More fun outside

We met Matt's parents in Delaware for lunch and then we went to a park for Ryan to play.
He was so excited to have all of this grass to wander around in and dandelions to pick.
"Higher Daddy!"

Fun Outside

Ryan getting ready for his first trip in the cool new wagon Grammy got for him.
I think Ryan looks like a little old man in these new pajamas. Please forgive the red eye, I haven't edited yet...
We went to a cool little playground called the Media Tot Lot this morning.

It is perfect for Ryan's age.

Time to go home

Ryan slept through checking in at the airport...
The airport was all open-air, tiki hut style like this.
No jetway - we walked outside and then up these stairs to get to the plane.

We had a great trip, but we were ready to get home at the end of it. Ryan is at kind of a hard age for these sorts of trips. He is sort of walking, but not all the way, which makes things difficult. The floor in the rooms were tiles which made me very nervous because he isn't very steady on his feet when he is walking so I was nervous that he would fall and hurt himself. And whenever we put sunscreen on Ryan he would end up rubbing it in his eyes which lead to 10 minutes of him crying and rubbing them more - not fun. And the beach was great, except that he would get his hands all sandy and then rub his eyes. Also, the traveling makes for a long day - be at the airport 1.5-2 hrs early, then a 3.5-4 hr flight followed by 1.5-2 hr drive home. I know, you aren't feeling sorry for us since this was our 3rd trip to the Carribean in 6 months. I am just trying to explain that we had a great time, but it was good to be home too:) All of that said, now we need to decide where to go next.... :) I have really enjoyed going to all of these beautiful locations, but now what I really want to do is visit friends. So, I am hoping in the next few months we will be taking trips to Dallas, San Antonio, and Ottawa.

Beautiful

The beach and the sea were gorgeous here. Unfortunately I got another speck of something in my camera so the pictures taken with my good camera have a black spot on them that I haven't photoshoped yet.

Our little fish

One of the people working at the pool said that Ryan was a fish because he spent so much of the days at the pool...

Ryan FINALLY likes the ocean!!!

This was Ryan's 4th time at the ocean (5th if you count the very brief walk on the beach in Clearwater Beach). Up until now he has cried every time we tried to take him in it. This time, he actually enjoyed it - YAY!!!! I think maybe it was because this water was very warm, which doesn't bode well for liking the Atlantic this summer when we go to Bethany, but we will keep our fingers crossed.

Tropical Paradise

While we were in Punta Cana, we stayed at the Punta Cana Resort & Club. This is where Continental puts their pilots when they have layovers here. Supposedly they don't offer an airline employee discount though. But after some research on tripadvisor.com I learned that the hotel is often listed on Hotwire for $79/night, so I booked it that way. It is listed as a

4 star hotel and though we weren't quite that impressed with it, it was definitely good for the price.

I wish Matt would take me somewhere nice.... ;)

We went to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic from Monday to Wednesday. We had a great time! The weather even cooperated for once! It was beautiful the whole time we were there. Ryan did pretty well on the plane, though it is definitely getting more challenging as he gets more mobile. The flight was around 3 1/2 hours and we didn't have his car seat on either flight which was also more difficult. Overall, he is a great traveller though. This was his 5th airplane trip. He has even learned how to sleep through the night in a crib in a hotel which is a HUGE accomplishment and makes our trips MUCH better!!! I will go post some more pictures...

Beautiful day at the park

It was beautiful outside today - about 70 and sunny, so I decided to take Ryan to the park. He played on the swing for a little bit and then we went over to the grassy area for him to walk around. I would say he is definitely walking now, though there is a lot of falling mixed in with the walking. For the most part though when he falls, he stands back up to walk instead of just crawling, so there is definite progress...

More Florida pictures

" Gotta call Grammy and tell her about all of the fun I am having..."
We had a good dinner at Crabby Bills in Clearwater Beach.
This is a bad picture, but I was trying to take a picture at the beach at dusk and it just wasn't working with my old camera. The beach looked beautiful though - I definitely think we should go back when we have more time!
Back on the airplane... Ryan does really well on the airplane. He was a little fussier than normal, but he had been woken up by Mommy at 6:15 (after not going to bed till 10:15) to go to the airport and he was tired.
Mommy and Ryan are both tired....

Swinging

We went to Clearwater Beach for dinner and while we were waiting for a table, we went over to this cute little playground. We put Ryan in this swing and he ABSOLUTELY loved it!!! We definitely will need to be finding some playgrounds around here so he can swing more often!