Florida--Grace makes a new best friend!

My brother, Bobby, his wife, Megan, and their daughter, Aly joined us in Fort Walton on Wednesday night. Grace was already asleep when they arrived. Needless to say, she was quite surprised Thursday morning to wake up and find Aly there, ready to play with her. They were best of friends very quickly. There was a lot of grabbing of each others' hands, hugging, and giving kisses on the cheek. Grace even was able to say Aly's name. It was so fun to have the girls together! Here are some pictures from our first morning together.

Florida--Sweet Family Moments

The first few days of our trip it was just Mark, Grace, and me. We had such a fun and relaxing time together. It was nice to have time to just be a family without all the pressures and commitments of everyday life. Our time together--from evening walks on the beach, meals in town, trips to the park, and time at the beach--was so special!

Florida--The Beach!

The Panhandle of Florida is on Central time. So what do you do when your baby gets up at 6 a.m.? Well, you read some books, eat some breakfast, and then hit the beach at 8 a.m. We didn't mean to appear over eager, but we were so excited to get down there and it was warm! So while most people were merely walking the beach, we set up shop! Granted, we were back in the room by 10:30, but what a fun morning at the beach!

We weren't sure how Grace would do keeping her hat on and since she is so fair, we wanted to make sure to protect her scalp--so I lathered up her head with sunscreen!

"Hurry up guys! I'm ready to go!"

Grace warmed right up to the sand once we gave her a shovel and bucket and showed her how she could fill the bucket. She did try eating the sand but figured out pretty quickly that it was disgusting!

Notice that we don't have an umbrella up--we got to the beach, got all set up, and realized we had forgot something, so Mark ran back to the condo. Grace and I were playing under the umbrella when all of a sudden it blew away. I jumped up and ran about 30 yards and knew I wasn't going to catch it quickly. I also knew that I couldn't leave Grace sitting on a towel that close to the water. So I went back and grabbed her and we walked down the beach as our umbrella blew in and out of the surf. I'm sure we were quite the sight to be seen. Luckily the wind died down and we were able to catch the umbrella and drag it back to our post. We headed to town that night and bought a cabana for the beach :)

Grace was still uncertain about walking on the sand so she decided to revert to crawling to get to dad.

I ♥ this next series of pictures as Mark introduces Grace to the water. Grace can do anything as long as she's got her daddy holding her hand!

"My dress is off--I'm going for it!"

Yay for waves!

Grace liked it so much that she started signing and saying "more" to Mark. Yes, in her eyes, her daddy controls the seas!

Lifeguard on duty!

Florida--Finally!

After a two day, very enjoyable trek to Florida, we arrived in Fort Walton Beach. We had no idea what to expect from our condo at "The Venus" but we were pleasantly surprised. It was a two bedroom, fully furnished unit. It was very "old Florida," not one of the new high rises and it was perfect for us! It was about 100 yards from the beach, had a fabulous pool (although we only made it there once--who needs a pool when you have the Gulf of Mexico?!?!), and the condo had plenty of space for Grace to play. We unloaded our car and immediately headed for the beach to show Grace the water. She cried when we tried to have her stand in the sand so Mark carried her down to the water's edge. Here's her reaction...

What was really cute was when Mark asked her if she saw the waves and she started waving at them! Ah, the double meanings of some words!

After our quick look at the beach we headed off for our Mother's Day dinner celebration. About two miles from our condo was the Okaloosa Island Pier and a nice collection of restaurants. We ate dinner at Floyd's Shrimp House. It was the perfect Mother's Day dinner--crab legs and sushi on a patio overlooking the Gulf! What a very special and memorable day!

Florida Bound!

A few months ago we found out that we had been chosen to have a week at Mark's company's condo in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. This is our week! We stayed in Indy on Friday night to celebrate Mark's mom's birthday which was the weekend before and then we got on the road early Saturday morning.

We have found that it's easiest if we schedule long stops every 3 to 4 hours. It gets Grace out of the car, lets her run around, and usually buys us a few hours of sleeping Grace after we get back on the road. So our first stop was scheduled for Bowling Green, Kentucky. We had found out there was a big mall there and big malls usually have play areas and food courts--both of which are helpful when traveling with a toddler. This mall didn't have a play area, per se. Instead, there was a Chuckee Cheese! Grace loved riding all the rides and it was actually much more enjoyable than I had envisioned a visit to Chuckee Cheese to be!




After our stop it was back in the car. Grace hammed it up for the camera with her sunglasses and then was fast asleep--almost all the way to our next stop--Decatur, Alabama. We had used points to get a room at a Hampton Inn in Decatur. It worked out well. We got to the hotel around 5. Were able to grab dinner and then have play time in the hotel room. Grace loved standing at the window and watching the kids playing in the pool below. Her favorite game was to lay in one bed with one of us and pretend to fall asleep. She would then jump up and run over to the other one of us and repeat. She was also super cute when we put her to bed in her port-a-crib. She kept peeking out at us. Nothing is better than seeing her little smile over the top of the crib! The next morning was fun to hear her wake up. Mark and I laid in bed for about 15 minutes listening to her sing, kick around, and play. We kept thinking she was going to get up but she didn't. So, finally we said, "Good morning, Grace!" And up she popped! The best way to start a morning--especially Mother's Day morning!











After breakfast, we were on the road again. Our next stop--Montgomery, Alabama. I had read that they had a nice zoo and it was half way to Fort Walton, so we thought it would be a good stop. It exceeded all of our expectations. It was probably the nicest zoo we've ever been to. The animals all had great spaces, everything was clean, and it was not too crowded. Perfect!






Our next stop...Florida! More on our trip soon!