We spent all of last week at an all-inclusive in Punta Cana with my other set of in-laws. And my BIL Thomas. It was glorious, but insanely hot and humid. And I did get a little twitchy with so little internet access. But endless beachside piña coladas definitely made up for it, as did the incredible massage I had in a hut on the beach. And H loved it; she had a solid routine down of mornings at the pool, naps in the room, afternoons on the sand. Not a bad way to bring in October.

H was a great flyer. She had her own seat this time, as opposed to our trip to the UK last year when she was a lap baby. Man, I can’t believe she fit in the little airplane bassinet last summer.

Our week, basically.

H with her grandmother and uncle. Plus, the view! We stayed at the Grand Palladium Bavaro.

There were wild ducks everywhere, which H loved. The resort was great, but our section was largely under construction. We knew about that ahead of time, and there were no noise issues, but there was some confusion when we first arrived that kind of put a downer on the first night and first morning. But once we were on a beach, the rest of the week was golden.

H got to try out the Wonder Woman Invisible Jet pool floaty I got her at the beginning of the summer (thank you, Target).

We were invited to a Raggs character breakfast for H. No idea what Raggs is, but she loved it. And I loved the buffet. Those eggs were actually called “Funny Little Egg.”

H got right in there to meet the giant dogs. We couldn’t get over how thrilled she was.

The fruit was just so happy to see us.

That breakfast was just so much fun.

My girl.

Not so much vacation reading on this trip. A lot of chasing toddlers across the sand and wrestling my shiny gadgets back. I didn’t mind.

We only visited the kids’ club once, but it was nice to get out of the heat. H made a German friend!

She also loved the mariachi band at the steakhouse. We were there 2 nights in a row, including this last night, and she just stared at the musicians the entire time.

Everyone at the resort fawned all over H, I’ve never been around staff that were so genuinely thrilled to see babies. Even the male staff. Everywhere she went she was fussed over, and we all ate it up. It just made the trip to have staff that hadn’t just been trained to like kids, but who actually really liked them. And since this trip was really centered around making sure she was comfortable and having a great time, it was perfect. And so, so easy. Such an awesome trip with her. And her first non-road trip. I’ve never seen her have so much fun.