Florida Vacation!

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS LOTS OF PHOTOS!
Knowing we would be in need of a family vacation to a warm destination, Nick and I decided a while back (ok... maybe 10 months ago) that we would pack up the kids and head to Fort Meyers/Naples area in Florida to visit Mom and Dad Marcus while they were there for the month of February.  Grandma Margaret owns a condo there and has been VERY generous in allowing us to use her home, even though she wasn't there with us.  :(  Nick and I have been to the condo twice together before, but the last time we were there was 10 years ago, just before we got married.  We had a great time both times we were there before and knew that the girls would have a lot of fun as well.

The condo was the PERFECT vacation for our family!  The home atmosphere worked very well with the girls - much better than a hotel would have at this point.  We enjoyed some awesome weather, fed the ducks by the "lake" at the condo, visited the Naples Zoo, Nick and I enjoyed a date night while Mom and Dad watched the girls for us one night, I convinced Mom to try her first pedicure, we went to the beach twice, visited with some family in the area, and of course spent some time in the pool everyday.  And, of course, the time with Nick's parents was really great as well!

At the Naples Zoo with Grammy and Papa.

Eliana got the opportunity to feed a giraffe while at the zoo!

This kid notices everything (a gecho on the lanai)...

And is afraid of nothing!  (She captured it a couple times!)

Victoria was more interested in eating the bread than feeding the birds...

Ellie couldn't get enough of throwing bread/crackers to the birds!

Victoria hanging out in the pool with Grammy.

Couldn't have had any better weather (and a heated pool doesn't hurt, either!).

Ellie at Pelican Bend Restaurant.

Our family of four on the pier at sunset.

Victoria couldn't pass up her morning nap on the beach.

Papa and Victoria lounging by the Naples Pier.

The Ladies.  :)

Victoria was not so fond of the beach water.

Fun in the sand burying mama's legs.

Ellie was SUCH a busybody!

Ellie feeding the birds with Papa on an early morning walk.

Nothing funnier than watching a 2.5 year old chasing birds!

Miss V hanging in the pool again (she didn't mind the pool since it felt like bathwater.)

After over 100 jumps into the pool, we are gearing up for another!

Her face says it all!

Pure joy on our little waterbugs face!

Dinner with Ed and Donna.  Yum!

Nick and Ellie on the sandbar in the Gulf of Mexico.

Ellie learned how to "swim" on vacation.  No lifevest needed!

Can't say enough how much she loves the water!

Papa, Ellie, Grammy, and Victoria before we left for the airport.

Eliana with her big girl Princess backpack.

My girls and I on our late-night flight home.

We were there for 6 days, but boy, did it go fast!  It was about as relaxing a vacation as you can get with two young kids along, and Nick and I really enjoyed ourselves as well.  We were a little concerned with how it would go at the airport being that we had two suitcases, two carseats, a backpack each for Nick, Ellie, and myself, and a stroller with Victoria in it, but we managed!  I'm sure we got some looks toting everything through the airport, though.  We did check the suitcases after we made it through check-in, but getting the rest of it through security and onto the plane was interesting.  We may need to think about renting the carseats next year as they are just too darn heavy to be lugging around.  But that was probably the hardest part of the vacation.  We did have a very active Victoria on both flights, but thankfully were able to get her to sleep about half of each flight, so that certainly wasn't as bad as it could have been.  Perhaps the worst part was getting home at 3am and having the girls decide to wake up for the day 2.5 hours later!

It was a very fun and successful trip and we are hoping to try it again next year with 3 kids in tow!