bye florida

richard was kind enough to help us get all of our luggage to the airport in his sweet car.

we don't travel light and all of us and our stuff didn't even fit in the suv we rented.

you could probably say it's my fault but i just like to be prepared, okay! don't blame it all on me!

then we loaded ourselves onto the plane and settled in.

both coming and going to florida we got to fly first class.

shelby even got her own first class seat!

it was great because she could take a nap in the big seat.

people are not used to having babies up there in first class but luckily we were in the back.

she did wayyyy better going back to california than she did flying out there. it even prompted the dreaded comment from my husband "what were you complaining about? she's no problem at all!" whatever. on the way there she hollered and screamed and wanted to run all over the place. toys were flying everywhere!

i guess i just figured out better ways to entertain her after 10 days of traveling. and she was way more outnumbered too since going to florida it had just been me and mom vs. shelby. and now it was 5 to 1.

on the flight to florida i brought enough stuff to entertain a small preschool class because i just wasn't sure what she would like. on the way back i had a better idea so i didn't have to lug such huge bag.

here was what worked:

-i made a little photo book of family pictures and pictures of her favorite places and animals. that was great to keep her focused on takeoff and landing.

-i brought a little fold up track thing for her to use with her cars that she loves so much

it was fun for me to play with too!

-we brought a TON of sticker/coloring books and we bought some at d-world too. the nemo, cars, and wonder pets ones were the biggest hits. the bigger stickers we put on the window/seats etc. luckily the flight attendants didn't seem to care. and i cleaned them all up of course.

-mom got little animals, like a giraffe, tiger, lion, etc. that we played with for a long time.

-the best obviously was the dvd player. she watched cars and monsters inc. i love that ours lasts for 6 hours so i didn't have to conserve it at all.

thank goodness she had her own seat though. that really made all the difference. i could not have held her while she napped for an hour. as always, blanket and thumb were her best friends and mine too.

i was so happy when we got home. there's no place like it.

bonus: when we got home it was super duper cold and pouring rain. because we were picked up from the airport and other people were watching our house and had the keys and because we were all dumb.... we were locked out!  here is where the boys stood and played on their phones and waited for the keys to arrive. mom, shelby, and i huddled underneath the overhang in the backyard after getting socks and sweatshirts out of our suitcases and tried to keep shelby warm.

it was quite an adventure!