Griswold Family Vacation

We made it. Our first family vacation flying with Miles. This blog post may be a long one because I have a lot to recap so I can look back at the memories and laugh. hysterically.

Sunday morning our flight left at 9:30. By the time we were ready to board, Ben had already spilled two cups of coffee. One in the car on the way to the airport and one at the airport waiting to board. We laughed and said he was off to a good start.

I had no idea what to expect with Miles on the plane so I packed my bag carefully. All of the things were new he had not seen before. Here's what I took (not that you care but so I don't forget):

-thomas the train
-a toy with gears you turn
-thomas book
-a slide book (one where he slides the windows to match up animals)
-sippy cup, fruit snacks, m&m's, goldfish, teddy grahams.

We were seated in row 11 behind another fam of 3 with another fam of 3 beside us. Their kids were also anywhere from 18 months to 2 1/2 so we were excited about that. Actually all three of the kids did awesome. Miles loved watching out the window during takeoff until he couldn't see the ground anymore, and by that time we could turn on the ipad, which we had loaded up with Curious George, Super Why and Daniel Tiger episodes, Despicable Me, Thomas the Train & Toy Story movies. He watched it off and on between snacks and just taking it all in. Not one fuss or scream the entire way. He didn't sleep either, he was just happy.

Next comes the arrival at Fort Lauderdale. The weather was awesome. 85 and sunny. Just what we've been waiting for. We got the rental car and M fell asleep driving to the hotel, which is what we planned on doing. The hotel was nice but busy with all kinds of internationally traveling people. We got changed and hung out at the beach the rest of the day.

This was the first time Miles stayed in a hotel with the two of us (I had taken him to Chicago once before and stayed with him but this was his first real experience with a hotel) so we scooted the two queen beds together and let him sleep in the middle. He was in heaven.

Fort Lauderdale was okay in some parts and the beach was nice but it was not a kid friendly florida town to visit. Actually we both said we'd never go back to southern florida. Let's just say lots of adults in their 40's acting like they're on a college spring break. Dining in bikinis (when most shouldn't have worn bikinis in the first place), drinking out of funky shaped glasses with super long straws, popping "wheelies" in their "crotch rockets" down A1A. We ended up doing carryout for a few meals because we had a hard time finding restaurants with high chairs or kids meals. :/

Looking cute before dinner:

On Monday morning Ben had a tee time at 8:00 to play golf about an hour away. He got up super early and left. I had planned to take M to breakfast and hang out at the pool with him until Ben got home around noon. Ben calls at 8:08 and here is how the convo went:

Ben: kristyn?? ummm...... i've got some issues.
Me: okaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy......
Ben: I stopped to get a cup of coffee and went out to the car to tuck my shirt in. and....... I set my wallet on the top of the car.
Me: okaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy......
Ben: and now I can't find it. It's not in my pocket. Actually I think I left it on the car and I've already been back to the gas station to look for it and its not there.

I suddenly felt like I was in a real life game of Clue. Therefore I start in with 20+ questions. I wasn't on Ben's case by any means because I felt terrible for him. It really could happen to anyone. His brain just farted.

So I tell him I really don't think it makes sense for him to go ahead and play golf and he should go back to the gas station (which was 2 miles from the golf course) and park the car and walk the way he drove to look again. He agreed and headed back to the gas station. Then he calls back about 8:30:

Ben: new developments, i'm finding some of my cards along the road. but not any good ones, an expired credit card, an insurance card, a costco card, and a golf handicap card. the wallet is either right around here or someone picked it up.
Me: okay well i just read online that since you'll need some sort of id to get back then if you can't find it you'll need to file a police report and take a copy of it with you to the airport when we leave.

So he looks and looks and looks and no wallet. I knew what was in there. Miles birth certificate. I've seen too many Datelines about people stealing babies identities and you don't know it until their adults and try to get a credit card or apply for a loan. I wanted to cry but didn't say anything to Ben because I knew he was on the verge of going crazy. Considering the kind of people we saw hanging out in fort lauderdale, i was pretty sure someone was thinking they struck gold and were on their way to get their green card or visa or whatever they wanted to get. At that time he was thinking maybe someone got the wallet and threw out the cards that they didn't want. He did say the cards he found were in where his cash was, not in a credit card slot. The next few hours he spent at the police station and then back at the gas station with the po po.

Meanwhile, back in the hotel:

Finally he heads back to the hotel. Miles and I were then back in the room. I ask Ben to see the cards he found and there were notches out of them. Another clue. So I said. Ben, you couldn't do this kind of damage to a card. This has been ran over. If your wallet was ran over, it could have flipped several feet off the road if someone hit it at a decent speed. I told him I know he looked everywhere but it was time for Miles to nap so I said let's put miles in the car and he can nap and lets go back and look. It was like I needed to look for myself.


He said okay so we took quick showers and I went to grab my phone/bag. There was a missed call. From Rhonda. at the State Farm office. in Indianapolis. She had left me a voicemail saying someone had called their office and has Ben's wallet with everything in it. Everything but the cash but we are pretty sure it flew out when those other cards flew out. I had tears in my eyes. Rhonda gave ben a number for Joseph Ryan in West Palm Beach. Ben called him and he said he had the wallet and we could come get it anytime. He was an emt teaching a class at ITT Tech of West Palm. Wow. What a good man. He told Ben he was going to mail it but then he called his wife and she told him he best be going through that wallet and make some phone calls. THANK GOD this man has a woman in his life to tell him the sensible thing to do. :) :) :)

Ready to get dads wallet!!! (he has a purple paci because that's all cvs had)

We drove up to West Palm, got the wallet, and finished our vacation with smiles on our faces. Here is a pic of the scene and the deal goin down. The blonde is just a bystander. She had no role in this episode.

We broke a few rules on this trip including changing his diaper in the airport gift shop (it was much cleaner than the bathroom) haha and letting him indulge in his first iced chai. We told him it was Grammy and Grandma's favorite!!!

Thank goodness the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, except for driving to an outlet mall which was the most ghetto establishment I'd ever seen. When it was all said and done, it was good to get away with our little fam. Miles seemed to love it and we will never forget it!

Oh just hanging out on the floor of the plane on the way home.