Our vacation at Ponce Inlet, FL was really and truly wonderful. After much debate as to how best to manage a 16 hour road trip with 2 babies, we decided to leave at 7PM and drive all night.  We figured either this would be a brilliant idea or a terrible one, and we were prepared for either scenario.  It turned out to be on the brilliant side, as the twins both slept all night and we were able to get in about 12 hours worth of driving only having to stop for gas a couple of times.  The only fussing that really occurred on the whole trip was in the last 30 minutes of the drive.  They were excellent travelers.

Upon arrival at my parents’ condo in Florida, we unpacked all of our baby gear and put the twins on the floor for some exploration.  They crawled all over the place, checking out everything and really enjoying themselves smearing baby handprints all over my mother’s glass coffee table and doors.  We spent the rest of the day unpacking, grocery shopping, and settling in. The next day was July 4, and we got to watch from the balcony as there were a few brilliant fireworks shows over the beach.  It was one of the better Independence Day celebrations I’ve enjoyed.  Here is a daytime view from the balcony as a storm approaches, which seemed to happen most afternoons:

The next several days were spent hitting the beach and pool, golfing, reading on the balcony, and generally relaxing. The babies really enjoyed practicing their swimming skills in the pool, although I think some of the other people at the pool thought we were insane.  They kept asking “how old ARE they??” We really appreciated it when finally a person calmly said “oh, ISR lessons huh?” and smiled at us.  We also let them float in rafts from time to time:

Vacation was going so smoothly and I was feeling myself relax in a way that I haven’t relaxed in over a year. I was truly enjoying the time to just BE with myself, my kids, and Dave.  It was so nice.  We went to visit an old sugar mill where there are some concrete dinosaur statues and we took some pictures there. Andrew is wearing a dinosaur tshirt too:

We went out to eat at a couple of our favorite restaurants, we rented movies that we hadn’t had time to watch yet, we spent some quality time with my aunt and uncle, who live in neighboring Daytona Beach.  Dave took the babies to watch a sea turtle release.

Audrey and Andrew enjoyed getting in the ocean a little more each time we went. We put them down on the sand and let them explore, which they didn’t love at first, but were really enjoying by the last day of vacation.  Both babies got their first suntans!

On the last day, we took them for a walk to the ice cream shop and gave them their first sample of vanilla soft-serve. They both hated it! There were tears and screaming!

After 2 weeks of ultimate relaxation, we packed up the car again and headed back home, stopping in New Orleans for the wedding of a couple of friends of ours. I was nervous to take 2 unpredictably loud babies to a wedding, but they were both very good.  The only sound to come from either of them was a very excited squeal from Audrey when the groom kissed the bride.  We then went to the reception, where they took a little nap in their strollers while we ate dinner and we enjoyed a bit of dancing and drinks before we returned to our room for their bedtime.

We finished the last 6 hours of our return trip the next day.  The best parts of returning home were seeing our pets, and seeing the new mural that was painted in the baby room while we were gone.  Our friend painted it and she did an excellent job!  It is just so sweet and perfect.

Our first family vacation as a family of 4 was a complete and total success. We can’t wait for the next one!