and.. last but not least..

the last day. They day we have to leave the island, and go home to every day life, again. :|
We slept in, ate a huge breakfast (as usual), spent a couple of hours in the pool.. Maddie did NOT want to get up, she was running on the shallow end, back and forth, shouting 'row, ROW, bumblebutt!!'. No idea what a 'bumblebutt' is, but.. it was something immensly funny to her. :)
She made a friend in a little Indian girl, even got to borrow her floatie for a while, until we had to get up to leave. By the time we got back to the hotel room (being the time optimist that i am) it was a good thing i had already packed, because.. we were running mad late, as usual. The shuttle bus was supposed to leave at 11.35 for the airport, we walked out of the room at 11.20.. And still needed to return the towels to the pool area, give a heads up to the shuttle but ppl, and check out of the hotelroom.. :)
we were done with all that, just as the bus pulled up outside of the hotel. *phew*
Quick 5 minute ride to the airport, and of course there's a problem with my check-in.. it was the same thing when we left LA, just because i don't have a 'resident card'. So.. instead of using the self check in, we have to go to the counter. And present a bunch of passports, visas and what-not. While waiting for the lady to finish our check in, I eavesdrop on the conversation next to us, a man is trying to upgrade his tickets to business class on the same flight as us. The woman helping him tells him it's gonna be just over a grand to upgrade, and he declines. I receive my boarding passes, and don't really look at them, as i am more concerned abt getting to the line to the security check point.. that now reaches clear across the whole airport.
We get in line, but a woman working at the airport calls us out of the line and walks us up to the VIP side entrance, so we get to bypass the line all together (Maddie is still sleeping). She does however wake up when i have to lift her out of the stroller to walk thru the metal detector, but at that point she had already slept for a bit over an hour. Security check point cleared, as soon as we get upstairs we run into the newlyweds, so we get to spend a few more minutes with them before they have to wander off to their flight.

Me and Maddie have some pizza (that's her new favorite food - everything is Pizza, pizza, PIIIIIZZAAA now) and we walk over to our gate. I check out boarding passes for what group they've put us in this time, and it just says 'priority'.. i look at them again, confused. Then I check what seats we have, and we're in the 4th row.. So we just got upgraded - again!! Sweet!!! I quickly check the boarding passes for the second flight too, and they too state 'first class'. :) hahaha, the trip ends well, too..
Maddie and I was sitting in first class the whole way home, eating warm toasted peanuts, drinking wine (and apple juice) from real glasses, and eating food that actually tasted great.. Maddie fell asleep on the 2nd leg of the flight, and slept the whole way home.. It's kind of amusing to sit up there with a toddler.. Some people (not all) look at  you kind of funny. Oh well.. their problem. We enjoyed it immensely, the first and probably just about the only time this will ever happen. Definitely an awesome experience.

We arrived in LA just on schedule, the bags made it, and Cabber picked us up at the airport.. We had left a 28 degree weather in Montego Bay in the morning, only to land in a 16 degree weather in LA. Yuck.
But.. quite nice to be home, again.

Maddie being silly, with peanut in her hand

Like the old swedish saying goes: Borta bra, men hemma bast.

Day 1

Sooo.. since I suck at packing, my initial attempt at packing just resulted in waaay too much being brought.. I mean.. we're only supposed to be gone for 6 days, and I brought a full, heavy, large suitcase.. no bueno.

I packed on Sunday night, in order not to have to drive home after work on Monday, just loaded the car with suitcase, diaper bag, cat litter box, kittens, Maddie and me on Monday am, and spent the night at "uncle cabber's" monday night.
I re-packed on Monday night, pretty much left half of my luggage at Casper's, resulting in a much lighter suitcase.
The kittens.. we thought they would be the ones antagonizing Penny (caspers old, grouchy cat) but.. nooo. She hated the young one's with a vengeance, from the first second, attacking them pretty much straight out of the cage, so we had to keep them separated.. and the kittens managed to climb on top of a mattress, that was leaned up against the wall, on the short end.

I finished re-packing at 1am, and slept like craps all night, kept on waking up, thinking I had over slept, or that it was at least morning.. and the kittens woke up at 5, started chasing each others, chasing my toes and just causing a ruckus.. my alarm went off at 6, I think I finally managed to get up at a quarter past, to shower and get ready.

I had planned to make pancakes to bring on the flight (perfect snacks for Maddie) but.. my sleep deprived mind couldn't compute 2x 3/4 cups of water, so the batter got waaaay too diluted.. had to make "små plättar" instead.. but.. that worked just as well.

We got to the airport at 7.30am, the flight was scheduled for 9am. Took so long to make it thru the security checkpoint, that we got to board as soon as we got to the gate - quite nice.

Maddie was beyond fantastic the whole trip, she watched movies, played games, napped and woke up as the flight attendant announced the landing in Miami.
We had a couple of hours to kill in Miami, and the departure gate was only 2 gates down from the arrival gate. Maddie went into hyper drive, ran around, danced, sang, pushed the stroller around, and released some pent up energy from the previous flight.


We had to check in at the gate in MIA, to get our seats, but were told by the attendant that she was still working on our seats, that the flight was over booked, and she was looking for volunteers to fly a day later.. now.. if it would just have been me, it would have been pretty cool to spend a night in Miami, too, but.. not while travelling with Maddie.

We waited for closer to an hour, and then were handed our boarding passes by the attendant. I thanked her profusely, as I was just happy to have seats, but.. when I looked at the tickets, she had upgraded us to priority business class, too.. we had the first seats of the airplane, and got to board ahead of everybody else.. SWEET!!
I have never been upgraded before, so that was certainly a nice surprise..

We arrived on time, and leaving the airplane it was like walking into a wall of heat.. holy hell, it was hot here.. and humid.. something I am SO not used to!

Waiting in line in customs was like being in a sauna.. ugh. But, in the same breath, thank goodness for av on the shuttle bus that took us to the hotel.

We checked into the hotel just around 9pm, by which time Maddie was starting to have a minor meltdown, due to being way too tired.. fetched her some milk, then put her to bed, and of course fell asleep, too.. woke up at 7 on Wednesday am. And onto day 2..

/carina