A King Family Vacation...

We MN Barlows had another fantastic week! This time we had Kylie's Grandma King, Auntie Mia and Mia's BF Brady down for a visit. All three of them arrived by jet plane on Saturday, May 28th. After picking them up at the airport, we went out for supper at Casa Maria (a little Mexican joint on A1A) and then headed straight to the beach. (We Minnesotans don't normally get to see the ocean all that often, so we have to soak it up when we get the chance even if it's dark outside.) It was late, so we just took a little walk and then headed back to our apartment.

The next day we were hoping to go to Disney World, but that fell through so we ended up going to St. Augustine for a little day trip instead. St. Augustine is "supposedly" the oldest city in the USA. It was cute...We toured a fun historic district, went in lots of little shops and stopped by a cool, old castle! After the historic district, we just HAD to hit up the outlet mall where there were tons of deals (it was Memorial Day weekend afterall)! It was really hot outside (being that it is summer in Florida), and we needed to cool down after being out all day. We decided the best plan would be to come back to the apartment, order pizza and go for a swim! It was perfect!

Jon, Kylie and I at the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, FL!

Jon is in the moat!

Mia and Kylie posing in front of the oldest WOODEN school house in America...Does that mean there are older school houses made of something other than wood???

Brady and the big cannons at the castle!

A pretty church steeple in St. Augustine.

We have our own street in St. Augustine! :)

Monday, Memorial Day, we spent the day at the beach. We picked up Chick-Fil-A on the way and had a picnic lunch down there. Mia and Brady seemed to really enjoy the swimming and boogie boarding in the ocean! It was fun to watch them have such a good time. That night we decided to lay low...We grilled out and played Banana Grams. My mom is a Scrabble master, so she won the first round (although I'm still a little against the Scrabble dictionary). Mia is equally or more competitive than me and was able to pull off the win in the second round!

Mia and Brady had to leave on Tuesday evening so we met Jon for a quick lunch at The Loop, which is one of our favorites down here. Then we just hung out at the apartment until they left in the late afternoon. We were all sad to watch them go, but I think Kylie really enjoyed bonding with her Auntie Mia while she was here! Tuesday was also mine and Jon's 3 year wedding anniversary. My mom graciously babysat Kylie for us while we went out to eat at J. Alexanders. Normally, we have tried to follow the suggested yearly anniversary gifts (you know: paper, cotton, etc...) This year is supposed to be leather or glass/crystal. So we got creative and decided that getting each other iPhones would be appropriate...Leather cell phone case and a glass screen! :) See...It works!

Mia, Brady (sporting his new scrubs) and Kylie.
This is the closest Brady got to Kylie the whole weekend...I think he might be a little frightened by babies! :)

On Wednesday, my mom, Kylie and I took a random trip up to Fernandina Beach (on Amelia Island) to check out the little historic district and shops up there. I love the shops there, and now so does my mom. She found some fun, unique jewelry and a few other gifts as well! Wednesday night we took Huey for a walk along the beach. He LOVED it (although he did not want to get wet)...He acted like a puppy...Chasing people and dogs, and running really fast! It was sooooo adorable.

This is Kylie trying on my mom's new necklace! She loved it!

Thursday was another beach day. We decided to go down there earlier in the day before it got too hot. I thought it worked out really well...We were able to spend about 2.5 hours there in the morning. We walked, swam, and just relaxed! Later in the day, after we were all cleaned up, we went down to the San Marco Blvd. to check out the beautiful houses and little boutiques. Fun, fun fun!

Sadly, both my mom and Jon were leaving on Friday. Jon went to a friend's wedding in Chicago and my mom was headed back to MN. So Friday was basically a day filled with trips to the airport. My mom and I did sneak in a trip to Firehouse Subs for lunch though. It is my all-time favorite sub place! Yum...I'm going to miss it after we leave here!

Kylie and I couldn't go to Adam and Saba's wedding in Chicago, so we wished them, "Congratulations" from Florida!

It was so wonderful having my family here for a few days. I have missed them and I was sad to see them go. I feel so blessed to be able to live near so many relatives in MN, and I am starting to get ready to get back to see them again!

Kylie LOVED being showered with love and affection from her Grandma. We are all so lucky to have such a wonderful baby girl to love and spoil, and she is such a lucky girl to be so loved by so many people!

Kylie got to spend a lot of time with her grandma! I think they both loved it!
(Also, this red, white and blue romper from Kylie's Great-Grandma King was supposed to be her 4th of July outfit, but it is definitely NOT going to fit my big girl then. So she wore it for Memorial Day instead!)