Back when I was a teacher, the space between Christmas and Spring Break seemed to drag. Luckily, tennis tournaments took me out of the classroom and gave me a different type of day.

Now that I’m a stay-at-home parent, it’s worse. There are no breaks. Even on vacation, I’m working all day, every day, just in a different location. But going on a trip can get you out of your routine and give you something different.

So, with that said, my family of four took a trip to Florida last weekend. Besides the return trip home, which needs its own post, this was one of the best trips I’ve ever taken.

Can You Ever Travel With Kids Without Being Sick?

A few weeks before our planned vacation, my oldest woke up with a rash on his arms. He didn’t feel bad; the rash didn’t itch, and everything appeared normal except for his skin.

The rash faded a little through the day but returned at night. The next day, it spread to his face and legs. Still, he never felt bad, so we never took him to the doctor. Plus, no one else at home had any symptoms.

My wife talked to her other mom friends, one of which told us that Fifth Disease had flared up in the area. We assumed that was what he had contracted, and we researched to find out that he wasn’t contagious anymore.

Then, the day before the vacation, my youngest woke up from his nap screaming. He likes to do that, but he only slept for twenty-five minutes or so this time. He also woke up with a fever. We assumed he might be cutting teeth.

He didn’t sleep well that night, and the following day, as we were finishing packing, I noticed some spots on his legs. I wasn’t sure if they were bug bites, fifth disease, or something else. But then more started to pop up on his feet and hands. It appeared he was coming down with Hand, Foot, and Mouth.

I felt like we were starting this vacation the way we had started most of our vacations, debating whether to go or cancel. It never fails that the kids come down with something before we travel.

As a parent, it feels stressful because there are many things to consider. Should we take the kids to the doctor? Will he tell us what we already know or just to give him Motrin? Do we cancel the trip we’ve been looking forward to and lose all the money we invested?

We continued packing. We didn’t feel like either of the kids were in a state that would keep them from enjoying the time. Plus, we didn’t think that they were infectious anymore.

Traveling With Two

Traveling with one child felt difficult. Keeping a small child entertained on a travel day can be one of the most challenging parts of a demanding day. When we just had one, we did everything we could to keep him entertained. We brought new toys or toys that hadn’t been played with for a while.

With two, it’s best to pray.

I’m glad we didn’t have many problems except for a bit of stress on travel day. I loaded up the car, drove to the airport (the one furthest from us in town), and traversed through the airport with relative ease. The kids did great, but it helped that we took a train between parking and getting to our terminal.

For those wondering, we got around with one stroller with a spot for both kids. It’s not a double stroller because we didn’t think we’d have all that room to store it in the different vehicles. While this stroller isn’t the easiest to steer, it did allow us to travel through the airports and resort with relative ease.

For the flight, the oldest did great. He played most of the time with a couple of toys we brought on the plane. I thought he’d default to his iPad the entire time, but he hardly watched the thing.

The baby, on the other hand, struggled—probably from feeling so crummy. He cried a lot. He switched between Mom and me about a hundred times during the flight. He wouldn’t take his bottle because it wasn’t warm enough. Finally, my wife ended up nursing him to sleep.

The flight went quickly. We were fortunate to get all our luggage in the first load of the baggage claim. Then we grabbed a taxi to take us to Target for a grocery pick-up and then to the Splash Resort.

Splash Resort

The Splash Resort immediately became one of my favorite spots. We rented a two-bedroom condo designed for families with kids. The second bedroom had bunk beds and a Finding Nemo decor. My oldest loved it. He eagerly climbed to the top bunk every night.

The condo offered us so much besides a place to stay. It had a full kitchen, living space, and two bathrooms. The balcony felt vast and offered a beautiful view of the water. While it wasn’t home, it provided so much that it felt like a great place to stay.

The resort offered a plethora of different types of water activities. The resort includes heated pools, a lazy river, a hot tub, standard pools, and a giant splash pad. Most pools were constructed underneath the resort, so rain never became a problem.

The resort is vast, but getting around it was never a problem. There were multiple elevators to get up and down and plenty of indoor walkways to the parking garage or cafe.

As lovely as the room and resort were, it wasn’t nice enough to delay the boys getting into the pool.

Embrace the Freeze

The temperature never rose above 85 degrees while we were there. The sun did shine for a while one day, but it stayed overcast most of our stay. The pool water, even the heated pool, only allowed my kids to get in for so long before their lips turned blue.

We spent most of the time in the heated pool, which was one of the pools not under the overhang of the building. I hoped that the sun would help warm it and us up. It did not.

We did explore some of the other pools. People crowded the hot tub, probably because the other pools’ water was so cold. So we didn’t spend much time there.

Surprisingly, we spent no time in the splash pad pool. The splash pad pool was why we wanted to stay at this resort. I’m not sure if it was the cold water or what, but my oldest never wanted to play there.

My favorite part was the beach. The sand was so white and fine. It felt great on the feet, and the boys loved playing in it. In fact, they spent more time playing in the sand than in the water. Our room had beach toys, and the boys sure put them to use.

The condo we rented came with reserved chairs and an umbrella. We were assigned the spot on the first day and knew those chairs would be ours during the stay. Knowing we wouldn’t have to fight for a spot every time we went to the beach was freeing.

The beach offered us warmer water than the pool. Both my kids loved going to the beach. My oldest and I waded into the water and jumped the waves for over an hour one day.

My youngest loved crawling through the sand and riding on Mom or me in the water. The boy has no fear and would charge in if we weren’t watching!

When it came time for his naps, he found too much to stimulate him outside, so he had to go back to the room to sleep. Momma usually took him back to the room for his nap while I continued to play with the oldest in the water. We tried to trade off so that one of us didn’t always have to go, but the baby preferred mom so much and wouldn’t go to sleep with me the entire trip.

My oldest rekindled his love for the water on this trip. It became a near-impossible task to get him out of the water. Since the trip, he has become an even better swimmer, now swimming underwater without his floaties.

Struggling to Find Food

I love exploring new places and finding good food, so one of my biggest letdowns with the resort was the food situation. There was a poolside grill that offered a selection of pool food, mostly things that had been fried or a burger, but it was only open for most of the afternoon. The food tasted good, some of the best I had on the entire trip, but the food was a little pricey.

Other than that, there wasn’t much to offer around the resort. Everything else required a car or a long walk. With two small kids, this became difficult. We couldn’t get a car anywhere because we’d have to install car seats and take them with us to dinner. That left walking as our primary way to get around.

After a day of travel, the first walk to food felt like a pretty good walk. The restaurant offered seafood, burgers, and other fried options. The service wasn’t excellent, and the kids were too eager to get to the pool than to eat.

On the second day, we took a bus a little further down to a recommended Jamaican restaurant. This place offered seafood, burgers, and other fried options, although with a Jamaican twist. The service was good, but the food felt the same as everything else we’d had.

Every restaurant felt the same. So, on our last full day there, I took a ride share to rent a golf cart to get around a little better.

The golf cart let us travel further and explore more. However, since my kids are still little, we had to put car seats on the thing, which I found hysterical. My oldest loved it and told everyone about riding around in the golf cart.

That last day, we tried another recommended place, Señor Frogs. I didn’t have high expectations because I knew it was a tourist trap. It was our most expensive meal the entire stay and offered the smallest portions. My wife’s shrimp tacos were the only good meal that we ordered. It felt like a massive failure.

We rode the golf cart back home and spent some time in the freezing water, but I felt determined to find a good place to eat before we needed this trip. We finally went on Yelp to find a place that offered something different. We decided to go to Thomas’s Pizza and Cream.

The pizza tasted good, and the ice cream hit the spot. My only complaint was since all the seating was outside, we had to battle the insects while we ate.

We spent some time on the beach in front of Thomas’s to end our vacation. My sons played in the dirt, the oldest made new friends, and we took beautiful pictures as our vacation ended.

The Calm Before The Storm

The vacation offered us so much. We don’t like to repeat vacations often, but I think everyone would like to return.

We need to figure out more good places to eat that aren’t tourist traps and have the same style of food, but that’s for us to explore more next time. We also could cook more of our own food next time since we have the kitchen in the condo.

But this isn’t the end of the story. Getting home became an issue with the weather and appointments the next day. So, next time, I’ll write about one of the worst return trips we’ve ever experienced, so make sure you are subscribed to the site or follow me on Facebook, Instagram, or Threads.