Our First "Family Vacation"!!!

Whewf! We made it! To AND fro! The "fro" was the tough part because our little man is teething like crazy so he was in a LOT of pain Sunday and Monday, so Monday's travel-day was a toughie for the poor guy, but he did GREAT all the same :) He has recently gotten his 2 lower incisors... Granda is SO proud :) The pearly-whites aren't all the way in, but they've cut through the gums, so here he is brushing his teeth...


So anyways, back to VACATION!!!! We had a BLAST in Florida! It was SO nice to get away and spend some time as a family, bonding, just enjoying one another and some downtime without chores or day-to-day mumbo-jumbo. *Sigh*, I miss it already.

The first few days we were there we spent in St. Pete's Beach near Tampa where Ryan's mom's family lives, so Riley was able to meet his Great Grammy May, his Great Grandpa Bob, and his Great Uncle Ray, and to see his Great Aunt Peggy again :) It was wonderful for Grammy & Grandpa to meet their great grandson, Grammy just doted on him the whole time she was with him. She kept talking about how when Ryan was Riley's age (6 months or so), they took him back to Ireland to meet her family... ha!

Here's Riley meeting the Great Acker Grands...



And here he is with Great Aunt Peggy & Uncle Bud... (unfortunately I don't have any with Great Uncle Ray, perhaps Peg does?)


So after spending Tuesday through Thursday on St. Pete's Beach with the extended family, we packed up all our gear and headed south 2 1/2 hours to Sanibel Island. Wow, what a GORGEOUS little part of the world THAT is. Have you ever been there? If not, add it to your list. FABULOUS. Truly wonderful. Very quaint and relaxing, and just beautiful beaches. We cannot wait to go back! There were plenty of things we would like to do when Riley gets a little bigger (for example, they had first-come-first-serve bikes that you can take around the islands on their extensive bike-paths!). We stayed at the Sanibel Inn and had a wonderful view of the gulf through some palm trees (very tropical) from the screened-in patio in our room.


Riley did SO well all in all... he did a-ok on the planes, I mean, sure he had some fuss-time, but hello, he's a BABY... of course he did. A teething baby at that. HA! But really, he did well!! And then I think he actually slept BETTER in the hotel cribs than in his own... perhaps there's something to having him sleep in the same room as us? We may experiment with putting his pack-n-play in our bedroom and seeing how he sleeps. Maybe he likes hearing us breathe... hmm. :) Anyways, he's a champion. Such a good little fella.

And he seemed to like the beach and love the pools... he was very interested in the sand, didn't seem to mind it at all - except the time that he toppled over and ended up looking like a sugar donut (heh, turns out that fine sand sticks really well to Baby SPF 55... HAHAHA!)... and he LOVED floating around in his car raft from Peggy!

Here are a few snapshots from our trip, but if you want the whole shazam, then hit up our album on Shutterfly...

Riley kickin' it in the sand:

Digging moats with Daddy:

Cruising in the pool with Mommy:

Phew... vacationing is EXHAUSTING (sleeping in the rental carseat with my brand new blue giraffe):


So there you have it! Our first Family Vaction was wonderful... great family time and extended family time, along with Riley's first trip to the beach... SO fun! We can't wait for the next time.

Can you believe Riley will be 6 months old this Sunday? WOW!!!
More to come then!
Love,
The Willies