Vacation!

This winter has been ridiculous....too many snow days, freezing temps, days on end inside.  So when the opportunity to pull the trigger and plan a Florida getaway arose, we jumped!  We decided to do two days in Orlando (seeing as my dad does a little work down there nowadays so we could coordinate and rendezvous with my folks) and then drive down to Naples and spend three days at our friends' family condo, and it wasn't exactly pulling teeth to talk my folks into going to Naples as well and staying nearby at a hotel.
Ryan was psyched, Grant went to meet her for lunch at school on a Wednesday and then sprung her free for the rest of the week!  We packed up an ungodly amount of luggage and made our way out of town.

In theory, we flew during Emerson's afternoon nap time.  Surely I could nurse her to sleep on take-off and she'd stay put in a precious slumber until we landed two hours later.  Right?

 Wrong.  Girlfriend wanted to play and entertain everyone around her.  So while she was good, it wasn't like the flights of past where I got to sit back, read decorating magazines, sip my coffee and chill.  Basically I entertained and wrestled an alligator in my lap for the duration.  But we made it!

The first night was a little rough as all 5 of us were in one hotel room and Reese was battling a hacking cough that kept her (and I) up most of the night.  Not to mention Emerson's amazing ability to wake at 5am and be ready to go.  She and I met Grandpa in the lobby Starbucks for early morning coffee.

Hotel rooms are always fun to kids....Reese was probably pissing off the hotel operator as she was playing with the 'land line' - (foreign concept in our house).

Thanks to Grandpa, we got free access to Sea World for the day.  While he had a little work to do, Grandma hung with us and, while cold, the girls pretty much had the park to themselves for the first part of the day.

 They were hooked up with a special one-on-one with the penguins....Ryan was totally into it, Reese kept telling me "mom, let's get going, it's FREEZING in here".

 The next day the cold weather departed, the sun came out and we surprised the girls with our Disney plans.

Of course Ryan was concerned with having a notebook for autographs.   When we pulled up to park, we got a little more excitement from the ladies...

Waiting for the tram... to take us to the ferry....to take us to Disney...  Good lord.

 Ferry

 Emerson and Reese consulting the park map.

 We had fun.  Disney is crazy.  Slightly maddening that you spend that kind of cash to only be able to do a couple of rides in a day.  In all honesty, we only had half a day to spend seeing as we still had to drive 3.5 hours down to Naples later in the day.  But even if we had had the entire day to spend, our girls would have tired out before the end of the day.....so our 9am - 2pm visit ended up being perfect.  That said, I think we did a total of 3 rides and 1 princess meet and greet.  For realz??  That's it.  Oh well, we can mark this off the list for now.  I'd love to come back when Emerson is at least 4 or 5 and we can cover a lot more ground.
Reese was hilarious because any child she saw walking around in costume got her super excited..."oh look mom, it's Aerial!!!! She's beautiful" --- sure, Reese, it's some 3 year old from Jersey but whatev.

And by the time 2pm rolled around, these girls were done.  Put a fork in me.  Done.

Off to Naples to our friends' condo.  And when I say 'condo' I should really say 'some ridiculously beautiful, ginormous, lifestyles of the rich and famous, condo'.   I felt like Suri Cruise must feel anytime she travels.

 Emerson doing the sign gesture for 'more' - as in 'I will only travel first class from now on'

 The weather was perfect!  The girls were great! Grant was well behaved too:)

 We quickly learned that Emerson is the biggest water baby of the three!  The girl couldn't get enough of the beach or pool.  Grandma and Grandpa were just up the street at the Ritz so we hopped over there one afternoon.

 Our friends daughter Giselle and Ryan became quick besties.  These two were so adorable together and couldn't have had more fun if they tried.  Giselle has two brothers so she and her mom flew down to enjoy all the estrogen flying around.

Of course...

Giselle turned Ryan on to special 'smoothies' - virgin daiquiris.   I found pics of these on my phone afterwards and I know I didn't take them....I think Ryan wants to recreate at home.

I mean, amazing.  Such a fun trip.  I was initially hesitant with 3 young kids and feeling that I would need a 'vacation' from the vacation afterwards but props to the girls for being so great and for Emerson being awesome (albeit an early riser)...I'd do it again in a heartbeat....any offers?

Oh yeah, one night my folks had Reese over for a slumber party at the Ritz.  She told my parents "this is the best sleepover ever, thank you, thank you!" --- I should say, I think hotel sleepovers when I was a kid consisted of the Best Western and an indoor pool.

Crazy sunset views from the condo....my folks came over to enjoy one evening.

And, back to reality.....flying home.  Sad face.

Thankfully, we all flew back together so having two extra sets of hands help contain the wild beast.

Oh, and precious side story....as we were about 38,000 feet in the air, Ryan was looking out the window and turned to Grant and said "when people die they go up above the clouds to heaven.....I don't see any people out there, where are they?"

I know I have a zillion more photos but perhaps we'll add those on a random follow-up post that I'm sure you're all dying to see after I've subjected you to about 40 pics thus far:)