First Family Vacation

It was a success!

We took our first family vacation to Florida with two sets of friends and their families last week.  The trip completely exceeded my expectations and we all had an awesome time.  I will be the first to admit that I was slightly skeptical when we decided to go because Luke has a history of not being a good sleeper away from home.  But he has changed so much over the last month or so and he just keeps getting better and better!

There is just so much to tell and so many pictures; I'll do my best to keep this from being a book.

Luke did great on the flight to Orlando.  We flew out of Milwaukee (which was FABULOUS because it was so stress-free) and we totally lucked out with a row to ourselves.  It turned out to be pretty good because Bubby wanted to be all over the place in between flirting and acting shy with everyone around us.

This is what he does when you say "cheeeeese"

The Marriott resort we were at was great - when we got there we got all settled in for the night.  I had rented a full-sized crib ahead of time from an outside vendor thinking that would help Luke sleep better at night.  As we all know, he decided to like his pack-n-play when staying at Gramma and Grampa's a few weeks ago so I tried to cancel the crib before we left.  Unfortunately, it was too late, but in hindsight, it was really great that we had it.  Luke slept great the entire time.

Part of the resort

One of the pools

The first day we woke up and headed out for breakfast.  Soon after, we got our suits on and went for a swim!

Then we had lunch at the Copa Loca.  By the time we left, they knew our orders without having to ask!

After lunch, there was more swimming and then we got to celebrate Sadie's 5th birthday!  She's the daughter of our friends Casey and Jill (and they have 2 more girls - Taylor and Sloan).  It was quite a celebration - she had her whole family plus both sets of grandparents, our other friends Jason and Nicole and Olivia, and one of Casey's childhood friends and his family who happened to be vacationing in Florida at the same time.

Luke was hilarious with all the girls - he loved following them around!  And I think the girls kinda liked him, too!

The rest of our trip pretty much consisted of

--waking
--breakfast
--swimming
--nap
--lunch
--swimming
--nap
--swimming
--dinner (and sometimes more swimming)
--bed. 

It. was. perfect.

One of Luke's biggest days was his first Tigers game (first baseball game period!).  He got to go with just the boys while I stayed back at the hotel and enjoyed an afternoon at the pool with my Kindle and a fruity drink (or two).  Mike said he's glad he took him, but there wasn't a whole lot of baseball watching going on - mostly just running after Luke the entire time!

Proud Dad.

Tuckered out with his souvenir...

One night we went to Downtown Disney at had dinner at T-Rex (sorta like the Rainforest Cafe but with dinosaurs).  Luke had the most fun running around with the girls.

Taylor trying to corral Luke

You can't get me!!

Hugs from Olivia



Sadie and Taylor watch the crazy man run around.



Other nights we grilled out by the pool, one night we went to Bahama Breeze.  We even got a "Girls Night" out - the Dads took the kids back to the hotel after dinner so Jill, Nicole and I could stay out.  We made a pact that we couldn't leave before 11 pm.  We made it!  Even though we were ready at 10:15.  Ha!

Some of my other favorite pictures from the trip...

Playing in the pool

Can you see his crazy hair?

Playtime - being a copy cat

Being shy for the camera

Night swimming with Dad - and crazy hair for both of them

Splash pad

Asleep on the way home from the pool

Crazy hair again for Daddy and Baby

Mike with Luke, Taylor and Sloan




He learned this at Gramma's house!!



Making lots of messes at lunch and we don't care!

Ham

Playing with the girls

Taylor going under...

 

Floating for a picture

  



Sharing with Sloan

 

We sent him to go pick up our bags...



Running...

We had such a great time - we are lucky to have great friends and happy kids to enjoy the time with.  I can't wait for our next trip!!