The 2015 Ingalls (Rob’s Mom’s siblings) reunion took us to Pensacola, Florida this year.

For family reference: Zoe (brown shirt) and Ed (yellow polo) welcomed us to their Pensacola home for a wonderful family dinner.  Jane/Nana (orange shirt, next to Rob) is Zoe’s sister and their brother is Charlie who is standing behind her in the plaid.  Donna is Charlie’s wife (in blue behind Zoe) and her son is Brian (green shirt) with his wife Ronda (in pink in front), their son Jack (in blue) and daughter Emily sitting next to Cooper.  Charlie’s daughter, Elizabeth (in yellow) with her husband Bryan (behind her in pink) have two daughters, Catherine and Anna (in white) sitting on the bottom step.  Rob’s family starts with Bob/Pop-pop (at the top in yellow), then diagonally is Charlie (in green), Catherine (in white), Jane (in orange) and Rob (in yellow).

The flight was exciting to Florida and full of snoozes back to Seattle.  We used both car-seats on the plane and used our carry-on suitcase to wheel them through the airport and even down the aisle of the plane.  It was about as easy as hauling those mammoth car-seats could have been/Rob did all the work.

We settled nicely into our hotel room with Cooper sleeping in his “big boy bed” (pull out couch), Nicholas in the pack n play and then a King bed for us.  The boys loved the joint story time at night including Cooper reading the “I am a bunny” book to Nicholas.  The gulf view room was perfect since we spent all nap and the first part of each night out on the deck while the boys fell asleep.   Cooper quickly learned the magic of asking one of us to lay down with him for a little bit during a snooze time.  We couldn’t resist and loved the sweet snuggle time with our boy each day.  Daddy even took a nap with him in our bed one day which was the first time either of us had fallen asleep in bed with him.  I now see how hard it is to say no to snuggle requests when kiddos sleep in a big boy bed.

We were a bit technology heavy with both a camera and baby monitor in the room, but it really helped us to make sure we didn’t go back in until they were both asleep.  We utilized the drawers in the room to unpack so everything had a place and we all knew where to find things.  This was the key to success with all of us in one room for a week.

At Zoe and Ed’s house badminton was a big hit with all of the kids.

Awesome shot captured by Rob.

Nicholas was thrilled when the bigger kids took a break in playing and he got his hands on a racket.

All zipped up and ready for his first boat ride.

Ed was the captain of the boating adventure.

Dinner was typically a meal out at a local restaurant for some fried seafood.

Many of the restaurants had playgrounds helping any wait times go by quickly.

The hotel provided an amazing complimentary breakfast and we bought all of the pb&j and fruit fixings for lunch which we enjoyed nearly every day out on the patio.  Yes, we even ordered a high chair booster seat sent directly to the hotel for Nicholas.  It made every meal so much easier and was worth every penny!

Our balcony door was a bit dirtier after these two played at it daily.

Nana loved digging in the soft white sand with Cooper and Nicholas.

Nicholas loved being in the gulf and couldn’t get enough of it.  He had a few short snoozed in our arms falling asleep to the movement of the waves when we were holding him in the water.

Daddy and his boys loving the warm salt water.

Cooper quickly mastered the hotel room door key even one handed while drinking from his water bottle.

Auntie Catherine helped watch the boys while we went back to our room to pack up, such sweet snuggles.

Moving out and heading home, we sure don’t travel light.

With a two hour layover we decided to splurge for a Shipley donut.  Apparently Cooper was so adorable enjoying the one donut we had planned to share as a family that the server gave him another complimentary donut just to see the joy on his face.  She wanted to give Nicholas one too, but we opted to pass since we had 4 hours of flying ahead of us and were hoping for a nap.

Have we mentioned that Nicholas will crawl anywhere?  He has a preference for major walkways, like terminal C at the Houston airport, and pavement.

All of the pictures from our Pensacola trip can be found here.