Family Vacation to Florida

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, a video must be worth at least a million, and lucky for you I have a video of our whole trip (if you care to see it).

For those of you who don't want to watch the whole 10 minute, here is a rundown of the trip:

• We left Los Angeles airport and flew to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. 
• Those who traveled were:
  • Andrew and I and our kids (ages 2 years and 18 months)
  • My brother, Ben, his wife and 2 kids (ages 4 and 2 years)
  • My brother, Jacob, his wife and 2 kids (ages 2 years and 13 months)
• With all those young kids, you can imagine the trip had lots of laughs and LOTS of tears and tantrums.
• We took a 12-passenger van from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando (a 3-hour trip).
• 2 days at Walt Disney World included a day at Magic Kingdom and a day at Animal Kingdom.​

• Some of the kids' favorite rides included Grace's first roller coaster (the Barnstormer), the Little Mermaid ride, Dumbo, and the Safari in Animal Kingdom
• Then we drove back down to Miami, and we spent the day at the beach and visiting family who live in Miami.
• Red-eye flight back to California

It really was a wonderful trip, but there were plenty of difficult moments during the week. Grace was especially tricky and seemed to only want her Daddy. I'll admit, there was one truly terrible tantrum that did me in. Daddy was on a ride; I was waiting in line with my sister-in-laws and the kids; Grace decided to freak out about having to wear a mask; she screamed and screamed and ran off and told me to "Go Away" and "I want Daddy" more times than I can count. I cried. I couldn't help it. But a sweet mom in line came up to me and offered a lolly pop to see if that would help my feisty daughter calm down. Luckily, it did. Seriously, as I write this I am tearing up again because I am so grateful for the kind people who were so supportive even as I was drowning: my sister-in-laws, the sweet people in line behind us, the aware mom who offered the candy, my husband who came to my rescue and let me have a few minutes away. They all were answers to the silent prayers I was practically screaming as I dealt with a difficult 2-year old.

I wish I could say there was only one difficult moment like that, but the truth is that traveling with little, little kids is hard work. The pandemic and current requirements to wear masks don't help either. And yet, I watch the video of pictures and clips I compiled through the trip, and I smile to think of the happy memories we created. I don't regret going. We had a lot of fun, and I am grateful we have the means to do fun trips like this.