Naples: We Love the Water!

I'm here today to document our trip to Naples, Florida for Thanksgiving break.  For the past couple of years, Olive and Kevin have BOTH had the whole week of Thanksgiving off of school.  I am not sure how long this will last so it was Kevin's idea to do a fun birthday getaway for me.  The tradition stuck and we found ourselves planning another Fall Florida trip.

The weather was LOVELY the whole time we were there mid 70s to upper 80s and lots of sunshine.

I always want to say, our trips always have their ups and downs.  It's challenging to travel with two kids + a pregnant mom and things don't usually go as perfectly planned.  I've learned to be more flexible and just take things as they come.  In case you need you don't believe me...

1. Our flight landed a little early at 10:30pm, we got our luggage quickly and hurried to claim our rental car.  That all went smoothly and we soon found ourselves scoping out vans.  We picked one, loaded everything up, installed two car seats, strapped two kids into said car seats and went to start the van.  We quickly realized the keys were missing.  They were no where and the employee said our only option was to pick a new van.  We picked a second one, opened it up to smell SMOKE.  Picked a third one and got everyone/everything loaded.  We were worn out!

2. Kevin made plans to golf one whole morning and then it rained the entire morning.

3. Kevin headed into the ocean with the rental van keys in his swim trunk pockets.  He realized it just as he was about to go under water.  Close call #1.  I ran out to meet him to save the keys. Then we thought we lost our one rental key for the van in the sand.  Spent a chunk of time looking for said rental key and then it turned up folded up inside one of our beach chairs.

4. Fletcher woke up in the middle of the night towards the end of our trip and was very sick.  He'd had a little cold all week, but it escalated so quickly.  He couldn't catch his breath, was coughing until he'd throw up and it was so scary.  He had never had anything like this.  He just couldn't calm his breathing and was so congested.  We got him some medicine and prayed he'd feel better quickly/be okay to travel home the next day.  He had a much better night and was okay to travel.  I booked him an appointment a couple hours after we got home only to find out he had bronchitis, needed a nebulizer, had an ear infection and would require several prescriptions.  Life with kids is never dull!!

5. We flew home to 45-50+ mile an hour winds at our airport.  They prepped us for a rough landing.  I'm a nervous flyer when the weather isn't great (thanks to a really scary flight several years ago) so this made me on edge.  It ended up not being as bad as they prepped us for, but it was a rough landing.  The wind knocked the plane around in all directions.  The kids were unphased and I was just thankful I didn't get sick.

So all that to say, as you check out our vacation pictures, just know they're documenting the highlights.  There were plenty of highs and lows behind the scenes, but we are thankful that these two are really great little travelers!

On our first day we spent the morning at the pool.  The kids love to swim!  Olive rarely wears her puddle jumper at the pool these days and both kids love goggles.  They're at the age where they usually pick the pool over the ocean.

Then we headed off to the ocean in the afternoon.  We don't usually go near sunset, but I am so glad we decided to this time.  It was so much fun!  The weather was perfect.  The ocean was so calm and we all really enjoyed ourselves.

 The ocean water was calm and a little chilly.  Neither kid minded.

We played, collected shells and swam.

Fletcher LOVES the ocean.  It's so funny because he's had to learn to love the ocean and all the textures and waves that come with it.

These big pelicans were really fun to watch.

Olive's first trip to the ocean was when she was about 6 weeks old.  She's LOVED it ever since.  No convincing required.

The kids bundled up after their swim.  It's definitely different than when we were here in June.

Fun first days in Florida!!