The thing I enjoyed the most about this trip was my family. I loved sleeping with the kids, waking up with them, playing with them in the sand and in the water, watching them play with each other, and just being around them 24/7 for over 10 days…This was luxury for me. And having my husband was nice too.;)

The hardest part about the trip was by far the plane rides because of Shane. He was curious and constantly moving, tired, and wanted only his mom to hold him. I had to wrestle him the whole time and it was physically challenging as he is very strong. He can bend over backwards 45 degrees when he wants us to let go of him.

One of the sweetest moment was when Chloe was singing in the plane when we landed on the ground. The engine just turned off and people were just waiting to get off. Chloe started to sing the ‘Jesus loves me’ song and everyone was looking around to see who was singing. When she was done people were smiling and some were clapping.

One of the funniest part was when Chloe was sitting watching TV sucking her thumb. Andrew took off his shirt to change and Chloe turned her head 95 degree to her right and looked at him for 2 seconds. She then turned back to her tv show and casually said without eye contact and without a blink as she was more engaged in her cartoon, "Daddy exercise".
I almost fell off the balcony.

The thing I loved the most was the ocean. It was a beautiful aqua blue, clean, refreshing and smooth. Since I was young I loved swimming in the ocean. I remember every summer, my parents would take my brother and I to the beach for a week. I always ran into the ocean waves as fast as I could, jumping right in to the water. I love the feeling of surrounding myself within the vastness of the ocean. I felt like that was the arms of God. I haven’t had that kind of feeling for a long time..but during this trip, this morning in fact, I got to swim alone in the ocean without the kids. I felt peace. For a while I was floating motion less looking up at the sky…and it was that moment which I remember. It was just me and my God.

I’m thankful that we had a wonderful and safe trip and were able to make many memorable moments as a family. I was a little sad to leave Florida because that meant going back to work and a busy life apart from my kids during the weekdays…but as soon as we came back to our house, I was happy to see that the leaves started to turn colors. This reminded me that we have all the fun holidays to look forward to.

I had the lists of things to do in Miami and one of them was going to eat at Eden Roc. Ever since the place was featured in Food Network channel, I’ve been wanted to check it out. So after the kids went to bed, Andrew’s mom stayed in the condo with them so we can go out. The night we went to Eden Roc happened to be a fashion week sponsored by Stoli, and we got to enjoy great fashion shows and some complimentary drinks.

Posing like celebrity wannabees.

Lobster fritter and spicy chicken wings, Miami style.

Story time in our balcony. I got to spend one on one time with Chloe this morning while Shane was taking his morning nap.

When Shane woke up at noon, Chloe went down for her nap and I took Shane to a playground to spend a quality time with him alone. I guess because we were in a new place here, Shane’s been really clingy and attached only to me through out the whole trip. I’m definitely enjoying this special attention from him!

Hanging out in the lobby while waiting for our car.

We ordered our dinner from Joe’s Stone Crab restaurant take out which has just opened again yesterday. When we heard that this restaurant has been around for 100 years, we had to check it out. Since everyone was tired, we decided to take out the food and eat by the pool.

We stopped by the Bay area to see its amazing view on the way back to our condo.

We had Joe’s jumbo lump crab cakes, lobster salad in a grilled challah roll, shrimp burger(the best!!), oysters on the half shell, baby field greens with grilled shrimp.

dancing in the dark…

Two thumbs up!

Chloe’s sand castle. Heaven.

Eating banana, resort style.

Soaking in the warm sunlight…

Famous Millionaire’s Row in Miami beach

Dinner at Monty’s in downtown Miami. $4 a cocktail during happy hour. I’m happy.

Did somebody say "Freeze Bo Bo"?

Shane also loves dogs like Chloe and went up to every one of them on the board walk.

View from the balcony.

 We asked our mother-in-law to join us for the rest of the trip. More the merrier!

Once again, we had the entire pool to ourselves this morning. 

We had a breakfast by the pool at the resort, then we drove about two hours east to our next destination, Hallendale.

The pool in the condo we’re staying is just amazing. I can’t wait to jump in tomorrow. We rented a two bedroom unit in beach club tower and I was pretty impressed with its size and style BUT I actually had to clean the floor twice before I could sit down and relax. With the little ones running around and picking up stuff, I always have to be extra extra clean and I hope and pray that no one will fall on this marble floors (which I didn not notice from the descriptions and the photos of the condo). I’m always paranoid about leaving home for those reasons… I need a little margarita to help me relax! 😉

Some good Cuban food for dinner. Ms. Chloe LOVES eating at restaurants. Correction. She loves GOING to restaurants. I think she likes the idea of going some place new, not necessarily eating different food. She actually asked if she can have kimchi and rice for dinner. She’s definitely my daughter! lol.

After spending some time in the pool this morning, we checked out  downtown naples and had lunch. Then we came back to our bungalow to do some art projects.

Shane just hung around Chloe and tried to grab her tiny tea sets every chance he got.

Shane’s dinner served in a tiny pot at the Strip House.

Lobster and filet mignon with french fries

New York Strip. Yum.