Sunday, August 05, 2012

Vacation, Vacation!

I'm a big fan of vacations :)  We so needed one too!  The last 8 weeks have been a whirlwind and it was time to get away, just us, and relax.  Fortunately, we were able to do this for a few days this past week.  We knew we wanted a beach, so we decided to try Gulf Shores.  We got a condo through Vrbo.com and packed (everything we owned into) our car and headed out late Wednesday.

We spent 3 nights at the Crystal Towers and it was perfect for us.  We had a nice ocean view, easy access to the beach, a great pool set-up, and a kitchen. 

So what is a vacation like for the Landrys these days?  Up at 6:15 each morning (Jack and Cora were aligned on this one), breakfast, out to the beach by 7:30, 3 full hours of sand castles, water play, and pool time before bringing the fair-skinned ones back inside.  Then LEGO play (we chose not to leave home without them), lunch, naptime (hallelujah!), and then more beach.  Naps meant Jacob and I also got to nap and finish books on this trip!  On Saturday, we were out of the condo by 10:30 but by that point had already spent several hours at the beach/pool.  You can be surprisingly efficient with your mornings with small children!

Vacation seemed like a good time to get back to cooking, but in a fun way.  We picked out some interesting recipes (lentil galettes and lemon/eggplant risotto) and brought all the ingredients with us. 

Lemon-Eggplant risotto - delicious, we will repeat this!
Watching a small child experience new things is such a precious and happy thing.   Jack had a blast on this trip and it was so much fun to watch.  It makes me tear up to see how much he loves to spend time with us (the feeling is mutual by the way) and it was so nice to have nothing else to distract us from just enjoying him.  Cora graciously took a backseat on this trip and let us focus on Jack.  This baby is a great sleeper and she either slept or was content to be held.  (I definitely appreciated the two parents: two children ratio - very convenient.)

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Cora asleep in the stroller

Jack's beach fashions

The LEGO fire trucks make a beach appearance
 
Classic Cora expression

Pretty girl gives great smiles these days!

Is this not the sweetest chunk of love?

A good vacation tires you out

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

outstanding, Courtney ! take care, Jill B