Have We Arrived?

Arrived at what, I'm not sure.  But perhaps we have arrived at a don't-have-to-pack-everything-you-own-CAN-all-sleep-restfully-in-a-standard-sized-hotel-room-vacation-is-actually-fun stage.  

I did actually pack everything I owned on our five day trip to Ft. Lauderdale.  The bellman needed two luggage racks to get all of our stuff up to the room.  And let me just add that the only reason we were at a hotel nice enough to have a bellman was because Jason had a conference he had to work so the tab was on Pan American!  One small perk to having your husband gone over half the time! The point is, I didn't need all the stuff I packed, for the first time.  Didn't use the stroller even once.  Good riddens to packing that thing! 

Then there is the dread over sleeping in one standard sized hotel room with three children who usually require total solitude to fall asleep. Last year, Jason sweet talked the lady at the front desk into giving us this ridiculously huge suite at a ridiculously low price.  All so we could put Owen in his own room to sleep so that the rest of us could get some sleep.  This year there was no such luck.  He tried working his magic but they still wanted an extra $150 a night to upgrade to a suite and this was not happening.  I wish I would have taken a picture of what we rigged up.  Owen's pack and play was in the closet, which wouldn't close.  The light in the closet only went off when the door was closed so Jason had to take down the light covering and unscrew the lightbulb to make this work.  Then we draped a sheet over the two closet doors, making him his own little room.  Worked like a charm.  The child laid down and slept for naps and bedtime every day and night.  The kids slept on a fold out couch and Jason and I got the bed.  

I don't know what connection is between us, vacation, and rain.  Oh yeah, we live in Florida.  Anyway, it rained a LOT in Ft. Lauderdale this past week.  It was pretty predictable to be nice all morning and nasty all afternoon.  So we swam all morning, napped in the afternoon.  The only rough time was like 3 to 4:30 when it was still nasty outside but Jason was working so we couldn't really go anywhere.  There were a few bad screaming mommy moments in there, but for the most part it was pretty stress free.  

Up until now, I have always had one child that made the pool either a stressful place or just completely unenjoyable.  I remember last year at one of Jason's conferences, an hour at the pool felt like an eternity.  This year, four hours went by rather fast.  Amelia is a great swimmer now.  Owen is fearless in his floaties.  And Lane progressed throughout the week to get off the steps and actually float and finally put his face in the water.  They were all pretty independent.  I didn't even have to be in the water every second if I wanted to sit out for a few minutes.  Amelia made new "best friends" every day while Lane just scowled at anyone that tried to be friendly to him or play with his water toys. Not sure how I got an anti-social kid.  Owen tried to tell every stranger his knock-knock jokes and was so confused why they didn't understand what he was saying!

One rainy day, we forfeited naps and went to see the new Disney movie, UP.  I can not very often say this about my kids, so let me put it in bold print: They.Were.Perfect. You would not believe some of the parents in this theater.  I realize you need to have an extra dose of tolerance when you are at a 12:00 showing of a kid's movie.  You expect some crying, some talking, some kids getting out of their seats.  The row in front of me had two adults and about five kids.  Let's just say that the five kids completely had control of the situation.  They were running circles (literally) around their seats and the handicap railing in front of them.  Not even attempting to watch the movie.  The adults made a few weak attempts of telling them to sit down which didn't even work for one second.  The kids just told them no and kept running around the theater.  I was so annoyed.  I was moments away from leaning up and suggesting 

they leave.  Thank goodness they finally came to this conclusion on their own.  Only after the kids started chanting, "let's leave, let's leave!" It was unbelievable.  I just wanted to say, if my 20 month old can sit quietly through an hour and forty minute movie plus previews, can't you control your eight year old, at least?  Maybe he was six, I don't know.  Whatever.  Needless to say, I have never been so proud of my children.  Not one trip to the bathroom, not one meltdown over having no concessions, nothing.  I gushed all over them all afternoon.  Maybe they'll decide to try the perfect thing more often!

Anyway, I've already asked Jason if there are other conferences at ritzy hotels that we can tag along to.  I think we could get used to it!