I decided in March that I was taking Lily to Boca Raton for a mommy daughter trip. I know she won't remember it, but it was more for me than her. I also wanted to visit a friend in Boca before she moved to Michigan. We left on Sunday, May 26th and drove 5.5 hours to Ocala, FL to spend the night.
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| Top left clockwise: starting our trip, dinner at Wendy's (Lily has never met a cheeseburger she didn't love), our hotel room view which had Lily chomping at the bit to get her swimsuit on! |
We spent an hour or so swimming in the hotel pool before bedtime and then went right to sleep. She slept GREAT in the hotel room, and so did I. I was glad we decided to stop partway on the way there instead of driving the full distance since we had so much fun enjoying the pool there.
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| Left clockwise: Eating breakfast in our room with crazy bedhead, finding ways to entertain herself (I didn't pack a single toy since I didn't think we would need them, and I was totally right). |
We arrived in Boca and checked into our hotel which had a fridge, which was unexpected! We headed to Publix to get groceries with the fridge development and I bought things for our lunch the entire week. That evening we met up with Melissa and kids at Olive Garden and had fun hanging out with the kiddos. We headed back to our hotel with plans to hit up the beach the next day.
It rained a lot when we were in Boca but we DID get some beach time. We spent the morning playing at Melissa's house and then went back to the hotel for naps with the plan to meet up at the beach later that afternoon. When we arrived to the beach it started storming, so we detoured to The Whale's Rib for dinner. The Whale's Rib has been on the Food Network and was absolutely delicious. I had scallops and they were perfect.
Then we headed to the beach... Lily was so amazed at the ocean and so excited to be there. Our family beach trip in August is going to be awesome ... she just loves the sand and water SO much.
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| Left clockwise: clapping her hands with glee at seeing the waves, pointing out the water to me, a view of the beach |
Melissa has a little boy, Graham, who shares a birthday with Ethan (Dec 27th) and is one month younger than Lily. The two of them had fun playing. Taking photos of toddlers is pretty much impossible. Haha. I'm grateful for the iPhone camera since I didn't take any pictures (other than Lily's 18 month photos!) with my Canon on this trip.
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| Beach fun |
The next day it was raining again, so we met up at a nature center at Delray beach for a shark feeding. It was small, but it was something to do away from the rain and the kids seemed to enjoy it!
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| Left clockwise: eating breakfast at the hotel continental breakfast, sitting in a rocking chair at the nature center, talking to Bridget (Graham's older sister) waiting for the shark feeding to start. |
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| Top left clockwise: watching the nurse shark feeding, checking out the turtle, nurse sharks, the really mean parrot |
Afterwards we went to the Boca Raton mall to have lunch in their food court and settled on Chick Fil A. That mall had some of the coolest and nicest high chairs I have ever seen available for kids. On our way out, Lily managed to get a shoe off and drop it on the ground. A lady alerted me and I turned around and saw an elderly man with the shoe...shuffling towards a trash can! I sprinted towards him and practically snatched the shoe out of his hand before he deposited it in the trash. I'm going to blame this weird behavior on too much sun exposure. We went back to the hotel, napped, and then went to hang out and have dinner at Melissa's house. She made amazing tacos, which Lily loved.
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| Left clockwise: checking out the pool during breakfast (pool became a new word during this trip), snuggling on the bed, getting ready to go swimming |
We spent some time swimming that morning before heading out to the shopping center down the street since we didn't have plans to meet up with Melissa and crew until later.
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| Top left clockwise: playing at the Barnes & Noble in Boca, my Nordstrom Rack score (Toms wedges), and one of the cutest books I've seen lately |
We came back to the hotel for lunch and a nap and then headed to the beach for one last visit.
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| Top left clockwise: eating lunch, the beach, getting ready, beach picture |
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| Melissa and I with the kids, courtesy of her 4 year old who is pretty good with taking pictures! |
We lasted over an hour at the beach and then went our separate ways. Lily and I went to dinner at Shane's Rib Shack where she refused to eat the ribs and macaroni and cheese that she normally would devour. She ate a ton of green beans instead. Whatever works! :) I packed up our things in advance and then we went to bed early since my plan was to try and drive the whole way the next day.
Melissa and the kids came to say goodbye and see us off, and Lily and I set off for the 10 hour trip home around 10 AM. The first two hours were totally uneventful and then we stopped for lunch and a diaper change. She then slept for 2.5 hours and we stopped one more time for gas and a diaper change/snack. We pulled in shortly after 8 PM and we were SO HAPPY to be out of the car and home at last! Lily did AWESOME on the trip, and I'm proud to say that she was perfectly fine with her baby doll, books, music, and looking out the window. I'm pretty committed to my rule of no screen time until age 4, and was repeatedly told I was insane to attempt a long car drive solo without a DVD player. Well.... all those naysayers were, in a word, wrong.
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| Top left clockwise: Eating some string cheese during our snack break (I'm in the backseat with her, and she is rear facing), HOME at last!, the number of miles traveled by the Ridge girls in 5 days. |
It was a wonderful trip, and I'm so glad we went! Lily is such a fantastic little traveler, and we had no set agenda which is key when on a long trip with a toddler. Our next trip is actually coming up next week when we drive up to Lakeside, OH but we'll have Aunt Caroline (my sister) in the car as a passenger too. That'll definitely make a long drive easier for me since I will have breaks from the driving and if absolutely necessary - can sit in the back with Lily. I think I'll only sit back there with her to feed her meals so we don't have to stop as often as she needs no entertainment from me to stay happy!
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