Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2013 was a little unconventional, but I get the feeling unconventional is becoming our thing for now. Over the past couple of years my family has discovered that the flights are way cheaper at the beginning of December than at the end. So everyone flew in to Utah the first week of December to celebrate Christmas. Sean and I had resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn't be able to make it this year. Then my parents magically managed to rustled up a couple of points to fly Lincoln and I to join the party! Yay! (Sean, sadly, had to work and missed out on this adventure.)

Lincoln did great on his first plane ride. At the time, he was only 6 weeks old, so he slept the entire time. The flight was about 5 hours long, and he was most beloved by all the passengers and flight attendants. The passengers at the back of the plane loved holding him while I went to the bathroom. They were disappointed when I went back there for the second time during the flight and found out I was only there to change his diaper. I did have to deal with a couple of blowouts on the plane rides, and I didn't have Sean to get me through the airports, so now I consider myself a flying-with-a-baby expert. It was a crowning achievement for me. It was a little odd to take off in 85 degree weather and land in 12 degree weather, and Lincoln did NOT like the walk to the car once we got to Utah. My mom had to meet me in the airport with a coat, since we did not bring any winter clothes to Florida.

While we were there, we got to meet a lot of people from both of my parents' sides of the family. Lincoln was a little too worked up to spend much time with the Walkers, but he was well-behaved during the Stanley Christmas party. We tried to get him excited about Christmas, but with the jet-lag I'm afraid he kind of missed the spirit of the whole thing. As a result most of the cute Christmas pictures I tried to take of him ended up like these.

Most excitingly, Lincoln got to meet his Aunts and Uncles, and his cousins Sam, Austin, and Eli! By far my favorite picture is this one of Lincoln and Eli taking a nap on Great Grandma Stanley's bed.

Lincoln also got to meet 3 out of his four Great Grandmas (We're looking at you, Grandma Johns, you missed the party.) Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of Lincoln with Great Grandma Stanley, but I'll be happy to edit this post later as soon as someone sends me one, because I know there were cameras out. I do, however, have pictures of Lincoln with Great Grandma Walker...

And Great Grandma White

It was so nice to get these pictures, particularly of Grandma White, who is battling cancer. We weren't sure she would ever get to meet Lincoln, but she just happened to be visiting Utah at the same time Lincoln and I were there (And remember, we weren't originally supposed to be in Utah anyway). Small Christmas miracle.

Fast forward to ACTUAL Christmas. Sean and I knew we would be spending Christmas alone, so instead of getting presents, we decided to take a road trip down to the Florida keys. Back in the warm weather and on his normal schedule again, Lincoln was in good spirits by Christmas day.

On Christmas Eve night and Christmas day, Sean and I stayed in a small Islamorada motel called Postcard Inn. The room was nothing to celebrate, in fact the carpet was soaking wet on one side and there was most definitely smelly dog pee on our comforter (It was a pet friendly inn). But we didn't book this place for the room, we booked it for the view.

This was the pool area, which overlooks the ocean.

In addition to the pool, there was a small beach. And yes, we bought Mickey Santa hats at Disney World before we left. Discounts, people. Be jealous.

 On Christmas morning, Sean gave me a great present by taking Lincoln out to watch the sunrise while I slept in. He got some pretty adorable selfies while he was out, but I just really like the ones of Lincoln cuddling in his Santa hat.

We spent Christmas day lying by the ocean and driving through the keys. For those who aren't familiar, the Florida Keys are just small skinny islands that someone decided to connect with about a trillion bridges. It takes a couple of hours to drive from Miami to the end (Key West), and Sean and I drove most of the way, enjoying the long bridges and great ocean views. It was also the most stress-free activity we could think of, since Lincoln slept the whole time.

Chrismas night, we stayed at a Courtyard Marriot in Key Largo. We weren't expecting a view, but when we got there they realized they booked us a room with two queens instead of a king. So they upgraded us to a top floor room with a single queen, since all of the King size rooms were booked. When we got to the room, we realized we got the best deal ever! If someone asked to you stand outside the hotel and pick the room you thought would have the best view, you would have pointed to ours. We had a large balcony overlooking this:

You can't tell from the photo, but you could also see the ocean just beyond the treeline.

Sunrise

 Because our room was so awesome, we just hung out there all morning. When we finally left, we went to see some large tarpon at Robbies (you have the option of feeding them, but we didn't want to pay money) It was so cool to see them up close, because some of them are easily six feet long.

There were also some pelicans hanging out.

 Before heading home, we had one last dinner at an Island grill in Islamorada. They told us they had beach seating, and when we asked them where, they led us down this shady looking pathway over the water around the side of the building. Watch in horror as my husband precariously navigates this narrow dock with our newborn.

The view was worth it though.

As was the food.

If you aren't grossed out by raw tuna, I'll have you know this was divine.

So, that was Christmas for us. As many of you know Sean just accepted a full-time job offer with Disney and we will be staying in Florida awhile. I'll miss the snow, but I don't think I'll mind a few more Christmases on the beach.