Family Holiday in Florida

While the rain and wind of the damp UK winter was upon us, we decided to escape to sunny Florida for what has become an annual family holiday, and it did not disappoint! We joined my mom and step-dad, three of my five siblings (we/re a Brady bunch style family!) and their little ones for a relaxing week in Cape Coral, Florida. My mom has always had a knack for finding the perfect rental property for holiday and this one was no exception. We stayed at this house for the first time last year and loved the layout, pool, and view so much that she immediately booked it again for the following year.

The boys (4 1/2 and 22m) always do great on flights. I dress them cute but comfortable, so any acting up is quickly forgiven from strangers! Their tracksuits are Adidas and I have purchased a few of them over the years- usually from Kohls or Amazon (I’m always pricing them on Amazon while in store before I buy in a brick and mortar!) Amazon has them available in so many colors including more feminine styles-which I would definitely dress a little girl in for a flight! As for their carry-ons, Dexter has upgraded to a big kid backpack and Shepard has inherited our favorite Popatu roller bag from him. It’s machine washable and has lasted us through 2 years and many many flights! If you haven’t already, check out my post on 5 Tips for traveling with kids!

One of the key features of this house was the shallow sun shelf in the pool layout. It’s basically a large area of the pool that was only about six to nine inches deep so it was perfect for the four littles (three under three) to play in independently. The cousins had so much fun in the pool and it was so nice to relax next to them playing without having to be in the pool constantly!

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I have both boys in swimming lessons right now. Nothing fancy, just what’s offered through our local park district. If there is one activity you put your child in, I recommend swim lessons! We holiday often enough in locations with pools and also visit my hometown in northern Minnesota where my parents live on a lake, so water confidence and swim skills is a must in my opinion. Although he’s only had two seasons of lessons, this was the first trip where Dexter felt confident enough to take off his water wings and jump in the deep end and swim without aids!

A beach day was a must, but spending the day with sand, wind, chilly water and small children is not my ideal vacation day. I was THRILLED when Dexter asked if we could go home after playing for about 30 minutes. He was SO excited to come to the beach. I guess he quickly realized he’s more of a pool guy too.

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Dexter is in a MAJOR superhero phase right now. (I avoided it as long as I could but it’s inevitable as a boy mom!) As a small reward for doing so well at swimming lessons, I let him pick out a new super hero swim suit (or swim costume as they call it in the UK). He chose Captain America and picked one for his little brother as well : The Hulk. You can find more options at Amazon.com or amazon.co.uk. They also have options for girls!

You can find my maternity suit at Amazon as well.

It was the perfect family holiday and the last one we will have for a while since we are all planning for the arrival of more babies/cousins. We also make a point on these trips to have a guys night out, ladies night out, and then each couple gets a date night without kids! Coming from a blended family, it makes me so happy that we all love spending time with each other, travel well together, and even better-that we’re all having children at the same time so our kids get to make life long memories with their cousins on these trips as well!