...and I'm running out of clever titles. Because of where the holidays fell in the week this year, we had a nice, long visit to Florida. Our family and Mike and Jane left on the 26th. We chose the early afternoon flight, which seemed like a good idea at the time (and I still think was, given our exhausting Christmas and travels before), but also allowed more chance for delays. We ended up dealing with a 2 hour delay. Could have been worse.
We also splurged for a limo to and from the airport this time. It made things SO much easier when checking in and getting luggage.
And the kids loved it.
Matt's parents came down on the same flight the next day, then Jamie and Will came on Saturday. Of course we had the obligatory family sunset photo shoot (minus the sunset).
Being silly with Grandpa Brian. Love this one.
Both the kids were about done at this point.
Ladies. I didn't realize until loading these, but we were kind of color-coordinated.
Gentlemen.
Cheers to the sunset!
The kids stayed out of the water for almost the whole time we were there.
Then it was just too tempting.
All four of us slept in one room, which was a challenge, but also could have gone much worse. Let's just say that to keep them from waking everyone else in the morning, the kids got significantly more screen time than they're used to.
Overall, we had great weather. Several very warm days, several warm days and minimal rain. On the one chilly day that we had, we took the kids to the playground and for a walk out to the pier.
Man, I love them.
Miles was a little ticked off that he couldn't get into the water.
We got in a fair amount of beach time. The water wasn't too cold or wavy any of the days, so Brooke loved playing in it.
And Miles had fun picking up fistfuls of sand and aggressively throwing them into the water. I think he could have done that all day. He really loved the beach. As soon as we'd pull up, he'd start saying, "Wawer."
Miles and Uncle Mike rocked the matching shorts. Miles is still working on his six-pack, so he chose to go with the rash guard.
"Sand castles."
I guess maybe it was wavy one of the days...
Always fun to be thrown by Daddy.
Brooke was really into the idea of surfing, but after trying boogie boarding for about 5 minutes, realized it was much harder than it looked and went back to building sand castles.
Miles didn't think surfing was that difficult.
Sorry for the excessive "Miles on the beach" photos. I just can't get enough of his curls!
Beach Babe.
Will was cracking him up.
Family shot! (Thanks, Jamie!)
We also spent lots of time at the pool. Again, Miles was content to hang out on the edge, often either throwing things into or taking them out of the water.
...or eating.
Brooke made a lot of improvement in her independent swimming. She's starting to get the hang of swimming underwater by herself and getting herself back up to the surface. Maybe after lessons this summer she'll have it down.
Another family pic. Thanks, Debbie!
The highlight of Brooke's trip. Seriously, this is what she told her teachers about when she got back to school last week.
The highlight of Miles' trip. Every time we'd walk outside, he'd ask for "more". It took a day or so to figure out that he wanted to see more lizards. Now he says, "Yi-yar" when he wants to see this picture on my phone (which is at least once a day).
Matt took Brooke "golfing" a couple of times.
She had a great time. Of course, she also got ice cream and was only there for about an hour. It really would be great if she ends up enjoying the game as much as Matt does.
We spent a day at the Naples Zoo. It was fairly crowded, but they had a good amount of things to do and see. I think we all had a good time.
Again, Miles enjoyed throwing rocks as much as/more than he enjoyed the animals.
Brooke and Aunt Jamie rode a camel!
We also took a little boat tour of their primate "islands".
Throughout the week, we had several enjoyable dinners out. Again, I was impressed with how well the kids did. Miles' new sign of affection/sleep deprivation is a gentle head butt.
Another cute one of these two!
Brooke and Grammie Deb with the alligators at Doc's.
This is what I was saying about it being impossible to get a decent shot of the two of them at once, at least a planned one.
One night after dinner, we headed to the club where there was dancing. Brooke tore up the floor for a good hour.
We established that Miles HATES showers with a burning passion. This was post-shower and I had to get a(nother) shot of the curls.
Football was on the TV most of the time we were home.
Cuddling with Aunt Jane.
"Mommy, take a picture of me and Cube," (the name she gave that teddy bear that has become her new BFF).
Waiting to go to dinner.
Then we had dinner with our good friends Andy Roddick and his wife, Brooklyn Decker.
And spent another couple hours hanging out before ringing in the new year.
It was another great trip, although I think we were all happy to be home - even if we did come home to a snow storm and ridiculous sub-zero temperatures. After a 3-hour delay at the airport, we finally made it home. We landed around 11:30 and Miles didn't sleep a wink on the plane. Thankfully, he was slap-happy. I was not. Here are Jamie and Brooke during our additional 1-hour wait for our luggage. Sleeping in our beds has never felt so good!
Thanks for another great family vacation, Grandpa Brian and Grammie Deb!
