Picture Overload- warning!

Okay, so let's pick up on the story of our very first family vacation and how we'll never forget it! Phil got to enjoy one, full day of the beach and pool (Tuesday) before waking up on Wednesday with what was later discovered to be the Swine Flu. :(

I had to maintain a much more basic schedule with the kids, since I was doing it ALL on my own, and tending to Phil since he wasn't allowed to leave his room and oh yeah, I'm pregnant!

So our new schedule was that we ate breakfast and stayed at the condo until Julianna went down for her morning nap, about 9am. Phil was able to "watch" her while she napped and I went to the pool with Chase. We came home around 11 to make lunch and get Julianna up from nap. We headed back to the pool after lunch until about 1:30 or 2, and then had an afternoon nap. The kids both napped until about 5. We had dinner at 5:30 and then bath and bed.

Much deviation from this schedule made me really tired, so we pretty much stuck to this, other than going to the beach for a bit a couple of mornings. The beach was a lot more work, a bit further of a walk, greater clean-up and use of more energy for me!

This picture was actually from Tuesday night, the night before Phil got sick. Our complex had 7 swimming pools. This particular pool was just a kiddie wading pool, 1 1/2ft deep. I put her water wings on her just to keep her afloat in case she went down. Luckily she doesn't mind them!

Chase got to be a really good swimmer during this trip and if Phil hadn't gotten sick, I think he would have really been swimming on his own by the time we left. He was pretty close! The first part of the week, he was always decked out in lots of flotation devices.


This is the pool that we went to the most. We named it the crab pool because this is the pool where we found about a foot long crab on our first day and then another small crab on our next to last day. As you can see, there weren't any crowds this time of year, which was great!

The end of the pool where the kids are is a wading pool, then it gradually drops to 3 ft and then to 5 ft. This was the closest (outdoor) pool to our condo, just a short walk across the parking lot.



These are my attempt at getting some beach pics of the kids while Phil was still sick. It wasn't too successful b/c any time I took my hand off Julianna, she bolted for the water. Chase was afraid of the water, so he ran the other way. I'm sure we were good entertainment for those around.

We discovered a hidden talent in Chase, sand washer-offer. I'm sure that's a real word. He was really good at it.

This was Sunday, day 6 of vacation. This was the first day that Chase swam the length of the pool. Yes, only with several flotation devices on, lol. I took video of it to show Phil back in the room.

Yea, Daddy makes an appearance on Monday! That's the day we were supposed to leave, but we ended up staying an extra day so that Phil could enjoy a bit of his vacation. He still had to take it easy and tired easily. He only lasted about 1 1/2 hrs at the pool, and then we had to go in.

Chase missed his Daddy and was never far away from him after he came out of isolation. Julianna on the other hand I think wasn't sure who he was.


You can tell that this was the day I could take pictures, since someone was there to keep an eye on the kids.


Chase swimming to Phil without water wings. He would jump off that little platform and swim to Phil, often times having his face go underwater. We were totally shocked that he would do this!


Julianna just stood on the platform and played "watering can" the whole time Chase was swimming.




After showers and a bit of a rest on this day, Monday, our last day, we headed out to dinner for the first time on the 8th night that we were there.

We had recommendations from several people for this restaurant, Lu Lu's, owned by Jimmy Buffet's sister. It was really cool! It was all open air with a live band and some good seafood!

Man, this would have been a really good pic of Julianna, if Phil got all of her face, lol.

Chase took this picture of Phil and me. Not too bad!

They had a cool play area for kids with lots of sand and other things to do. So you could stay at your table and eat or drink and watch your kids play from where you were. I had just bathed our kids, so that wasn't an option for them, but we'll know for next time.

Trying to play the ring toss game.


The only family pic of the whole trip. I brought cute outfits and the tripod to get a family beach picture, but since Phil was sick, we never had time to do that. Oh well, there's always next year, right?

We bought our Christmas ornament while at LuLu's. Phil said we could have just bought a pig ornament to hang on the tree this year to remember our trip by. Ha, ha.

This is Julianna when we got back that night. One of the vertical blinds fell off the sliding glass door and she wrapped it around her like a shawl! That girl needs some dress up clothes for sure!

We stayed until early afternoon on the next day, Tuesday, so Phil could get some more time in on vacation. He took Chase to the pool that morning while I packed everything, but it was a bit chilly that day. They came back about 45 minutes later and Chase was freezing! He had been jumping in the pool to Phil and asked, "Daddy, why are my teeth moving?"

Another funny story about Chase from our trip: Our condo had some beach toys there and one thing they had was a boogie board. Phil showed it to Chase and said, "Look Chase a boogie board!" Chase said, "What is that? Do people wipe their boogies on it?" :) Glad we had the opportunity to clarify that one!

So, it wasn't a totally terrible vacation. It definitely could have been a lot worse!! If I too had gotten the Swine Flu while there, it would have been really bad! The kids and I had a good time, we were just sad that Phil didn't get to join us for most of it. But we ended up with a 9 day vacation, so that's not too bad at all!