A year ago, when the WAIFWYP Old Girls were enjoying the spaaarty in Scottsdale, we decided we needed a big gathering…with partners and kids and all the mayhem that come with both. We settled on Florida and we selected St. Pete Beach (and specifically, The Alden) as our destination. And in no time, the time had come for this trip!

MIke and I decided to go down a few days early since I was on maternity leave, so we could spend time with my family and get out of the harsh DC winter for a few days of fun in the sun. Just what we needed.

I started prepping for the trip days in advance, packing ALLLL the things for 2 little people and myself. Diapers. Bathing suits. Sandals. FL clothes. And on and on. I remembered every. little. thing. Until the day before departure and Mike casually asks who was watching Finny. FINNY?? Oops. So then at the very last minute, I found a sitter for Finnegan (can you believe I forgot about the dog?!?) and off we went.

We flew down to TPA on Wednesday morning. Flying with two under 2 presents many challenges but one of the perks is that no more than 4 people can sit in a row because that’s the maximum number of the oxygen masks, so we got a row to ourselves.

Mike got adorned by Sesame Street characters while he drank his black coffee and tried to read The Economist. Ha! Serves him right.

While Vivi did a whole lot of this:

My parents did not know we were coming Wednesday…they thought we were coming Thursday. So we popped out from behind the bar at Matt’s house and yelled SURPRISE! The look on my mom’s face was perfection. She is the VERY best person to surprise!

That night, we headed to the Michael Buble concert with the whole family (minus kiddos) and it was a fantastic show!

You can’t beat a FL sunset…

The next day was Valentine’s Day and we celebrated with these little loves in their matching jammies. Caroline celebrated with a lollipop she discovered in the diaper bag (in the ‘last resort’ pocket where I stash pacifiers and other contraband, just in case we have screamers on the plane).

Caroline quickly discovered her very favorite room in Matt and Tommie’s house:

And practiced eating at the counter like a big kid!

Vivi got to go on the boat for the first time:

And Caroline enjoyed going to lunch by boat (and walking hand in hand with Pa):

She loves the boat–especially with Kay Kay:

Funny story: while we were at lunch, a man came over to Caroline and said, “Shouldn’t you be in school?” Caroline nodded. The man winked and said, “well, if you don’t tell then I won’t tell!” Then he slipped me a $2 bill and said, “here’s some ice cream money for that little lady!”

The next day we went to the Dunedin Farmers Market:

Where Caroline was mesmerized by a man who could make giant bubbles.

And we found some really fun parks!

Later that night, Preston showed off his awesome red Jeep Power Wheel, and even let Caroline drive. It was adorable (as long as you moved your feet out of the way quickly when they were coming for you!)

Tommie and I gave those two kiddos a bath and then Preston read Goodnight Moon to Caroline:

The next day, we packed up from Matt’s house and headed up the street to meet up with WAIFWYP at The Alden for the next leg of the vacation. We found the group drinking Miller Lite on the beach and eating pizza, using the pizza boxes as plates. Did I mention we are a classy bunch??

Caroline got right into it:

And was glad Kay Kay helped her settle in!

While Vivi got some Bridget snuggles:

We found The Alden to be well equipped for our household (we dubbed our living room ‘The Daycare’):

We wasted no time in slipping into the hot tub, making new friends, and passing around a jug of wine. You know–as you do.

Although not alllll of us stayed up late 😉

The next day, we headed down to the beach to enjoy the gorgeous weather and beautiful aqua water:

After a lovely breakfast in the Kesslers’ room where both Caroline and Vivi were fawned over by the WAIFWYP Gen II ladies:

We soaked up the beautiful sun and got to connect to people we never get to see. Here is Greer making sure she got a shot with as many Betancourts as she could:

Because my mom, Matt, Tommie, and Preston joined us for an afternoon at the beautiful beach!

We all put on a beautiful performance of relay races, drank a lot of drinks from The Alden’s bar, and got to just hang out. So nice!

Here’s the group after the impressive relay races:

And Nicole got to spend some quality time with Caroline.

Watching all the little ones play was adorable. Caroline discovered a love for baby doll accessories:

While some of the older Gen II girls treated her and Vivi like little baby dolls! So cute:

And here is Meg with the koozie Karina had been saving to give to her for a year:

Caroline quickly determined the fastest route to the pool bar:

And had no trouble wooing the waitress to give her all of the drink garnishes…she ate a ton of cherries and pineapple slices!

Should I be concerned that she looks so comfortable at a bar before she’s even two??

It was so great getting to spend time with some of my very favorite people!

These are the ONLY group shots I got of the ‘Old Girls’ but they definitely sum up how we felt about our vacation!

Thanks for having us, St. Pete Beach! We’ll be back…