With Daniel just having graduated medical school, and me staying home with Piper - we definitely had no plans of a vacation this year. Money was/is tight, and it just didn't seem necessary. HOWEVER, wonderful friends from our home church own a house in Florida, and they offered it to us! With the craziness of residency (90-100 hours work weeks, 3 days off in July TOTAL), we decided a week away was definitely needed for our little family.
We left on a Saturday evening, and had high hopes of driving through the night. I had downed a Red Bull, and had a second one on stand by. I was wide awake, and excited to get there ASAP! But sweet, little Piper never has (and apparently never will) sleep well in cars. She would just wake up SCREAMING, so we only drove about 6ish hours before we decided to just stop at a skanky hotel. I think we just took in our toothbrushes. That was it! And Piper just slept in between us.
On the road again.
It wasn't necessarily a "beach house" on the beach, but there were SO many neat beaches in super close driving distance. Their house is in a larger neighborhood, and on a large pond. They even had paddle boats and canoes! So fun.
Piper's first time at the beach = a little skeptical. I wasn't surprised.
Thankfully, she warmed up to it!
Water has to been pretty warm for me to enjoy it. But I definitely enjoyed reading with my toes in the sand!
One evening of paddle boating
There was a great park right down the road where we ended up several evenings. There were a lot of great parks we found while there! Piper LOVES to play.
We found out there was also a small zoo that was less than an hour away. We decided to head that way, what with Piper's love for animals. It was SO fun. We got to feed giraffes, birds and take a train ride. There was plenty to see with a one and a half year old!
"G" and "Foxy"
Piper's souvenirs from the zoo.
By the third day, we had found this inlet, and it was PERFECT for Piper. No waves, warm water with fish, turtles and manatees swimming close by. This soon became our favorite place.
We tried out another beach the next day. We decided after that to just stay at the inlet.
My girl LOVES Mexican food. She get it from her momma.
Daniel, looking like a little kid while shielding his burn from the sun.
Lots and lots of manatees. We could never quite capture them!
We ended our vacation with a trip to Atlanta to visit Daniel's grandparents. We had a great and super relaxing couple days there! Pictures soon.
