Last Saturday my mom, Morgan, and I left for Ft. Lauderdale. The week was my spring break, but not my mom's so we just planned to stay Saturday through Wednesday. It ended up being the perfect amount of time. I wasn't really nervous for Morgan on be with on the trip, but it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. The nice part about traveling with a stroller is you get to cut in front of all the people in the line for security, but it's so much more work to get through all the xray machines, metal detectors, and a new one...the liquid detector thingy to check my breastmilk in her bottle. oofda.
Morgan did really well on the plane ride down there and slept almost the whole time.
me and Morgan about to board her first plane (My mom still hasn't quite figured out how to take a good picture on my iPhone)
Grandma Judie!
Unfortunately the plane was overbooked, so we couldn't bring her car seat along so my momma held her the whole time.
After a few shuttle buses and vans we finally made it to the car rental place and drove a little ways south to Sunny Isles Beach, about half way between Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. It was a nice little Days Inn (and right next to a bunch of huge Trump tower condo skyscrapers!). We went out to eat and then got Morgan a crib and called it a night. I will add that Morgan is usually an amazing sleeper. I thought it was normal for all babies to sleep through the night every night since 7 weeks but apparently not.. But throw in a bad cold and a strange crib she's never slept in and poor baby was up two different times just miserable :(
The next morning (which was not very early since we were up all night, we were an hour ahead, plus daylights savings time that night) we went out for breakfast and then got our swimsuits on! I was sooo excited for Morgan to wear her new swimsuit and try out the pool and the ocean for the first time.
.We asked for a first floor room in our hotel so we didn't have to deal with the stroller and stairs, and our room ended up having a back door that lead right out to the pool and had a nice little patio. That was sooo nice!
She didn't share my enthusiasm with the water, but she didn't scream either
First time at the beach and in the ocean!
We had a little tiki hut so Morgan could chill in her stroller while me and my mom got some sun. It was breezy all week, which was great so we didn't get too hot.
The next couple days we just hung out by the pool, walked around, and went out to dinner.
Morgan's new baby cousin Reese let her borrow her new swimsuit! I even had some flip flops to match! For whatever reason when I was pregnant I thought Morgan would be HUGE and never fit into newborn clothes, newborn diapers, or newborn flip flops, but once again I was wrong and these flip flops are still big on her!
So pretty
Dinner at Tony Roma's Steakhouse
Bored of eating out so much!
We stopped at the Aventura Mall only a mile away and quickly realized we weren't in MN anymore! I felt underdressed wearning shorts,a tee, and flip flops! I think the store with the least expensive clothing was Hollister....We checked out a little boutique with kids clothes and boy would it be fun to be rich and fabulous! A precious little Dolce and Gabbana outfit... $525 dollars..no big deal. It was an indoor mall so we weren't there too long since we didn't want to miss out on the gorgeous weather.
Our last full day in Florida we decided to venture down to Miami to an outdoor mall right on the marina. My phone said it was 9.8 miles away....well an hour and half later we arrived.
The view from our table at Chilis. (Yes, Chilis. I would eat there everyday if my bank account would allow it.)
We shopped for a while and just enjoyed the atmosphere for awhile but then it was time for Morgan to eat. Since Morgan was 8 weeks old and I started back up at school/work I have been pretty much exclusively pumping for her. Some people think it's a lot more work, but I think it's so much faster and easier. Sometimes it's more difficult to find somewhere to pump than just breastfeed because of the need for electricity! But we found Victoria's Secret has an outlet right outside of their dressing rooms ( I have pumped in stranger places, like the vault room at the Orpheum Theater). Unfortunately this is where I realized that somehow my pump had broken. I was not a happy camper to say the least. I thought it would a better idea to take the freeway home. BAD IDEA. I don't like driving on 35 during rush hour, and this was 8 lanes of sheer madness!
Long story short we made it back to the hotel, my mom found me a screwdriver, and I'm not sure what I did but my breast pump starting working again and that's all that matters.
On our way back to the airport we stopped at a public beach in Hollywood to snap a few more pictures.
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Snoozing in her car seat on the flight back. Wish this would have lasted longer.
Entertained by my headphones
Overall it was a pretty successful trip. A big thank you to my parents for my buying my ticket :) It wasn't a typical college student's senior spring break but it was perfect for us.
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