It's official....Daniel's passport has been stamped!!!!

I'm not quite sure who was more excited, me, Justin or Daniel. Our trip to Bimini was our first family vacation! We were there for 10 days!

{The Ft. Lauderdale airport}

A family friend flew us over along with his cousin, his cousin's mini schnauzer and one of the tourism officials.

{Loading the plane}

Daniel wore his earphones the whole flight! He didn't seem to mind flying, especially since I was keeping him very distracted with puffs. The 20 minute flight was a breeze!

{Daniel "Done Reach"}

Grandma was so happy to get her hands on Daniel! He spent a lot of time on the table in the picture below. Every night we had cocktails on the porch around this table and Daniel entertained us. We discovered his first tooth while he was on the table, and we were eating conch salad around this table when I found the conch pearl!

{Grandma and D}

There are two bathrooms in the house, but no bathtub, so we had to get creative about how Daniel was going to get bathed. As my sister would say, "A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do", so I fished a 5 gallon bucket out of the garage. Everynight D got a bath in the bucket...I almost thought about doing this at home. Cleaning those little chuncky thighs is so much easier when he's standing up!

{Happy little D in the bath bucket}

Pauline, one of the neighbors, has made a play spot right next to the beach. There is a couch, a hammock, a swing and a tire swing! Grandma and I took Daniel to the playground to see how he would like swinging in the tire swing. We were surprised at how well he did!

{Swing at Pauline's Playground}

We took Daniel down to the beach everyday, and he loved it! He only put sand in his mouth once....I'm glad he learned that lesson quickly! He would play in the sand for a while, then he would make his way down the beach into the surf. He would just shake with excitement and throw his hand in the air when the waves would wash up around him.

{Mommy and D playing in the sand}

There are no words to describe how beautiful the water is.....

{The beach, looking toward the swimming hole}

We would put him in his raft after he had played in the surf for a while. The water was pretty cold, so we had to ease our way in!

{Daddy and D swimming}

This is the only pic of all three of us from our whole trip. :(

{"Mommy, quit with the pictures already!"}

We went with Justin to the Snapper Hole one day. He caught 3 or 4 snapper that were ridiculously yummy when Grandma cooked them up for dinner!

{Fooling around in the golf cart at the Snapper Hole}

We were so blessed to be able to celebrate Easter in Bimini! I was over-the-moon excited to attend the Catholic mass on North Bimni. We left the house around 7:30 am to take the ferry to north side and start the walk (about a mile) to the church. We took our time and enjoyed the sights and each other's company.

Daniel was tired and super cranky. I had to walk out several times because he was inconsolable. (When I say walk out, I mean that I had to walk out of the church and down the street because all of the church windows were open, lol)

The mass was attended by an equal mix of natives and other tourists. I am anxiously awaiting the next time we get to go back to Holy Name, although they may all groan when they see Daniel coming, lol

{Daniel in his Bimini stroller in front of the church}

We had lunch at the Bimini Big Game Club while Daniel took a short nap. Guy Harvey came in and restored the Big Game Club. It's a nice place to have lunch and watch the boats.

{The nap that should have happened in church}

The Easter Bunny had visited grandma's house and left an Easter Basket for Daniel!

{Daniel and his Easter Basket}

Justin and I took Daniel back to Pauline's playground to swing in the hammock!

{Some people call this his "Elvis snarl"}

Daniel quickly figured out where to hang out to get food, and he spent 'lots of time under foot while Grandma and I cooked in the kitchen.

{"Got anything for me, Grandma?"}

Grandma taught me how to make Bimini Bread! I loved learning how, and I look forward to trying my hand at it here in the states! Hopefully it won't flop when I try it on my own (pun intended, lol)....

{"I know if I sit here long enough someone will give me a scrap"}

It turns out the Daniel's dreadful behavior in church was brough on by his first tooth. It broke through on Easter Monday and he mood drastically improved!

{Showing Daddy his new tooth}

Dave flew over to join us the last weekend of our trip. The guys got an opportinity to go on the boat with Valerie and Cliff. Justin, Dave and Joel were planning a "fill the freezer" kind of trip, so Daniel and I decided not to go (having a teething baby will make anyone gun shy about being in a small confined space such as a boat, lol).

Daniel and I drove the golf cart down to the beach club to wave "bye bye" to the troops as they left in the boat.

{Daniel and me waiting for the boat to come by}

We were so sad to see our vacation come to an end, but we had to get back to Mango and Ollie! We missed them so much!

Howard flew his friend Dee, Grandma, Dave, Justin, Daniel and me home.

{Dave got the be the co-pilot}

Daniel sat on my lap, and he was so good the whole way home.

{The earphones}

We are always very concerned about how Daniel is going to handle the new situations we encounter, but we learn time and time again that adjusts well to any surroundings. We are so blessed to be the parents of such a wonderful little guy!

We bought a little stroller and a play pen to leave over in Bimini for future trips....that was money well spent because, look out Grandma, we're coming back!!!!!