Trip Triumphs and Fails

Fails:
Plane activities:
Going off how pleased I was with myself for the snack box I made
Andrew for our flight to Austin (14 months old) I smugly thought I'd have
this Hawaii flight. No problem. He is different now than he was in October.
His attention span has improved exponentially and he is also more
reasonable. Um, exponentially accelerating from near zero still isn't that
long and, while reasonable at times, he takes his independence very
seriously. I packed him a super awesome tiny backpack. It had new sticker
books, a new book, his snack box from October, two of his little shape
matching toy boats and an historically favorited book. I even went over the
top by putting clementines and Cheerios into Easter eggs! He wasn't having
any of my shenanigans on the flight. Michael gently suggested that I tried
too hard on the flight out. Could be. He was just a grump, not too wretched
but a major grump. (*He did AWESOME on the flight home though, he enjoyed
his backpack, stayed in his car seat for 90% of the flight and was generally
in better spirits...he needed the vacation I guess)






Not Enough Clothes:
We wound up checking two bags and yet we all wound up not really
having sufficient clothing. Beach vacations are tricky because there are
multiple wardrobe changes per day and sometimes things were too soggy or
stinky for immediate re-wear. It was NBD though...we were in Hawaii, we just
wore dirty clothes.

Triumphs:
Hotel:
We lucked out/splurged in finding a one-bedroom unit for only a
little more per night than the studio condos and it was AMAZING! We had
stayed at this hotel/condo complex when we went to Maui in 2013. It is
individually owned units being managed by a hotel company. It isn't fancy
(our studio was decidedly unfancy) but the beach is close and the pool is
closer. Getting the one-bedroom was such a luxury. We could put Andrew to
bed at night and then Michael and I could stay up and talk or watch a movie,
and hang out just the two of us. Having a kitchen was also great, we did at
least one and sometimes two meals per day in the room or on the property
which cut costs and frustration.






(Insanely Wasteful) Kids Water Bottles:
Arrowhead sells tiny, disposable water bottles for children. DUMB,
right? Wrong (although obviously at home we wouldn't go this route). They
were fantastic. His backwash contaminates water bottles pretty quickly so
the small size was great. Plus they had caps that couldn't be removed (so no
refills :() and didn't have any small parts which meant he was safe to keep
one all the time. I read that toddlers and the elderly are strangely bad at
hydrating so we tried to make drinking water as accessible as possible.

Snap & Go Stroller:
I worried this was probably a parenting fail developmentally since
Andrew is too old and too interested to be reclined in an infant car seat,
especially on the go but it was outrageously convenient. A bonus was that
since the beach tired him out like nothing I've ever seen we got to enjoy
something we haven't in nearly a year- sleeping baby car transfers! The
first day we spent at the beach we transferred him from car to stroller to
busy restaurant and proceeded to eat lunch while he slept. We also could use
it as a beach supply wagon. I didn't feel too badly about him missing out
because we had...



The Lillebaby carrier:
This was awesome. We went for walks on the beach in it, we took
little hikes in it, we managed through super touristy areas with it. He got
to see everything and I got to be face to face (or face to back of the head)
with him as he did.






Someone's having a blast!

Inflatable Punchy Bag Balloon
I bought these as New year's party favors and they are the best $2
I've ever spent! We brought it deflated and blew it up in the condo. It is a
fun toy that moves slowly enough that I was never concerned about property
damage. We got to have our standard family balloon games every night just
like we were home. Choosing which and how many toys to bring was a packing
challenge but this balloon was a no-brainer and now lives in the diaper bag.

Red Box:
I SAW SO MANY MOVIES! We watched a movie four of the five nights I
think.
Going:
There we many reasons not to go. We were all sick and had been sick.
I had work stuff going on that required hustle to be free to go. Michael had
a new job that he had to put off for a week. Hawaii is so expensive. But it
was the absolute best trip. We had great weather, great family time, great
couple time, great mommy/son time, great daddy/son time..










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