2012 Florida Summer Vacation

This update is ridiculously long but of course, want to capture it for my family so that we can look back on it when Grayson is older. You may want to stop here! :)

We spent a week in Florida for Grayson's first trip to the beach and our first major family vacation - just the 3 of us. We had a lot of fun, a lot of moving around, a little bit of down time and a lot of great memories! Overall, Beau made this trip pretty fabulous for us. Grayson and I had the opportunity to leech off of Beau's travel perks and it really made the trip as smooth as it could have possibly been. 

To begin, last Tuesday my very kind mother drove us and like 17 bags to DFW (why do kids need so much?!). We were checked in and within minutes got to hang in the Admiral's Club for our flight. Who knew we had a membership? I sure didn't! ;) 

The flight was a breeze, we got to eat a fantastic lunch on the plane thanks to Beau's upgrade to first class and Grayson and Curious George hung out quietly for the remainder of the flight until he fell asleep. We walked through the Tampa airport passing a PASSED OUT 2 year old between the two of us. We couldn't wake him up, he actually didn't even look alive and people were staring! The only thing worse than traveling with, what I don't know, 19 bags is carrying all of them and a body. Moving on...

Lunch really helped break up the long flight!

Loving his Curious George. I love when he giggles at it when he's in his own world. :)

We were able to save a lot of money by eating the complimentary breakfast in the Sheraton Club each morning. This was a huge bonus! There's nothing more irritating to me than paying like twelve bucks a person for eggs and toast.

We spent 3 days at the hotel in Clearwater Beach and learned quickly that we flew to FL to swim in a pool. :) We spent about 1 hour collectively at the beach the whole week we were there! Grayson didn't complain - he was just over the shoveling of sand into a pail after 20 minutes. Nothing Beau and I were crying over! Even growing up by the beach couldn't make me fall in love with salty sea air in my hair and sand in my teeth. But I LOVE the crashing waves! Grayson will love it all some day, no doubt!

A lot of time was spent at this pool doing just this!

Clearwater Aquarium where Winter lives (the dolphin with the prosthetic tail)

Looking at Winter

Touching sting rays :) 

Our beautiful boy in front of a crazy storm blowing in

While we were there, we had dinner one night with a good friend of my sister's (and mine by default!) and her husband, Stephanie and Kris. Originally from Texas (I was there the night they met at Adair's - holler!), they live outside of Tampa and introduced us to an awesome seafood restaurant about 10 minutes south of our hotel. Nothing special inside but to die for seafood! It was really good to see them and I can't wait to see them at my sister's wedding in December! (no pictures of them b/c we're lame - credit for taking the camera in the restaurant though?)

Our big sleeping decision for G turned out to work just fine. We took a blow up mattress for Grayson since we were sleeping in 3 different locations. I brought sheets too (thanks Nikki for letting me do laundry!) Thanks to the two hotels being suites, we had couches to sandwich the mattress between. This was a huge relief since this kid is all over the place still :) This also created a separate sleeping space for Grayson so that we could still move around a bit. 

Sleeping sideways

Oops - our fault. This was at the Smedbergs house and Grayson ended up in that night stand more than once ;)

On Friday, we packed up and drove 3 hours south to Naples where Nikki and Brad live. We stayed with them for 4 days, swimming in their pool, going to the beach, having drinks and apps at Tommy Bahama's with some of their friends and even visiting the Naples Zoo the last day we were there! We miss them terribly and while I would love to have them back in Dallas, there is nowhere else they should be than exactly where they are! Their house is truly a paradise and the gutting/remodeling they did last year is perfection. 

Look at that little face!

Relaxing

We fell in love with Downtown Naples! Tons of little restaurants and shops but still so quaint. Lovies.

Baby Weston fell alseep during wine and apps at Tommy Bahama's. His only nap really all weekend! 

Grayson loved the lizards hanging out in the plants

These pictures don't do this property and their view justice. Paradise!

Bonding time 

This double swing was in a really cute gazebo. Grayson liked sitting across from his Dad and swinging :) 

He loved the thrills of back flips in the pool too!

Brad and Weston (Nikki was very successful at dodging the camera)

Naples Zoo!

Photo opp in front of the lion

Loved these guys! They are so beautiful in person!

After the zoo Monday, we drove back to Tampa where we would fly out the following morning. We spent the afternoon hanging at a really great mall they have, Beau got me some awesome maternity jeans that I've always wanted (thanks, love!) and we got The Cheesecake Factory to go. Yes, even though we live a mile from one. But it was delicious, especially the 2 slices of cheesecake Beau surprised me with! We fake slept until Grayson fell asleep that evening in the living room of the hotel and then we dove in! It was a perfect last day of winding down on vacation!

What a fantastic trip! A huge thanks to the Smedbergs for being great hosts. We miss them and our trip already!