Florida Getaway 2020: Day 1: Flight for Five

On Saturday, February 22, it was time for our winter getaway to Florida.  At the time, I felt a little guilty about taking the boys out of school at a time other than Spring Break, but now I am so grateful that we did!  With everything that has happened in the last month since then I know that we are incredibly lucky to have been able to enjoy that time together and I feel for all of those that are now stuck at home dreaming of their Spring Break Getaway that should have been.

That said, our flight was scheduled to leave that afternoon at 3:10.  At around noon we left the house to make our way to the airport.  When we were about 10 miles from the airport, Eric got a notification that our flight was rescheduled to 5:30 that evening.  Two hours really wasn't enough to make it worth while to head back home and we know the boys would be super bummed to do so, so instead we decided to kill some time.  At first we thought we'd just go to the airport and then hang out there until it was time to go, but realizing IKEA was just a couple of miles up the road we decided to go there for a while instead.  This turned out to be a great distraction.  The boys were amazed by the store and loved looking at all of the different room set-ups, and I am ALWAYS up for a walk around IKEA, or really any furniture store for that matter!

Hazel enjoyed the pint-sized kitchen! :)

FB Post: What do you do when you’re 7 miles from the Milwaukee Airport and your flight is delayed?? Stop at IKEA to kill some time of course! 😉 @ Oak Creek, Wisconsin

As we walked around IKEA our flight was changed again to 4:30 so we spent about an hour there and then headed to the airport where we checked in, grabbed a late lunch and then waited to board our plane.

For all of us, this was a first.  It was Hazel's first flight ever and it was our first flight with her.  We were not sure how she would handle flying, so we were also not sure how to arrange the seating.  At first we were going to put both of the boys in a row and hope the 3rd seat remained open (since we knew the plane had some open seats) and then do the same in an opposite row for Hazel (on my lap), Eric and I.  However as people boarded the plane and realized there were no more seats coupled together, I had flashbacks to our honeymoon of flying 8 hours home without being able to sit with my husband.  Thus I felt guilty by creating two single seats and we ended up moving Asher over by us, leaving Avery in a row to himself with an older couple.  Quickly, we realized that this was not the right choice.  For the next three hours, Hazel drove Eric and I absolutely crazy as she refused to nap (like we'd hoped) and insisted on climbing all over everyone and everything.  She had no desire to be contained in the slightest, so Eric and I did our best to keep her from driving everyone else around us as mad as we were.

Avery flying solo.  I was so envious of him at times!

Finally, we made it to Tampa!  We quickly found our luggage and called our shuttle to a nearby hotel.  At the hotel, we got settled in and then since there were no quick restaurants nearby we ordered McDonalds via Door Dash for the first time (Yes the first time!  We must be old!).  Everyone was hungry and exhausted so while we waited for our food to arrive we took a little tour of the hotel courtyard, lobby and pool.  Then, as soon as our food arrived we headed back upstairs had a quick dinner and then went to sleep...or at least we tried to...