Keeping Up With the Vandegrifts: May 2012

Day 1: We decided to take a beach vacation since we didn't go on one last year when I was pregnant and we were both wanting warm weather, ocean, and sand. We left on our 4 year anniversary and it was a great place! We were nervous as to how Addy would do flying, but she did AWESOME! We got compliments and the college guy sitting next to Jared on the first flight even said, "I'll be honest I saw I was near a baby and cringed, but she was the best baby I've ever seen on a plane". That made us feel good :) We had a short lay-over in Atlanta before arriving in Tampa and then rented a car, and went to the Clearwater Aquarium where we saw 'Winter' the dolphin from the movie Dolphin Tale. Winter lost her tail due to being caught in a crab net and was rescued, they had to amputate shortly after getting her to Clearwater Aquarium and then she had to learn to swim using a prosthetic. The aquarium was small but fun, we got some cute pictures and saw nurse sharks, sea turtles, fish, and sea otters in addition to dolphins. We then drove a little over an hour to Siesta Key. I had done some googling and this is currently the #1 beach in America and it was so pretty. There was white sand, plenty of room, and gorgeous water!!! The weather was awesome during our stay. We got to our resort and moved in before grabbing dinner at the Daiquiri Deck. We ordered drinks and appetizer of Gator Bites, which Addy tried grabbing right away. We were so hungry after traveling all day, and luckily dinner tasted very good! We walked to the beach but the sun had long since gone down, and it was nice to hear the waves crashing against the sand and Addy got excited to put her toes in the sand and feel the chilly water.

Ready for the plane ride

Zonked Out

Palm trees

Outside the Aquarium

Winter's Prosthetic

nurse shark

Addy touching the starfish

Happy Girl

Winter

Sea turtle

Nicholas wanting to play

Addy trying to grab our gator bites

Addy's first view of the beach, pretty dark out

Love the beach!

I've got my toes in the water....

Day 2: After getting up, we went to the store and got some groceries since we had a one bedroom suite, we had a fridge, stove, and microwave to use. We went to the pool in the morning and Addy loved the water and got used to her floatie, we then went back to our room for lunch and in the afternoon headed out to the beach where we walked almost 2 miles to the public beach and then back before enjoying the water. Addy enjoyed napping during our walk and we got our workout taking turns pushing the stroller (which we love by the way- it is a Jeep brand with big tires for off-roading, however the tires were a tad deflated so this made pushing it more difficult during our daily trips up and down the beach). Addy liked it when we held her in the ocean, but I think it was too wavy for her floatie. She loved to taste the salt water, licking our shoulders after coming out of the water. She enjoyed playing at the water's edge and would try to eat the sand at times. She definitely had the splashing down from bath time at home. That night I cooked spaghetti and made a salad and we ate dinner in then went on a walk and got some ice cream while we missed the sunset on the beach by about 10 minutes.

Good morning!

Love my daddy

1st time in the pool

Fun in the sun wears a girl out

gorgeous!

Play time!

Siesta Key Beach

Hillbilly baby with her one top tooth showing

Day 3: We went to the pool in the morning again, lunch in the room, and beach in the afternoon and then had leftovers for dinner. We made it to the beach again in time for the sunset and it was gorgeous! We went out for yogurt and then to bed.

Day 4: was a lot like days 2 and 3. We wanted to take full advantage of our pool and beach time. We were worn out and all took naps and then got dressed up for dinner and went out the a place called The Hub. They had a band playing and Addy enjoyed "dancing" in her highchair, and flirting with a couple of guys at the bar. We went and watched the sunset and got some more good pics before getting ice cream and heading in to pack stuff up.

Dinner at The Hub

Family Pic on the Beach

Sunset

Day 5: Headed out after breakfast to drive back to Tampa, return the rental car, and fly home. We had a layover in Houston (which of course the next flight was at a different terminal and quite a walk) and then were on a small plane. Addy did great again, thankfully and we received more compliments. We were sad to leave the beach behind, but glad to have our own beds again. Traveling with a little one is definitely different, but I wouldn't change it for the world! Overall the trip was great, the downfall was Addy did not sleep well at all but she hadn't been doing so at home either. She is teething and we think that is a big reason. Hope you enjoy the pictures! I'll post more to facebook.

Addy doesn't look too happy to leave

Bye Bye resort

Silly girl on the plane

What's out there?

Rest of April: Since the last blog post, we have been pretty busy as seems to be our usual. We went to the neighbor's and sat around the fire pit and visited, Saturday April 21st we went to the KC Zoo with Kirk, Jennifer, Taylor, and Caden (Jared's brother and his family). We enjoyed the day and Addyson went on her first train ride and rode the carousel for the first time. She loved them both, making noise in the tunnel on the train, and waving to everyone on the carousel (she saw people waving to their kids and thought they were all waving to her). The next day Addy and I had a date at the park with Sara, we went walking and had a picnic lunch that was rushed due to windy/cold weather. That next week was full of lunches and dinner with family and friends, and visiting Caden who had his tonsils and adenoids out. Monday April 28th, Addy and I went to Deanna Rose Farmstead with my friend Lane that I work with and she brought her nephew. This was Addy's first visit there and she seemed to enjoy it, she definitely loves the outdoors.

May: May is always one of my favorite months, that is why I wanted to get married during this month I think. When I was younger, it meant school getting out for the summer, pools opening up, and freedom for awhile. Now it means Mother's Day, usually a vacation for us, celebrating our anniversary, and pools opening. We started the month off purchasing our pool passes for the Gardner pool. We haven't done this before but figured now that we have Addy, we will use them quite a bit. (I really wish we had a pool in our sub-division, or better yet one in our backyard!) We had a garage sale the first weekend in May. Every year Gardner does their city wide garage sale and I usually have to work, but this year we were able to do it. Mom took off and helped with it. We did pretty well and got the house de-cluttered. I am pleased to say we boxed most of the stuff that didn't sell and took it to Goodwill so it did not end up back in our house! We went out to eat with Brett and Kelly after the garage sale, and then Sunday May 6th, we went to my dad and Penny's for a surprise birthday party for my niece Miami. We had a great day, Addy even went on her first ride on the Yerf Dog, and sat on the tractor and motorcycle again. We ended the weekend by having dinner at Jared's parents. May 8th, was when Addy was 10 months and we got pictures done on the 10th. I had a nice first Mother's Day weekend with celebrations on Sat and Sun Addy and Jared got me a huge card, Jared had traced Addy with her arms open and said "Mommy, I love you this much.". May 16th Addy went from a laying to sitting position for the first time on her own at my grandma's. She still hasn't done it for us, but is definitely pulling herself up on everything! The 16th we left for Florida (I'll do a separate blog for that). We got back Monday evening, Tuesday I got laundry caught up and Addy and Jordan had a pool date. We had lunch and shopping with grandma and Brett yesterday, and this evening we saw Addy crawl for the first time on her hands and knees, not once but twice! She was after Jared's water bottle and I got a quick video clip of her. Tonight I also got to spend time with my best friend. Sara and I went for dinner and ended up having a whole pitcher of strawberry margaritas together! It was much needed and enjoyed. Jared and Addy stayed home and had father-daughter time. She definitely missed her mommy though and was very "chatty" when I got home as if telling me about it!