Aruba!!

After a year of planning and anticipation, our Aruba trip is over :( But it was awesome! Payton could not have been any better. She's definitely our daughter, a little traveler!! First thing is first, the plane ride. We were given hope that there was an empty seat next to us so that meant we could bring her carseat and she could have a free seat - our hopes were dashed when they realized they overbooked. Not sure how that happens, but it does. So after getting her all settled and buckled up, we had to take her out and give up the seat. Bummer. Although it would have made things like napping, much easier, it all worked out just fine. My mom was able to rock her to sleep and she took an hour nap, after that, she just hung out. We didn't even really have to pass her around that much. She just played with anything and everything, mostly the plastic cups and napkins, not really with the crap load of toys and books we brought for her. But hey, whatever works! She enjoyed looking out the window and talking and looking at other people. She did a lot of waving during this vacation. We had a direct flight which was perfect - and as soon as we landed, I kid you not, she started screeching! We never heard her make this sound before, it was hilarious. It was as if she knew we were on vacation in Aruba and was soooo excited! She was cracking us all up the entire way to the resort. We stayed in our timeshare and realized when we got there that we got upgraded to two ajoining one bedroom suites...bonus. She was definitely exhausted from the long day of traveling but wasn't cranky at all. We were able to keep her on somewhat of a schedule and she slept great the entire week. Never woke up in the middle of the night, and took great naps, usually on the beach! Lucky chick :) I won't recap every single day but some of the highlights were going out to eat, playing in the sand, swimming in the crystal clear ocean, swimming in the pool, and really just hanging out. We would relax in the morning and after her breakfast she would take a nap then we were off to the beach, back for lunch, then we'd hang by the pool in the afternoon most days. She was OBSESSED with swimming. She would have stayed in the water all day I think. She would get excited as Brian walked toward the water with her. She really was an absolute joy to be around, but then, she usually is! Even when we pushed her a little past her bedtime she handled it well. One night we ditched the bath before bedtime and took her swimming instead. It was awesome - my parents were out and we left my sisters and Nick downtown b/c we wanted to get Payton back and ready for bed so it was just the three of us and it is now one of my favorite memories. Not that being with the family wasn't great, b/c it was, but there was something about hanging out in that environment as a family of three that was really special. And it was great that everyone else got to do their own thing too. Another night we left Payton with Memere and Grampy and just us "kids" went on a party bus barhopping around the islands local bars - another fun night for the books! I've posted a few of my fave pics but there are so many I couldn't put them all up. All in all, it was an unbelievable week - lots of free rum punch, tons of laughs, and most of all, lots of memories! Getting home on the other hand...yikes. When leaving aruba, you have to be at the airport three hours early. You go through security twice, check your bags twice, and go through US customs. We all got through with no problems, but that meant now we had two and a half hours to kill....with a baby. We got lucky and she fell asleep on me for about 45 minutes and then it was time to get on the plane. We were heading into a storm so the landing was a bit tricky. We started to descend two different times and were sent back up...each time going through lots of turbulence. I had payton in a wrap type thing so she wouldn't get bounced around. Not that she cared, she ate and fell asleep during the entire process. We landed an hour late, took forever to get our luggage, then had a shuttle ride to our car, and a two hour ride home, in the pouring rain. No fun. But if that was the price we had to pay for having an amazing week, then it was ok with us! Hope you enjoy the pics :)