Family Vacation- Fall 2013

I have been writing this blog post in my head (mostly while I was in the shower, cause that's where I do most of my thinking) for two months now. Life's been busy and actually sitting down to pull this one together seemed like and exhausting task! Things seem to finally have slowed down just a teeny tiny bit, so here we go! Be prepared for SERIOUS photo overload (and lack of details because I forgot them).

We took our family vacation a little later than normal this year since Alice arrived in the Spring and I decided that I would rather take a four-month-old to the beach than a 6-week-old. So, instead of taking a beach trip in June/July and then the annual trip to Alabama for Labor Day weekend (to celebrate my mom's birthday), we decided to just tack our beach trip on after our trip to Alabama in September

First stop on our trip was to celebrate my mom's birthday during the long labor day weekend at her house.

We spent time visiting, eating, swimming, and tie-dying. 

We managed a pretty great family photo this trip!

Look at THIS gem!! 

After a few days, we loaded back into the car and headed down to Perdido Key, FL. We stayed in a different condo this year as we have outgrown the one-bedroom unit we had been using. The nice thing about taking our trip after Labor Day is that the rental rates dropped on most of the properties and we were able to get a great two bedroom condo right on the water! It wasn't the Gulf, but on an inner-coastal waterway. We loved it! Our back yard was literally a field of water for the week we were there.

Too much time has passed for me to give the detailed, day-by-day account of our trip, but we had a great time eating out and cooking fresh seafood at the condo and the kids (especially Etta) loved swimming in the pool and the ocean. We only went to the actual ocean one day for about an hour. It is an AWFUL lot of work for two adults to feel like they are in control of two kids playing in the big bad ocean and a sleepy baby on the beach. (It actually wasn't too bad, Daniel wasn't a big fan of the ocean. It was just a little stressful and a whole lotta work). Keith was planning to take just Etta back to swim in the ocean one afternoon, but he didn't make it past the swimming pool in the parking lot that day. ;)

The following two pictures are some of my very favorite ones from this trip. Etta jumping into the pool and swimming across it all by herself!

(That Puddle Jumper didn't *quite* fit him yet)

BEACH NAP!

(D wasn't really a fan of the ocean)

Fresh fish at Joe Patti's!

We like Perdido Key for many reasons, but the main reason is that it is close to where my sister and brother-in-law live. Their house is only about 20 minutes away. I think we got to see them every day we were there!

Eventually, it was time to say goodbye to the condo and the water and Deanne and Todd and Florida. We were sad to go, but ready to get back to our routine back at home in Tennessee. 

See you again soon, Florida!