Aruba, Jamaica...Ooo I wanna take ya!

We just came back from our first family vacation and it was fantastic - even though I didn't love Aruba itself.  Let me clarify. It's not that I disliked Aruba, because it's hard to dislike 85 degree weather, palm trees and perfect swimming conditions.  What I thought it lacked was an element of uniqueness as it was overly catered to American tourists.  At each turn was a strip mall that contained either a large supermarket or a fast food chain.

Aside, from being a somewhat generic beach destination, I thought our first trip with Violet was great.  She was on her very best behavior and handled flying like a pro.  Although my hat does go off to the three children sitting behind us.  They ranged from age 2, to about 6 or 7 and didn't make a peep the entire flight.  We later learned that their mom drugged them with Benadryl to keep them quiet.  Parenting at it's finest!

While in Aruba, Violet swam (see video below), tried new foods (strawberries, melon, and even a little chocolate) and played with her new BFF Audrey.  Violet and Audrey shared toys, laughed, high fived and demonstrated their knowledge of facial features.  Audrey was excited to show everyone where their eyes were, while Violet was just excited to try to poke people in the eye.

We stayed in a two bedroom apartment where the bedrooms were separated by a living room and kitchen.  This was PERFECT for traveling with two young kids who were often sleeping/napping.  It allowed us to continue enjoying the vacation by drinking and playing cards into the wee hours of the night.  One of my favorite parts of the apartment was having a washer/drier.  Since this has been missing in my life for the last 30 years, all I wanted to do was wash clothes.  I came home with a suitcase full of perfectly smelling and clean clothes.  Ahhh, the little things!

There were some skeptics (and I won't name any names - MOM) who felt that there was no reason to drag a 7 month old on a vacation, but I am glad we didn't listen.   It was actually the perfect age, because she isn't mobile yet, so we were able to plop her into the stroller where she often dozed off while we enjoyed 2-for-1 happy hour on the beach.