Florida

We are back from our first family vacation, though I can now say that "vacations" are no longer relaxing! I was really worried about the car ride down to Florida with a two year old but preparedness helped save the day. I honestly have NO idea how parents took any kind of trip without a DVD player to keep the peace! Two movies, two mobigo games (bought especially for our trip), lunch, a 30 minute nap (a miracle! Charlotte hasn't slept in the car since last summer!), followed by a 20 minute crying jag when she was woken up by the bumpy roads, a ring pop, a whole book of stickers, and whew we finally made it. I think we literally all let out a sigh of relief when we opened the car doors and could smell the ocean breeze. We chose to stay at a two bedroom condo in Destin so that Charlotte could have her own room and we could make breakfast and lunch rather than eat out for every meal.

Of course the first thing that Charlotte did was jump on the bed:





THEN, she finally wanted to see the ocean from our room:



We went down the the beach for about an hour, but it started raining so we headed in and got ready for dinner. Even though we were at this place by 5:00, it was still a 45 minute wait. After traveling all day, we were starving!


This restaurant had a store, playground, and alligator feeding tank. Bryce and I are convinced that you wait 45 minutes no matter what time you get there.


When we finally got a seat, the balloon man saved the day. We were seconds away from a melt down from a hungry baby until he whipped up this orange lizard!

Some other pictures from our trip:











Look for the little squirt under the hard rock sign!




When we walked back in our door, literally the first thing Charlotte did was go to the freezer and say "Can I have a popsicle NOW?!". Like the whole trip we were depriving her!