miami-day 5

On our last day (Saturday), we packed our suitcases, checked out of the hotel, and headed to Hollywood Beach.  We had to drive both rental cars since we would be heading straight to the airport from the beach.  This was a bit annoying, and traffic was crazy, but we both really wanted Brooke to see the beach in Florida.  It was a gorgeous day, but we could have done without the 25+ hour winds!  It was seriously so crazy.  The car seat cover was flying around like crazy and poor Colby couldn't catch his breath.  We finally rigged it so that it blocked most of the wind, and headed down the boardwalk.  

At first, Brooke wanted Daddy to carry her.  I think she was unsure of all the sand, haha. She didn't want to feel the water either, but Kevin said it was warm.  I stayed back with the stroller, and this cute little guy.

She was, however, IN LOVE with chasing after all the seagulls.  She ran back and forth after those silly birds, and was squealing with delight.  Her fear of the sand also quickly dissipated as she threw it up the in the air, kicked it, and ran all over it. 

We enjoyed a yummy meal (pizza and greek salad) at one of the restaurants along the beach, chased a few more birds, ate some Ben and Jerry's, and decided to get on our way.  That morning, we had finally heard back from our friend, Diana Salvadore (previous post), so we arranged to stop by and see her before flying home.  It was so nice to see her again, and she loved seeing our babies.  Brooke was super shy, which is understandable since they've never met.

And just like that, our time was over, and we had to get to the airport.  We dropped off our rental cars, and headed over to security.  As Kevin opened his backpack, he said, "Did you take out my laptop", to which I replied "No, why?".  Then he told me that it was not in there.  What??!!  He was 100% positive that he packed it in his backpack at the hotel, and it had been in the car all day.  We parked in a parking garage at the beach and I heard Kevin lock the van multiple times, and I locked it at Sister Salvadore's house, so we had no idea how it could be missing.  There were no signs of the van being broken in to, and my iPad and Kindle were both still in the backpack.  It didn't make any sense, and we were both SICK about it!  At that point, there was nothing we could do.  We just had to continue through security and get to our gate.  Kevin made a comment about how, besides the loss of the actual laptop, we also lost all the GoPro footage.  His phone still had all the pictures, so those weren't lost forever.  At the time, I was thinking the GoPro stuff was all boating footage, which is sad to lose, but not traumatic for me.  It wasn't until a few days later that I realized that meant all the footage of when Brooke was using her little baby walker, kicking her chubby legs in the pool for the first time, her first time on the swings, etc.  I totally cried when I made that connection.  Oh, and when I realized that we lost the letter that Kevin wrote to Brooke the morning we were in the hospital waiting for our son to be born.  Makes me so so sad because it was seriously the most precious letter ever!

It's just kind of disgusting that we live in a time when people steal from each other, with no regard for the personal information they probably deleted just to sell the computer.  I guess I hope that they deleted it, because it's creepy to think of the alternative :/  It just didn't make sense though!  Why steal the laptop, but leave behind the other electronics?  A few days later, after replaying the day in my head a million times, I think I figured out when it was stolen.  After packing everything up, Kevin pulled the van outside the lobby (which was also right by our room), and began loading up our stuff.  He made maybe 2-3 trips back and forth, while I nursed Colby in the room.  On the final trip out, he took Brooke with him.  I finished up, and walked outside.  I saw Kevin inside the lobby, and figured the van would be locked, but walked over to wait next to it.  I tried the door, and it was unlocked, so I strapped Colby in his car seat only minutes before Kevin came back out.  The car was unattended for maybe 5 minutes (tops!), but someone must have been watching and took the opportunity to open the van and grab what they could.  SO ANNOYING!  I asked Kevin if he thought I should call the hotel and ask if they had security cameras, but it would really only help if the person stealing was an employee or someone identifiable to the manager.  Kevin figured it was a lost cause since they wouldn't even bring us fresh towels the night I called to request some (since housekeeping hadn't even come to our room that day).  I figured her was right, but a few days later, I made the call anyway.  The manager was actually pretty helpful, but said that he couldn't see anything on the footage tapes.  It was worth a shot :(

Lesson learned...Never leave your car unlocked, even when you are super close.  And back up everything from your computers!!