Mommy & Daddy Take A Vacation!

Alan & I have been wanting to take a trip back to the Florida Keys ever since we honeymooned there in 2008.  Having kids in 2009 and 2011 made that idea pretty much impossible.  But when my Dad emailed me in January to tell me he’d be getting married there in November, without hesitation I told him we would be there!!!  I had 9 months to work out the logistics and make it happen, and sure enough, we made it happen!  I’m SO glad we got to be there, the wedding was absolutely beautiful!

These guys are all old friends/bandmates of my Dad who knew me when I was a baby, it was neat to talk to each of them!

One of them was the manager of their band in the 80’s and is actually working on a documentary right now, so he interviewed me while I was there!  Pretty neat :)

The reception was a great celebration!  And I learned that I can’t even hang with my own Father!  Let’s just say the Duval Crawl after the reception was a little too much for this girl! 

 

What’s crazy is that the National Power Boat races were going on in Key West the same weekend we were there so we actually ran into some friends!!

The day after the wedding I slept in longer than I have since I became a Mom!!  Then we met back up with my Dad & his new bride to spend some time together.  I don’t get to see my Dad much so I was really excited that they didn’t mind sharing some of their time with us!

 

  

It was sad to say good-bye because I never know when we’ll see each other again, but I’m just so thankful everything fell into place and we were able to take the vacation.  But our vacation wasn’t over!!  Alan & I were headed to a different key, Islamorada to spend a few nights in the place where we honeymooned. 

  

We shopped, laid by the pool, ate romantic meals (the water and sunsets make every meal feel so romantic!), found wildlife (because I did marry Nature Boy), and just spent some good quality time together!  Being on this trip was kind of a reality check for me.  When we were there 5 years ago I really didn’t have much to stress about.  I was just a girl in love, totally consumed and excited about this new path my life was headed down!  Five years doesn’t even seem like that long but WOW have our lives changed.  We have a home and children and careers and bills, oh boy do we have bills!  We are SO very blessed to have the things that we have in life, but all of those things bring heavy responsibilities, which for me translates to stress!  Being away for a week really brought me back to the basics and allowed me to reflect.  I love my husband and I love my children, I want them to have the best of me, they deserve it.  So I’m trying not to stress my way through this stage of our lives, but to embrace it and enjoy it.  I’m a work in progress!

Shout-out to my AMAZING mother for keeping the crazies for us while we were away!!  She said she will no longer make fun of me for being in bed by 9pm or not being able to carry on a phone conversation!  She did such a great job with them though.  They are definitely very suspicious of us now though, grilling us if we’re just running out somewhere really quick, they need to make sure we are not going to Florida anytime soon!  Ryder informed me that I am NOT allowed to go back to Florida, the ONLY way I can go back is if I’m taking him to Disney World.  I’ll get right on that!