Destin, Florida

Marek took his first plane ride last Thursday as we headed off to our first family of four vacation on an airplane! Wow - we checked 7 bags at the airport (2 of them were car seats). We also each had at least 1 carry-on bag! It was so much fun but went by WAY too fast.

The purpose of the trip was to surprise Dr. Oley for his 60th birthday (it's not until June 19th - SURPRISE!). Gena, Brian, and Jessica came in from Houston and we all came in from DFW earlier in the day. We decorated, grocery shopped, played on the beach and drank some margs all in preparation for the Big Docs arrival. I still cannot believe we pulled it off without him finding out! It was great fun. I took about 450 pics so here are a few . . . the rest can be viewed at: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=cwwvf1h.8iss0xkp&Uy=-ie0viz&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=1

Lugging the kids through the airport. There was a last minute gate change and slightly delayed flight but it really went quite smoothly! The kids did great.

They had a little playground at the airport - Madelyn enjoyed playing, watching tv and all the other kids . . .

On the plane! Madelyn's ears bothered her a little as we were descending but Marek was a trooper!

We made it! Here we are on the 16th floor at the condo looking out - what a view it was . . .

Madelyn's first ocean experience! Off came the dress and she was letting the water hit her toes . . .
Happy to pose for the camera, of course . . .
Marek and Dziadek the morning after the surprise!
All the girls (minus Madelyn) . . .
Maddie having fun on the beach being silly . . .
We saved some of the surprises for another day and gave Dziaked his scrapbook . . .

Trying to get the perfect group Christmas photo. There were about 5 cameras going off!

More attempts at family photos! The sun was so bright for little Maddie's eyes. . .

This may just be the winning shot!

More group photos . . .

Marek with his "spikey" hair . . .
Drool!My little beach bum . . .
What a great trip -and like all great trips, it was too short!