Closing out the summer with a STAYCATION!

Is it really September already??!!!  Drew is just a few days shy of 6 MONTHS OLD!  So hard to believe how quickly time goes!

After all of the my crazy work travels, the fast paced Disney trip and whirl wind baby shower in August, by Labor Day weekend it was time for some Merrill Family R&R!  Since we have the luxury of living in Florida and being an hour from beach, we packed up our bags and headed to the coast! 

Friday night we stayed on Treasure Island (beach between St. Pete Beach and Clearwater).  It was a super quiet and relaxing area and we enjoyed every minute of it!  Even the thunderstorm that rolled in right as we arrived :) 

View from our balcony

While daddy took a nap, Drew and mommy sat on the balcony, talked and watched the storm pass through!  After being gone so much in August this was the perfect way to spend a Friday afternoon! 

Once the weather cleared up, we put Drew in the BOB and headed down the beach.  There was this awesome paved path to walk on... and it lead us to this great little beach bar/restaraunt where mommy and daddy enjoyed a drink :-) 

Drew was looking out toward the water -- the sounds, smells and sights on the beach just amazed him!

Enough of that sitting around... time to head back to the pool before sunset! 

Drew loves to swim with daddy!

Just chillin' poolside with mommy!

If you haven't caught this from earlier posts -- Drew is quite the little fishy!  He loves going in the water and splashing around.  Check out these pruned little tosies!  

'Do I HAVE to get out mommy???'

It was such a beautiful evening - we wanted to walk up by the water and enjoy the sunset so back in the BOB and out to the sand.  We stopped for a quick family photo: 

Love this pic!  If daddy would have kept his shirt on I would say it is a Christmas Card keeper!

The next day we planned to meet up with our friends Amanda and Bryan and their baby Bennett (Bennett is about 4 weeks older then Drew).  They were staying just down the beach in St. Pete so we jumped in the family truckster and headed down Gulf Blvd!

When we got there - we found out that they were with a pretty big group - other families that also had babies!  There were 4 babies all within about 3 months of each other! 

We ended up getting a room at that same hotel that night... we coudn't miss out on all this baby action!  

We also learned on this trip that Drew likes vacations too... in fact so much that he can't sleep at night!  He must get so excited that he can't wind down :-)  Below is a picture taken at about 8:30PM...little pork chop decided he would rather sit outside and watch a pick-up game of beach volleyball instead of going night-night.....

"Check out my Froggies!'

We headed home on Sunday... but not after a little morning beach action!  Drew and Bennett had a great time playing in the 'baby' beach tent:

'Hey Bennett -- put your feet up like this...it feels SOOOO good!'

We had a WONDERFUL summer that included a trip to Iowa, New York, lots of days with Grandma and Grandpa Merrill, Disney World and beach time!  We are just so blessed to have this special little guy in our lives and looking forward to what the next 'SEASON' brings!