Family Vacation!

We took our first ever family vacation (I know it sounds horrible, right?), but between the "not-condusive to traveling baby years" and spending much of our vacation time with out-of-town family, we just haven't made it a priority. But, we are sure glad we did! We had a fantastic time and it was so good to be able to just focus on the three of us! So, we think we'll make it an annual tradition.

Here's our 2013 adventures!

We decided to go to Florida, mostly because it sounded like a good idea to go somewhere warm and sneak in a little bit more of summer, just as the weather began turning to "have-to-wear-your-winter-coat" sort of cold! It also helped that Nate's Grandpa has a great little villa right across from the Gulf of Mexico that he graciously allowed us to use for the week! It had it's own kitchen, two bedrooms, and plenty of space to spread out! We were so grateful to not have to be cramped in a hotel room!

We spent our first full day at the beach. Luke loved playing on the shore and in the waves!

But, most of the day (and much of the vacation, if we're honest), was spent doing this...

...looking for shark teeth. I'm not sure what it is about boys and the "hunt", but neither of them could get enough of the search! We came home with a bag of about 30 shark teeth!

Happy boy at the beach!

Occasionally, we needed to distract Luke from the water (because it never really got all that hot, yet, he wanted to be in the water 24-7!). We showed him how to run and chase the seagulls!

We also got to spend Wednesday with our dear friends, the Menards! Amy and I were college roommates and we have remained close friends! I have been down to visit her and her family before, and she was up in Indiana in May, but our boys have never met, so it was great to introduce them and for them to play together!

All the guys on the shark tooth search again! (See what I mean...it wasn't just my boys, but these boys, too. Amy and I didn't mind, since it gave us some time to chat and catch up!)

Great bunch of cuties!

And, quite silly too!

 

We then headed to Mote Marine Aquarium for the afternoon!

Here are some of the neat things we saw there:

Nemo!

The Jellies!

And this silly-lookin' guy!

The boys were enthralled with this scuba diver, cleaning out the shark's tank (Yikes!).

Petting the stingray!

These were my favorite! There's just something so graceful about sea turtles! This one was pretty friendly too!

Seeing what it may be like to live in a turtle shell.

Another beach day!

We never caught a great sunset, but it was still pretty gorgeous in the evening!

On our last day, we took a boating adventure tour. We are so glad we did because we got to see some pretty neat things!

 We probably saw about 30 dolphins in the two short hours we were out!

Manatees!

And, these neat guys! These are white pelicans, which are about double the size of regular pelicans, and they all congregate on this tiny little island in the middle of the ocean. They migrate from the Grand Tetons every year to here. They were so cool to watch!

At one point, one dolphin swam so close to our boat, we probably could have reached out and touched it! 

We enjoyed grilling out in the evenings, relaxing, and just being (without any other distractions!). The drive home was less-than-enjoyable (complete with a bad rainstorm, very little sleep for anyone, and a puking incident about 20 minutes from home), but all worth it in our minds for these great memories and quality family-time!