This month's major event was our family vacation to the Cayman Islands. It was Lily's first time as an international traveler and first time on a plane. We went with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Chris for a week and stayed in the family timeshare at Moritt's Tortuga Club. I've been hearing about this place for years, so it was good to see that it actually exists and that I'm not married into a delusional family that has collective memories of a made-up place.
We hadn't had a vacation since the year before, so we were ready. It was also mine and Danielle's first time flying since having Lily, so the flights were a bit more involved than we remembered them being. We were afraid how Lily would do with being constrained for 4 hours and with the pressure changes and everything. She was fine is our 9+ hour car rides to North Carolina, but there were breaks where she could run around at rest stops with jungle gyms. No such thing on an plane. I'd say she was pretty good, but definitely had bouts of boredom and/or frustration. It took a lot of work on our part to make sure she didn't have a meltdown. Being the wonderful Mom that she is, Danielle made sure we were well equipped. We brought all sorts of snacks, a DVD player with a stack of movies, toys, stickers, and coloring books. When we went through all of those things and it was time for a nap, all we needed was our secret weapon, Grandma. Everyone took turns trying to entertain her on the plane, but Grandma's special touch put her to sleep and gave everyone a little break.
Our trip consisted of just a few things. Swimming, sitting on the beach, eating, and drinking. Everything you'd hope for a relaxing vacation. Oh and running around after a toddler. So this wasn't one of those "sit by the beach while someone refills your mojito" type of vacations. It was more of a "lets take turns playing in the sand, walking around the resort, changing sandy diapers, and sitting in the water for 5 minutes at a time" kind of vacations. And that's not a complaint. I love running around and playing on the beach with my little girl on a beautiful island. I'd take that any day. But tt can be a bit tiring sometimes. Though we all got our turns doing that. It was great that we had the support of the family there too so that Danielle and I had time to relax together here and there. We even had a night where we got to go out to dinner, just the two of us. We went to a restaurant called "Upstairs at Kaibo" near Rum Point, which was beautiful and had a rare rum collection which made for some crazy-ass mojitos.
Each day we tried to do something a little different as a family. The mornings were pretty much the same; Grandpa would go scuba diving in the morning, Grandma would go claim a palabla by the beach, and Danielle, Chris and I would play with Lily until we were ready for the beach. Each afternoon we'd switch it up. We went to Rum Point a few times, hung out with the Martin's Cayman friends, Carl and Julie (and got wasted), and one day made our way to the other side of the island. Our time share was on the secluded side of the island so it was kind of nice to see where "downtown" was. We ended up hanging out at this outdoor shopping center called Camana Bay, where they have these outdoor fountains for kids to play with. We figured Lily would love it. And she did. There were two areas, one for little kids, and one that was much bigger and more powerful. It started slow and low at about 3 2 1/2 feet high, so we didn't know that it eventually became more Bellagio-like. Lily liked it until it got nuts. We had to jump in and save her a few times. I had the forsight to put my phone aside in case something like this happened. That night, we ate at this Tapas restaurant where you can watch the fountains light up and dance.
During the entire vacation, Lily was making friends. She's a very friendly kid. She just goes up to people, does her goofy flailing hand wave and adorably says "hiiiii!" Maybe it's annoying to some people, but how can you get mad at a cute, friendly, 18 month old that just wants to say hi. At the Own Roberts Airport (on Grand Cayman) as we checked in for our flight home, she made friends with one of the airport workers who held her while we got all of our stuff together and got our boarding passes.
We also met this older guy who tried to cheer Lily up when she was crying on on the plane home who did an amazing Donald Duck. I thought that it was the real actual Donald Duck. I'm still not convinced that it wasn't even though Wikipedia says that the original is dead and the current one is about 40 years old.
Overall we had a great time. I think Lily had fun seeing and doing different things than she does on a normal day. It kind of makes me sad that she's too young ot remember this stuff still though, but I keep reminding myself that all these good experiences do add up to her having a happy childhood which should help make her a happy adult.
