Our First Family Vacation

Back in January, Luke, Avery and I boarded a plane for Florida to set out on our first family vacation. Although we had a few speed bumps, I definitely consider our vacation a success. Avery did pretty well on the flights. On our flight down to Florida, Luke made friends with an eight year old girl. To call her annoying is an understatement! On our return flight, we were sitting next to a pilot and the first thing out of Luke's mouth was, "don't worry, she doesn't cry or fuss." Can you say, "kiss of death"? Ugh... I love my husband!

We flew into Orlando and spent the first day shopping. Surprise, surprise! After that, we headed to Melbourne to visit my Aunt Sherry and Uncle Hank. This was their first time meeting Avery. I think they immediately fell in love with her! While in Melbourne, Avery got sick, but was a trooper. We had a great time catching up with family. Luke was excited because he got to go out on my Uncle's boat.

After our visit to Melbourne, we headed across the state to visit Luke's Grandparents in Bradenton. While in Bradenton, Luke suffered an allergic reaction to something and had to make a visit to the ER. I could go on a long rant about that ER bill, but will simply say that it cost us more out of pocket for Luke to get a prednisone prescription than the TOTAL cost of giving birth to Avery. For the record, I am usually pleased with my personal healthcare situation. I guess nothing is perfect! The rest of our visit to Bradenton was nice. The highlight was taking Avery to the beach for the first time. Although it was a little cold, (70 degrees) she loved the sand and ocean.

For the final stop on our Florida vacation, we headed back to Orlando for a couple days to visit Mickey and Minnie. Since we flew in and out of Orlando, we couldn't resist taking Avery to The Magic Kingdom and Epcot. A college friend of mine works at Universal Studios and generously offered her time and employee perks so that we could take Avery on her first Disney adventure. I'm sure it will be her first trip of many! We really had a great time experiencing the Disney parks with Avery. It amazed me how much she seemed to enjoy the lights, colors and characters. Avery wanted to grab at everything. It was so much fun! I honestly thought we would spend a few hours at the parks, but we spent the entire day. Avery was an angel.