Summer vacation 2019 – woohoo! We look forward to this week every year. I love the time with family, a slower pace than usual, and lots of time in a pool. I also love that the kids are creating memories with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Amy, Uncle Andy, and their cousins. So, thanks Mom and Dad for treating us to this trip and for the wonderful memories!

Our home this year in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, had an awesome layout where the kids room was the third floor, two sets of bunks, and a side play room with chairs, a couch, games, and a tv. Reid had his own room, which at first I was kind of sad about as he missed out on more cousin time, but it ended up being a great thing as he was able to get plenty of great sleep.

I will warn you – there are a ridiculous number of photos and videos in this post. You would think after so many years of putting posts together I would learn to make them shorter and less work, but I seem to be going in the opposite direction. I love to be able to go back through old pictures or look something up – so as per usual I’ve included a crazy amount of pics.

We drove this year, leaving Friday morning and driving to Fultondale, Alabama on day 1. The dogs were sad to see us go and not quite sure why they couldn’t come. Before we left they laid there looking mopey. It was a pretty “easy” drive. We took the Volvo, had a few fun games to play in the car, and stopped along the way including one rest stop where we saw a space rocket (?). Saturday morning we got up early and had breakfast at the Hampton Inn followed by a dip in the pool. We weren’t in too much of a hurry as our drive to Santa Rose was to be about 3.5-4 hours. As it turned out we ran in to quite a bit of traffic from Birmingham to Florida so the drive took much longer than we anticipated. We arrived around 5 pm and quickly unloaded the car and moved in. Of course about 20 minutes prior to arriving Reid fell asleep in the car. The kids both did really well with the drive. They slept very little, perhaps an hour nap each day/trip, and we enjoyed looking for different license plates. Nashville was great for finding a ton of them – including Alaska!

Mom and Dad made a delicious spaghetti dinner and afterwards gave the kids matching tie-dyed swim shirts and towels. They were all so excited to see what was in the bag and they hit the pool for a quick dip before dark.

On the first morning, Kevin woke at the crack of dawn and was out the door to The Donut Hole and Wal-mart before 7 am. His internal wake-up alarm got him up early most every day of vacation! He brought home some tasty donuts that everyone enjoyed and got our shopping done before wallyworld got too crazy. The kids came down in their vacation pj’s, this year looking like a crew of bandits! Sadly, I realized I didn’t get Reid any pjs! Don’t know where my brain was, but we made up for it and got him some blue-striped pj’s while we visited Seaside on our family night.

Our vacation home was in a gated community this year which had a wonderful infinity pool at the club area. There were also boardwalks through the marshes and beautiful views as the neighborhood was surrounded by a nature preserve. It wasn’t as convenient to go to the beach, it was a short drive and full parking lot so we parked along the roadside, which turned out to be fine just a bit of a walk to get to the beach.

Another morning Kevin work up early and got started making “The Breakfast”. It was a tasty start to the day. We went to the beach twice during the week. The kids loved body boarding and playing in the sand. Griffin didn’t love all the sand in his swimsuit (after having been buried, which he thought was great). The water the first day had lots of seaweed but was still quite clear and pretty. The second time we visited it was much more clear and hardly any seaweed (though lots of tiny dead fish on the shore, which we called sardines whether they were or not!).

Here is our family selfie, followed by the pics Amy took of us taking our selfie, lol. Hers are better!

Our night out for dinner was spent at Chanticleer, a short drive from our house. It was a delicious dinner where we had our own private room which worked out great (even though it was quite loud) for our crew. Afterward, Mom and Dad treated everyone to ice cream at Blue Mountain Creamery.

For Date night, Kevin and I headed out and did some walking at shopping at an outdoor mall. We ended up in Tommy Bahama where we had success finding some dresses for me and shorts and a shirt for Kevin. We headed on to the Vue for a delicious dinner and a great view of the beach. I enjoyed some tasty, fruity, beachy drinks and Kevin tried out the local brews. This is one of my favorite nights, because as we’re out the kids are home with Grandma and Grandpa. Mom and Dad are always great about having some sort of activity to do with the kids. This year, they each colored pictures to give to us when we returned home. They also went on a long walk through the marshes and the neighborhood. Everyone had loads of fun and we loved coming home to the artwork :).

I went on a long 50-minute walk one morning and headed toward the state park down the road from our neighborhood. It was a mile to get there so I wasn’t able to spend too much time there before heading back home. The views were nice, though the Alligator warning signs made me nervous!

For on your own family night we got a bit of a later start, leaving the house at 5 pm once Reid and Daddy were up from their naps :). We headed east on 30A to a place called The Hub. I had found them on Instagram and had been following them for awhile. We had dinner and the kids played a bit on the open lawn area. There was live music and we walked through a few shops. We then headed back towards our house and decided to stop in Seaside, a cute town along 30A with lots of shops. We enjoyed ice cream and shopping. Griffin used his own money to buy a Monster Truck, staying within his budget of $9. Man, it’s hard to find something less than $10 in a toy store in a vacation destination, lol! But I’m proud that Griffin found something that he would enjoy within his budget. He has a Save/Spend/Give piggy bank and had brought money in his Spend pouch for vacation shopping. We got a keepsake for Griffin, a Cheetah lovey, and a pair of cute pj’s for Reid.

Graham, Rowan, and Greta had visited Seaside as well and each gotten a new toy. The kids were so excited the next morning they were up quite early (6:30 am or before!) to play. I heard them talking and playing and went upstairs and found this!  We spent a lot of time at the pool this year, going at least once if not twice a day. We packed lunch or headed home for a quick bite and then went back. Griffin got much more comfortable in the water throughout the week. The difference from day 1 at the hotel to even day 3 at the pool was remarkable. He was working on his underwater skills and loved getting the rockets and shark off the bottom of the pool. Reid wore his floaties and absolutely had the best time on the stairs, where he could walk on his feet, walk with his hands, or swim off the steps to someone nearby. By the end of the week he would just float and swim without any encouragment. They are both little water bugs.

We always try to get an entire family photo while we’re on vacation. This year we were able to get some great ones on the front steps of our house! It was warm and steamy but we pulled it off pretty quickly and got some great shots – thanks to Amy! While there are ton included below, if you look closely you’ll see personalities shine through in the different images :). Pay close attention to eyes and smiles.

Sadly, the week came to an end all too fast! Before we knew it Saturday morning arrived. After the traffic we ran in to (and saw leaving FL on our way down) we gave some thought to spending Saturday night in Florida before heading north, but as it turned out we decided to hit the road early to avoid traffic. We were up at 5:15 am and on the road by 6. We were making great progress and stopped for breakfast around 9 am as we also wanted to check the tire pressure in our rear left tire as the warning light had come one. As it turns out, there was a machine screw in the tire and after two attempts to get it plugged, we ended up needed to replace the tire. Thankfully, this repair shop was just a short distance from the Chick-fil-A we stopped at so the boys and I spent nearly 3 hours there while Kevin was getting it repaired. At one point he came back to Chick-fil-A as it was time for lunch and I didn’t have any money with me since we hadn’t planned on staying there! He came back, we had lunch, and then he and Griffin were walking back to the car shop. While doing so, a police officer stopped and asked them if things were ok and ended up taking them in the police car to the auto shop. Makes for a great memory, and Griffin loved that he got to ride in the car and got a sticker from the police officer.

We arrived in Nashville and stayed at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel for three nights before returning home. That place is crazy huge – like 9 acres indoors with numerous “areas” of rooms, restaurants, shops, etc. It is like a botanical garden on the inside when you walk from one area to another. There is also a boat ride, which we had tickets for but sadly never got around to doing as we spent 2 days in WaterSound, the place they call “not a waterpark, it’s your new happy place”. It is an awesome indoor and outdoor waterpark that you can walk to from your room.  It was very clean, modern, and fun! Since it is in music city, and the park is named WaterSound, every slide, pool, etc., had a name themed after music. Pretty creative names!

While we didn’t need to leave the hotel/resort area I wanted to venture out and see a bit of Nashville. We ventured across the street to the Nashville Palace where we had pub-fare and listened to live music. The musicians had all toured with famous country singers and they were quite good. It was a low-key dinner followed by a trip to downtown Nashville, about an 17 minute drive, to visit the Legendairy Milkshake Shop – another Instagram find. Super cool (and expensive) shakes. It was spendy, but it was fun too and Griffin’s excitement to tear in to his Candy Land milkshake was fun. Kevin created his own Vanilla with a donut (and MMs on the side for Reid), and I had a Cookies N Cream.

On our final night, we enjoyed a sit-down dinner at a nice italian restaurant within the hotel. It sits in one of the Atrium areas. The food was delicious and both boys were so hungry they ate a majority of their pizza.

After dinner we walked around and perused areas of the hotel we hadn’t been to. We were on the hunt for a gift for Cameron for staying at our house with the dogs. We found Cowboys and Angels and before we new it we walked out of there with two cowboys ourselves. We got Griffin and Reid matching cowboy hats and boots. I loved watching them get so excited and I think they look adorbs. Looking forward to wearing these this fall to the fair or various farms we visit :).

We arrived back home Tuesday and I was home from work on Wednesday getting everything back in order. Then on Thursday evening we went to the Kids Fun Run preceding the Irish Festival. This was Reid’s first year and as you can see in the video, he wasn’t too sure at the start. But once he got going he was all in! Griffin, Rowan, Graham, and Greta all ran as well. Afterward we headed to Johnson’s Ice Cream for a sweet treat to celebrate their run. Reid got an extra special, non-ice-cream treat of a sprinkle cone filled with gummies! Lordy, so many gummies.

And here are the videos – be sure to watch the ones from the Kids Dash fun run at the Irish Festival. Reid wasn’t too sure to start! Also, Griffin was getting really good at body surfing this year!