Florida

 

The day after Christmas, we had an 8 am flight to Matt's parents' place in Florida. Yep, we're THAT crazy. Thanks to Mike and Jane and curbside check-in, the airport really wasn't much of a nightmare. And we got to see Kristen Cavallari at Midway which some of us found strangely exciting. It was Miles' first flight and he was amazing, especially considering how little sleep he was going on (that will be a theme of this post).

 

Brooke was also very excited to ride on a plane. She hadn't been on one since last Christmas, which I'm sure she didn't remember. She also did a great job. She spent her time coloring, reading books and playing with her new computer and the iPad.

A perk of leaving so early is that we were able to get some pool time in when we arrived in Florida. Brooke was a little fish and Miles was pretty happy, too. He actually enjoyed a few naps at the pool. I'm not sure if it was due to her or us, but that never would have worked with Brooke.

Brooke enjoyed taking her "binoculators" (thank you, Grandma and Papa T!) out onto the lanai to look for birds and alligators in the pond. We didn't see many this time.

I say it every year, but the Florida air is really good to her hair. I hardly have to brush it down there. It just curls perfectly.

Matt golfed for several of the mornings and a couple of those mornings we took walks to the playground.

More pool fun. There were a couple of cooler, cloudy-ish days, but we didn't let that stop us. And overall, the weather was beautiful. Especially compared to the frigid temperatures going on up here.

Brooke got pretty bossy in the pool, but it was fun to watch. She had the whole family doing "Ring Around the Rosy" and "Train".

Yep, he's in a white onesie. And a hat that's too small. I thought I had a rash guard for him, but I guess I was wrong. Poor second, male child. It didn't seem to bother him, though.

We also went to the beach a couple of times. Miles is at just the wrong age for it. He can't really move purposefully but can get far enough to grab fist fulls of sand.

The water was too cold to swim, but we did lots of walking along the water and building sandcastles.

It got a little tricky having four of us in a bedroom, especially with Miles napping twice a day. It helped having Miles nap in the laundry room, which he seemed to love. Seriously, he'd go down with out a peep and would sleep for at least a couple of hours at a time.

Brooke had fun playing with her aunts. They're great with her and they certainly saw her at her best and worst this past week.

Matt took Brooke out onto the golf course one afternoon to look for an alligator he had seen.

Matt and I took the kids to Royal Scoop and Miles enjoyed his first taste of ice cream. I'm still dreaming about the ice cream I had there - cinnamon ice cream with pecans and caramel. Mmmmm!

We also enjoyed going out to dinner several times and overall, the kids did great.

I mentioned that Miles napped at the pool a couple of times. Brooke also skipped her nap multiple times (after playing pretty hard all day) which led to some not-so-great behaviors as well as her falling asleep places she would NEVER normally fall asleep, like on Matt's lap at dinner and on the couch.

We had a great time as always and are so blessed to be able to spend so much time with family that we love in such a great place. Now brace yourself for the "Beach at Sunset" photo dump: