Scott's Hall of Fame: Travelin' Man

Scott went on his first vacation in November.

Yes. As in ~~two~~ four months ago. I am just getting around to writing about it (and yes, I've been getting around to writing about it for eight solid weeks.) And no, I don't have any mommy guilt for not keeping up with every monumental milestone of my son's young life in a timely fashion.

Okay, obviously I have a little mommy guilt. But I'll get over it -- jus as soon as I catch up on my blogging.

The Rough Family took a week-long cruise to the Caribbean with Grandparents Richardson and Aunt Kristy, Uncle Martin and cousin Peyton, as I said earlier, in November.

It was our first time traveling with a toddler. (Scott had just turned 13 months and had perfected his walking technique on the day of departure.) Overall, it went fairly well, but there were definitely a few hiccups.

At the airport, the morning of departure. There is NOTHING better than curbside check-in when traveling with a kid and toting THAT MUCH crap.

The most critical of these is that my son simply doesn't travel well. At least not yet. We've taken him on two flights since the November cruise, stayed in a handful of hotels, strapped him into a couple of rental cars and what have we gotten? Frayed nerves, sleepless nights and vomit-covered carseats.

Ready to takeoff on our big adventure!

This remains one of the few times Scott has slept on an airplane.

The November trip was no different. The flight out to Florida wasn't too bad - Scott slept most of the way on the plane. But the first night in the hotel was sheer hell. He woke up at 2 a.m. and WOULD NOT go back to sleep.

It was so awful that Jim finally got up and got dressed at 4:15 a.m. and took the kid on a walk along the beach and for a donut. They came back to the room at 5 a.m. and we finally got Scott to sleep until about 8 a.m.

The view from our hotel room in Ft. Lauderdale. Pretty sweet, huh?

Scott loves the balcony.

Jim gives Scott his first taste of the ocean. He's not crazy about it.

We had hoped things would get better once Scott was in the pak n play in our cabin, but the rest of the trip was really hit or miss in terms of his nocturnal performance. At one point, I was so tired that I slept with him in a cabana on the beach in the Caribbean. (Our trip included stops to Princess Cays in the Bahamas, Aruba and Curacao.)

Sleeping issues aside, we had much fun on the trip. Grandma and Grandpa Richardson sprung for a sweet suite on the cruise ship, with a spectacular balcony, sitting room, couch, marble bath-tub, you name it.

CHEERS! Setting sail on our cabin balcony.

Scott loved this balcony too.

And Scott and Peyton were among only a handful of toddlers on the entire trip, which meant they pretty much had the kiddie pool all to themselves most days. (And yes, they lived it up like true Celebri-tots...taking full advantage of the awesomeness that is a private pool at least four of the seven days we were on board.)

Peyton and Scott loved playing in the ship's kiddie pool!

The cruise ship also had a playroom, where Scott discovered just how much he liked balloons, and two stops at beaches, where we quickly learned that my son HATES (and I do mean HATES) the sand.

Is there anything better than a big red balloon?

Slides! Love the ships's jungle gym/playroom.

Playing with one of the few other kids on board.

I am not really sure what's up with that. I am hoping he loathed the stuff simply because he had just learned to walk and was unsteady on his feet. We did coax him into the ocean, but he wasn't crazy about that either, unless he was clinging to me and Jim.

Definitely something we will have to work on.
Peyton, on the other hand, acted like a born beach babe. She'd still be there if we hadn't brought her home with us.

Peyton and Grandpa Richardson play on the beach in the Bahamas.

With six adults on board and two kids, we also had the luxury of switching off and enjoying adult-only dinners. My parents each took Scott and Peyton one night, and both kids another, so mommy and daddy could enjoy a leisurely meal.

And one of the most entertaining parts of the cruise was watching Scott learn how to dance. He LOVED, loved, loved listening and jamming to the bands.

I won't talk about the flight home. It still frightens me. But overall, much fun was had by all.