We have been home from Florida since Sunday evening but I’m just getting the opportunity to go through photos and put this post together. Monday was a busy day but the good kind of busy, not the stressful kind! 🙂

We flew out on Thursday afternoon from Concord Regional on Allegiant. We almost always fly out of Charlotte-Douglas on American because of flight schedules and my general preference of American over Allegiant. That said, there is NOTHING wrong with Allegiant. I always feel safe and I’ve never had any major disasters/problems with the airline but you definitely get the discount airline feel. Did you know that they’re actually the ninth largest carrier in the country???

One bonus of flying out of Concord Regional is that the airport is teeny-tiny. Allegiant is the only airline servicing it and there are only two gates. For this reason, I opted to babywear Finn instead of bringing a stroller.

Once we got to the gate area, this little dude was WIDE open. I let him run some laps until it was time to board. The flight down wasn’t too bad. Flying with a lap toddler is definitely an experience but I had awesome neighbors. The couple I was sharing a row with had six kids and were on their way to go visit a new grandbaby!

Read my tips for flying with a one year old here. 

Just a couple of hours later I was sitting in my parents kitchen being served chicken enchiladas by my dad. Fun story, my dad had heated some leftover burgers for Finn because we didn’t think he’d eat enchiladas. We were wrong. He wanted nothing to do with the burger and was all about the enchiladas!

My family is on the panhandle so they are in the Central Time Zone. This means that Finn is almost always up around 6 a.m. but I don’t mind it at all. I make a cup of coffee and we go out on the balcony. I get to enjoy the sunrise and Finn plays.

His current favorite is to take all the cereal out of his snack cup, put it on the ground and then selectively leave some, eat some and put some back in the cup. He also insisted on putting his shoes on to go outside. Haha.

The weather was PHENOMENAL for this trip! It was warm but the humidity was low…which almost never happens in Florida! We got out for walks/runs after breakfast and then spent the rest of the day beach/poolside.

Here’s the stroller that I keep in Florida. 

Finn has finally dropped to one midday nap (thanks to preschool scheduling!) and it’s great because it’s usually anywhere from 1.5-3 hours. On both Friday and Saturday I was able to sneak down to the pool while he napped to relax and read.

Once he was up I got him ready to swim. Gosh, Finn is wide open in the water. The minute I put him down in the sand he makes a beeline for the ocean. There is no fear.

Same with the pool, he tries so hard to swim and kicks his arms and legs while you hold him and wants to get away but he doesn’t realize that he can’t actually swim. He did lessons from about 6-11 months and it’s time to pick those back up or do Infant Swim Rescue. I’m also going to get a life jacket for when we’re on the beach. I would like to avoid puddle jumpers in the pool.

On Friday night my parents picked up takeout from our favorite local seafood spot. I had grilled sea scallops, cheese grits and about a billion hush puppies.

My dad also made a caramel cake that I had several slices of throughout the course of my trip.

Saturday was a replica of Friday. Early morning balcony, walk, lunch, nap, pool, dinner, bed. Finn also got lots of QT in with his Mema.

These two.

On Saturday night my dad made homemade pizza. YUM!!!!!!

I watched the UGA/Notre Dame game and it was so good! Best game I have watched in a long time!

I woke up sad to leave on Sunday. We usually stay until Monday so the visit felt short. Finn is in a super cuddly stage right now and I love it. I can ask him to “give me a snuggle” and this is what he does.

I put my mom on babysitting duty while I went for a quick run. She really appreciated walking into my grandmother’s condo to this scene. 🙂

She and Finn went out for a walk while I did a quick 5K run and filmed a bodyweight workout.

And then it was time to pack up and leave. My dad wheeled Finn down to the car on top of my suitcase.

I timed the return flight right in the middle of Finn’s nap….which was going to go one of two ways. Luckily, we were able to sit in an empty row at the back of the plane and Finn was asleep by the time we were taking off. He slept the entire flight and I got to read my book. (I just finished The Wife Between Us.)

The only downside of the return trip was that the girl in front of us got sick on the descent into Concord and we were stuck in a small, confined space with throw up everywhere for a good 20 minutes. It was nauseating for the rest of us to say the least but I did feel bad for her and had a flashback to throwing up in the middle of JFK when I was pregnant with Finn.

As always, counting down the days until we are here again. <3

Talk to me about water safety, swim lessons, etc. What approach do you/did you take? 

Any airplane/flight horror stories to share? 

Have you flown Allegiant? Or other discount airlines? Do you think the savings are worth the trade-offs?