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Sunday, May 31, 2015

Summertime Fun

Our first week back from vacation was fairly simple and easy. We had Monday off for Memorial Day and got back into the routine of eat, sleep, work. We got back into the late night meetings, early mornings and Saturday evening Relay for Life events (thank goodness we're done with those for 2015).

Last weekend we utilized our Biltmore season passes and took a nice simple walk on the grounds, looking at the Rolls Royce's. We've played in the yard, dug holes, and took a dip in a little blow up pool. Today we had a cookout with some friends at our house and ran in the rain, ate some good food and caught up with friends that we love dearly, but always seem to have such full schedules that we can't get together enough.

All in all, it's been a good start to summer. Long days, warm weather, fireflies, and the occasional thunder storm. Hello summer, I'm glad to see you.





We've also had some fun sticker time!





Luke actually liked baby Josie today!

And he held her!




Those curls...

+



We even got a laugh out of Josie!


Eating lunch on the porch because of thunderstorms





Why does everyone make that face when I get the camera out?!


Candid





Happy Summer!


Thursday, May 21, 2015

Destin Vacation '15

Whew. I think vacationing with a toddler may be more work than actually being at work. We've spent the past few days on the Gulf Coast in Florida soaking up some rays and hanging out with a fussy Luke. Everyone says when you first have a baby to "get that baby on a routine"... routine, routine, routine. Well... when you decide that you want to do something outside that routine it really throws the kid for a loop.

While we did have a hard to handle Luke this vacation (who has promptly returned to being himself upon his return to NC), we did have a great time with some really great food. Our condo offered beautiful views of the Gulf Coast and we enjoyed not working this week.

On Sunday we drove down the road for about 9 hours to arrive at a very sunny, hot Florida. We were pleased to find that there was a restaurant right behind our condo building that served great seafood right on the beach. We walked out on the beach for awhile after dinner and then went and got some groceries for our week and then promptly crashed on our return to the hotel.

He was happy to be out of that car seat!

The view from our room. We were even on the "Pent House" level... woowee!

Along with a view of the ocean, we could see down into the pool!

Down the road a ways.

What we walked out to every morning.

Luke taking it all in..

At dinner that night



One thing we hadn't taken into consideration was the fact that Destin is in the Central Time Zone. So, Monday, Luke woke up at 5:00 Destin time and was ready to go. We got to enjoy the beautiful sunrise while dad slept in since he drove the whole way to Florida the day before! Once he was awake, we put our swimsuits on in excitement for playing at the beach. Unfortunately, Luke wasn't so excited about the water. As my parents so gladly reminded me, I did not enjoy the ocean for quite some time when I was little (which is an understatement to say the least). Luke had no interest in getting in the ocean so we played in the sand for awhile until he became restless so we decided to try the pool, which was also a no-go. Any water was scary to him, so we called it quits, went back to the room and then went to lunch. After lunch we went down to Harbor Walk and walked around the shops and Luke got to ride the train!

Train ride later in the day!

I get the mom of the year award for letting Luke eat Cheez-It's for breakfast


We watched the sun rise






Having a drink at Margaritaville

Watching the fishermen


Luke didn't understand why the apps on this sign didn't work. 

We stopped at a more secluded beach and played for a little bit

<3
Tuesday we woke up and decided to take things a little easier. Luke hadn't responded well to a busy, packed day so we drastically cut down on our things to do. We drove about a mile down from our condo to the Henderson Beach State Park which Dillon had read about before going down. It's a great state park with walking trails and more private beaches. The people who owned that plot of land wanted to keep it as natural as possible with no development so it was interesting to see what the beach used to look like with plants growing and no high rises. After our hike, we had lunch at McGuire's Irish Pub which had over a million dollars hanging on the walls and from the ceilings. The food was delicious and we had a lot of fun! After that, we returned back to the park in our bathing suits to enjoy the beach. Luke still didn't like the ocean but had fun in the sand. Dillon and I splashed around a little bit and soaked up the sun.

Dinner out, the only picture of the three of us together!

Dollar bills at McGuires!

Playing in the sand

Lunch at McGuire's!

Henderson State Park











Our attempt at a selfie, but we're not very good at it.


We did a little shopping after dinner and hit up the Disney store where Luke got a Mickey Mouse and Mickey Mouse sunglasses!


How Luke felt about the majority of our vacation...
Wednesday we did a little more shopping and running around and then had a pool day! Luke finally decided he wanted to try out swimming. We splashed around for awhile and then enjoyed more seafood for dinner. We got to hit up the windy pier and saw people fishing and walked out there for a little bit. We left this morning and had a long drive ahead of us. We had a good time, even though we're pretty tired tonight. We're thankful that we're off until Tuesday and can get some good rest and caught up on housework!









Wore out after pool time

Mickey went everywhere with us!








Those birds were big and freaky...



9 Hours is a long time in the car... :(