Surprise Vacation

How often have you been so preoccupied with your busy schedule and responsibilities that you completely forgot that you had an upcoming vacation?  If you're like us, that's never happened to you.  Or at least never until we became parents.
Although we had planned early in the year to take a week of vacation at the beginning of October, with the whirlwind that has become our norm, we completely forgot about it until just the week before when Tony's work reminded him of his time off.  While we were certainly up for some rest and relaxation at the shore, the real questions was, "are we ready to take a baby to the beach?"  The conclusion we came to:  why not!
So we packed up our car with all the baby gear that we required (plus the baby) and headed down to Blue Mountain Beach, near Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.  Caleb handled the drive down like a champ - only fussing when it was time to eat (like his mom). 
The first stop once we arrived?  The beach, of course!

Caleb's first view of the beach (he did eventually open his eyes)

Daddy and Caleb at the beach

Mommy and Caleb enjoying the water

 It took us about 45 minutes to get all of our stuff (including all the baby stuff that we would need) ready to head to the beach each day and to walk there, and when we got there, we were lucky if we could stay an hour before Caleb indicated that he was ready to go home.  We pretty much kept him hidden underneath an umbrella to shield him from the sun and breeze, but he could handle only so much once it started getting hot out. 

"This sand is kind of comfy..."

 We also took a trip to Destin where we explored the docks.

Feeling nautical

 Mommy enjoyed a vacation from cooking each night.  We ate at a Mexican restaurant one night, and when we saw this, we couldn't resist...

"Stay thirsty, my friends."

 We went on sunrise walk/runs...

 Mostly, we just chilled and enjoyed our time together.

Overall, I would say the trip was a success.  Yes, it was a lot of work, and, yes, it was certainly different from our pre-baby vacations.  But it was a lot of fun, too, and we look forward to many more family trips with our boy in the future!