The Smithson Family: Florida Vacation

In July, we went on our first vacation as a family of three to Destin, Florida. We stayed 6 nights. We weren't sure if it would be too long, but it turned out to be the perfect amount of time, especially since Kinley was sick some of the trip. We knew we were wanting to go somewhere on vacation when Colt had time off in July but weren't sure where. When one of Colt's best friends, James, invited us to tag along with them, it all just fell into place. James and his girlfriend (now soon-to-be wife), Jessica, were going to Destin to visit his grandparents in July. His grandparents live in Waterview Towers Yacht Club. Not only do they have their condo, they own another condo a couple floors down from them that they solely use for family members to stay in when they visit. The condo was fully furnished with everything we could ever need. His grandma even had a pack-n-play and high chair out and setup for us to use. She had a fruit tray and fruit dip in the fridge. She also baked chocolate chip cookies and had a cookie jar filled up for us when we arrived. It's embarrassing how many cookies we went through while we were there. We refilled the cookie jar more than once. Our setup was perfect and way better than we could have imagined. They were right on the water too so we didn't have to drive or even walk across a street to get to the beach. When we first got to Destin, it had been raining so the water was a little green. By the end of the week, it had cleared up and I think it was as pretty as the water in Mexico. I had only been to Destin once in high school, and I don't think Colt had ever been, but we will definitely be going back now.

Not only did James and his family supply us with a place to stay, his grandma also lined out someone to get us to/from the airport and we got to drive one of their cars while we were there. Literally, all we had to pay for was our flights and food, and we didn't even have to actually pay for our flight. We had enough points racked up on our Southwest credit card that we flew for free. It can't really get better than that.

Since James' grandma had baby necessities at the condo, the only thing we really had to worry about was a carseat. We needed an extra carseat anyways for Colt's truck so we ordered one on Amazon and got it shipped to them in Florida. It was waiting for us when we got there. For my car, we had the Chicco Keyfit 30 Infant car seat and now we have the Chicco Next Fit Zip Convertible car seat. I thought they would be a little heavy carrying around an airport, and I read on another mom's blog that the best carseat for travel was this cheap Cosco one. I trusted her opinion because she uses Chicco as well and all the reviews on the Cosco one were great. It ended up being super light and worked perfect. Plus, if it would've gotten damaged during the flight, it wouldn't have been a lot of money down the drain. We also still use it for Colt's truck on the rare occasion that Kinley rides in it.

I did a little more research on vacationing at a beach with a baby and also ordered and packed Kinley a sunhat, a pop-up beach tent, a blow-up baby pool and lots of sunscreen. All of my purchases were amazing and I would definitely recommend for taking a little one to the beach... especially the tent!

James' grandparents were amazing hosts, and we couldn't have been more thankful. I wish we could've spent more time with them while we were there. Since Kinley got sick and James' grandpa was actually going through chemo at the time, we kept our distance for several nights. We did get to go to dinner with them one night. They ended up bringing us dinner another night when we weren't feeling good, and his grandma cooked us all dinner (that the guys caught) another night and brought it down to us.

Besides Kinley getting sick and us being stuck in the room a bit, it was the best first vacation for the three of us, and it was fun to get to see Kinley on the beach for the first time.

I was going to post about the entire vacation in one post, but decided it would be easier to break it up, so this is only Day 1.

David took us to the airport and we flew out fairly early from Dallas and arrived in Florida around lunch. After the drive to Destin and getting settled in, we went and grabbed food at Dewey Destins. We also went to the grocery store to get stocked up on food for the week. We didn't attempt going to the beach on the first day.

Here's a couple pictures and a video of Kinley on her first ever plane ride.

James and Jessica joked that they were sitting far from us on the plane since we had a baby, but they didn't. Kinley was actually really good. We tried to get her to drink her bottle on the way up so that her ears wouldn't hurt. On the plane ride, she stayed awake most of the time and tried to be social with a girl that was sitting in front of us.

Here's a few pictures of our home for the week... The condo was three bedroom, and James gave us the master since we had Kinley with us.

Like I said... we had cookie waiting on us.

Our bedroom was perfect because it even had a rocking chair that overlooked the water. I had a good view for rocking Kinley and nap times.

James' grandpa has a hobby of collecting cars. Colt went with James that first day to check out his garage full of cars. Colt took pictures mainly to show my dad because my dad loves cars. This isn't even all of them. This is just a sample. There were lots more. There was a '67 Corvette that was covered up in perfect condition that Colt had his eyes on.