT. We were originally going to just take Bennett with us, and the guys were going to take Morgan with them geocaching, but the flat tire changed the plans a bit. We agreed to take the kids with us so we could still get our shop on and the guys were going to get the tire patched. We were dropped off at the mall a little before 10,when it opened, and instructed to meet them back at the drop off point at 11:30. We shopped our little hearts out and then headed back towards the pick up point around 11:15. That's when I got a phone call from my Dad letting me know that it was taking longer than they had thought. They would need another 10-15 minutes. They would call us. We didn't want to stray too far, so we hung around the stores closer to where they were going to be picking us up. 45 minutes later, we still hadn't heard from them. I called and confirmed that they were still working on the tire. Apparently they had accidentally lost their place in line and then when they were be attended to, finally, the guys at the tire place took the tire off my Dad's TRUCK instead of the trailer. Ha! Needless to say, the guys were a little perturbed at the whole situation, when they finally picked us up. And the kids were hungry. We stopped for gas and gas station goodies, as we were holding off for lunch in Islamorada Key, and then we were off again.
The drive down was somewhat uneventful, other than the bazillions of tolls that we encountered on the Florida turnpike. UNTIL we reached our lunch destination, the Bass Pro Shop, where they have a restaraunt out on a dock by the water. All ten of us were there at this point, my family, my parents and my brothers family and we decended on the restaraunt in need of highchairs and booster seats and milk/water for thirsty kids and snack for hungry ones too. There was a large aquarium inside the store where the kids could check out really large fish like tarpon and grouper. After eating, shopping and seeing, we headed back out to the car and I took one look at the boat trailer and realized that the OTHER tire on the same side of the boat trailer was low now. Not so bad that we couldn't keep driving, but we also didn't know where there would be a place to get the tired fixed when we got to the Key we were staying on, Cudjoe Key. We found a place, and while the kids slept in the running car, the tire was patched in just a few minutes while we waited.
After another hour or so, we were finally there! We got to the house and started unpacking everything. That's when we got a visit by the community security. Apparently they have a 6 person-per-house policy and we had 10 in our house. So, we ended up having to rent another house and move four of us there. My parents graciously agreed to stay with the kids while my brother, his wife, Lance and I slept at the other house. Not as we had planned, but it would have to work!
After getting settled in, we had to do some food shopping, so we made up our lists and my Mom, my sister-in-law, Amy, and I went to the grocery store, about 20 minutes from us. People, I've never SEEN shopping like THIS! We each had a cart. And it was full of groceries. It was like a grocery parade, coming out of that store! But, with six adults and four kids, it's what you need! It really was a funny sight. But you know what was even funnier? The expression on the guys' faces when we came back. With all those groceries. Ha!
Let the fun in the sun begin!
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