Waverly takes Florida 2010

Saturday night we returned from our first family vacation with Waverly to Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. A friend of Caroline's was getting married and Trent was asked to officiate the ceremony. The bride's family was so kind to have Chandler, Waverly, and I come down as well; as it turned out, I was to replace the original wedding singer, so we earned our keep.
I was super nervous about traveling with a three-month-old and began planning for the trip a few weeks in advance. We left Lexington at 5:00 am on Tuesday morning and arrived in Florida at 5:30 pm central time. Waverly was an AMAZING traveller. By leaving at 5:00 am, we got three traveling hours out of the way while she slept. We stopped for breakfast at 8:00 am, fed Waverly and hit the road again. She slept again until we stopped at noon for lunch. It wasn't until the last 45 minutes of the trip, after this pit stop to change a dirty diaper, that she got the least bit fussy.

Waverly's great demeanor kept us all from killing each other; however, we were so relieved to arrive at our destination: a beautiful, three-story, lavender beach house with a private pool in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, next to Destin. We relaxed for a bit, then headed out to dinner.

The next morning we took Waverly out to experience the beach and pool for the first time..

She was NOT happy.

The beach didn't go quite as expected and I should have realized she was ready for a nap (just look at that face!), but wanted her to experience the pool and hoped she would like it a bit better...

but she didn't, so we took her inside, laid her in the bed and she fell asleep almost immediately.

Aside from our rocky first day, Waverly had a great time. She liked the pool MUCH better the next few days.

My baby also turned 3 months old on our vacation!

(in the spirit of fun pictures, this month we took three flowers to represent three months)

On Friday evening, we attended the main event, Cara and Aaron's beach wedding! It was so beautiful, even though it was scorching outside. I was originally supposed to sing during the sand ceremony but due to technical difficulties, i.e., a complete lack of any kind of sound system on the beach, I ended up singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" during the cake cutting. It was nothing I had ever done before, singing at the reception, but I think it turned out really nice.

Chandler and I met some of the nicest people this week in Florida and felt so comfortable at the wedding and reception; we decided it was one of the most fun weddings we had ever attended. We wanted to stay for the whole reception to enjoy the company, but having a baby changes things and you don't always get to stay out as late as you want. While we were there, though, Waverly had a blast dancing a slow dance with Daddy and dancing the cha-cha!

It was a GREAT week, but we were happy to be home on Saturday.

Here are other pictures from the week that I just love.