The Halpern Home: First Family Vacation- Florida

[*Insert huge sigh of relief here*] We survived it. Not only did we survive it, but we actually enjoyed it. Blake and I were both so nervous about flying with Ryder, so there was a lot of anxiety leading up to the trip.

The trip was initially proposed by my friend Jill. Her parents own a vacation home just outside of Naples, Florida (in a town called Bonita Springs). Jill, Jess and I are all friends from Wash U. Jess and I met on our freshman dorm floor and have been best friends ever since. We lived together sophomore, junior and senior year. Jill was the year above us, but we became close friends with her during our sophomore year. While in college, we never would have imagined that we'd all end up with babies close in age. In fact, I'm pretty sure that if someone would have asked us back when we were 21 years old, we all would have guessed that I'd pop a baby out first, with Jill and Jess to follow some time later. But here we are almost ten years later, and we all have kiddos less than a year apart. Jill's son Jake is just over 13 months old. Ryder is 8.5 months old. Jess's daugher Eve is 7.5 months old.

Anyway, Jill suggested that we all vacation together at her parents' house in Florida with kids in tow. We all immediately loved the idea, but I'm not sure that any of us initially thought that it would come to fruition. Clearly, it did. Jess's husband Graham was not able to make it (bummer!) but the rest of us all met in Naples on Wednesday, August 8th and stayed through Sunday.

On the way there, Ryder was such a good boy at the airport and during the flight. We even had a nearly two hour delay, and he still hung out like a champ. Although we did not purchase a separate seat for Ryder, we lucked out and the flight wasn't full. The gate agent kindly shifted things around so that Blake and I could have an empty seat in our row. Because of this great fortune, we were able to bring Ryder's car seat on to the plane. Now don't get me wrong, I wouldn't say that the flight was flawless. Ryder never slept at the airport or during the flight, which is crazy. I suppose there was just too much excitement. Because he didn't sleep, it was a little exhausing to keep him entertained. However, he didn't cry or have any tantrums. Once we arrived in Florida, we had an almost 2 hour drive from Ft. Lauderdale to Naples. It wasn't ideal but the flights into Ft. Lauderdale were WAY less expensive than the flights into the closer airport. Ryder actually cried a bunch during the drive. He was way overtired. It wasn't pleasant, but at least we didn't have to worry about him disrupting others.

Ryder was such a doll-face during the trip. We spent a lot of time in or by the pool, and Ryder loved it! He had been good in the pool on the few occasions we had taken him at home, but he had always been slightly hesitant and a little tense. I don't know if it was the cozy, warm pool temp in Florida that made the difference, but Ryder was completely relaxed and happy in the pool there. He even splashed around. Preciousness. He took two naps daily like a good boy, played nicely with his two little friends and slept through the night in his pack-n-play without a problem.

It was so much fun to see Jake, Ryder and Eve together. Even though Jake is less than 6 months older than Ryder and Eve, it's still a huge difference at this point in time. Jake is ~~walking~~ running around everywhere and into everything (as most 13 month olds are), but he was sweet to the "babies" and was mostly happy to share all of his toys. Even though Eve is younger than Ryder, she is much more mobile than he is. She crawls (albeit slowly) and can even pull herself to standing. The tiny little princess (and I do mean TINY) is far more advanced than Ryder in that regard. Although it was super entertaining and fun to watch all of the babies together, it was also somewhat frightening. It was a glimpse into my near future: life with a mobile baby. It's hard to picture Ryder running around the house, but the truth is that it won't be THAT long until Blake and I are faced with such a reality. In all honestly, it kind of makes me want to permanently dress Ryder in some super-slippery footed pajamas so that he'll never have enough traction to crawl or walk. Of course I wouldn't really do that... but the thought did cross my mind.

Another interesting discovery during the trip: THE BABIES LOVED BLAKE. Jake and Eve were both inexplicably attracted to and entertained by him. He could elicit a smile from sweet little Eve at the drop of a hat, which is no easy feat. It was crazy and hilarious how much Jake and Eve fancied Blake. It was way cute.

We also even managed to slip in a bit of good, old-fashioned adult time during the trip. I was able to laze on a pool float for a good hour and a half while the babies were all napping one day. Also, we had ample grown-up time after the kiddos went to bed each night. All 3 of them were down by 8pm each and every night (Ryder was usually first, since he can't seem to make it past 6:30 pm anymore). We grilled out just about every night and ate dinner on the patio when the weather so permitted (there were thunder storms almost every evening while we were there but they were pretty short-lived).

On our final night in Naples, we ventured to the hot tub after dinner, glasses of wine/beer in hand, and chilled/chatted the night away until the wee hours of the night (as new parents in our late 20s and early 30s, "wee hours" actually means "around midnight"). Blake and Aaron even enjoyed Cuban cigars that Aaron had brought back from his recent trip to Bermuda. We all pretended like we were childless college kids again without a care in the world (though in all likelihood we would have been drinking cheap beer and bad liquor in lieu of nice beer and wine back in our real college years). Truth be told, if you were to pan out from the close-up shot of us all sitting in and around the hot tub drinking, you would have seen three high-tech baby monitors perched on a deck chair a few feet away. Also, if you were to pan back in and turn up the volume, you would have heard that we spent a large portion of our time in the hot tub listening to Jess describe her dissertation topic (a comparison of immigrants and sense of identity in NYC and Madrid, or something along those lines) and discussing our vastly different experiences with conception of our children (ranging from Jess's "fertile myrtle," pregnant at the drop of a hat experience to my year+ struggle requiring medical intervention experience). Not exactly the same types of things we would have discussed while boozing in a hot tub back in college. Like I said, we were only pretending to be care-free, college kids.

The flight home with Ryder was verging on a nightmare. But hey, he's an 8-month old. If he had been perfect for both flights and the entire trip, no one would have believed me anyway. The flight back to DFW was full, which meant no empty seat for Ryder. He screamed. A lot. When he wasn't crying, he was fidgeting and throwing his body around in demonic fashion. It was embarassing and stressful, just as one would imagine. In the end, we survived it. I'm sure Ryder was overtired and fresh out of the perfect-angel-juice he had been drinking for the several preceding days. He did finally pass out for the last 20 minutes of the flight, only to be startled awake by the pilot's excessively loud announcement for the flight attendants to prepare for landing, which promptly sparked yet another screaming session from Ryder.

It was so wonderful to spend time and catch up with Jill and Jess. It was also awesome to meet and spend time with their kiddos. We plan/hope to make the trip to Naples a yearly tradition now, so here's to next year! Now, you can enjoy some pictures:

Blake "baby-wearing" in style at the airport

Eve and Ryder

Ryder and Daddy taking a midday snooze

Eve and Ryder make really nice accessories. Blake decked out in babies = uber-cuteness.

Ryder's first social bath.

This photo captures the moment right before Jake yanked off the wash-cloth in an obviously purposeful effort to expose Ryder's privates to the world (or at least to my camera).

Evidence of the size discrepancy. Eve is one month younger but almost four pounds smaller (which says A LOT since Ryder hasn't broken the 10th percentile in weight yet). As an interesting aside, Eve was born two weeks early... on Ryder's due date. I get a kick out of telling Ryder that Eve "stole his birthday."