Spring Break on 30A: Day 1 (Travel Day)

I am pretty impressed - it hasn't been a month since spring break and I am already starting to blog about it! Has to be better than last year :)  My goal is to finish the posts before Katie's birthday.  I think that is completely doable! 

 

On Katie's spring break, we headed down to the panhandle of Florida and stayed in Santa Rosa Beach.  It was absolutely fantastic -- aside from the chilly, windy weather.  We still managed plenty of beach time and some swimming (yay for heated pools), but it would have been great if it had been less windy and about 10 degrees warmer!  This is what my packing looked like - bathing suits and tanks with fleeces and sweatshirts!

And something else to point out...we were trying to be very precise and efficient with our packing (which means ... no overpacking!) so that we didn't have a lot of extra stuff in the car.  I had made piles for each kiddo and I had to pack all of their things in minimal amounts of space.  I got the vast majority of that stuff packed and ready!  I was so proud - probably my best packing to date!  Katie and Jack were packed in the carry-on suitcase and Ryan was packed in the backpack!

The next morning we were up and loaded and pulled off our street at 8:23.  Not too shabby for 3 grownups and 3 kiddos!

We made it with only ONE stop on the way!  Boy was the traffic awful.  We were all thrilled to arrive!  Love this picture of my sweet kiddos!

And let me just say how difficult it is to get a picture of all 3 kids looking and smiling after they have been in the car all day and are so happy to see the beach.  Ha!  Take a look at these...in each of them, a different child is not looking at the camera.  Jack, Ryan, and then Katie! 

Katie was SO excited to finally be there!

And this was the first trip where Jack loved every single moment of sand and ocean!  Sweet boy!

And of course Ryan loved throwing sand - silly guy.  I was worried he wouldn't like the sand.  Luckily, there was no need to worry!

Whoa! A sweet moment documented!  They do happen from time to time :)

And they would have gone in up to their waists if I had let them!

 

We made it!  Beach selfie!

And Brad with his momma!  So glad she got to go with us!

After unloading and getting things settled in a little, we headed to dinner.  We ended up grabbing pizza at Bruno's pizza and it was delicious!  We got a lot of food, but we ended up having leftovers for lunch while we were there!  We sat outside and there was someone singing - the kids were in a trance!  After we finished eating, the kids danced for a few minutes before heading back to the condo.  Katie and Ryan especially loved it...and Jack made up his own one-legged dance!

Once we got back, I headed out to the grocery store (just what you want to do after being in the car all day) so we would have enough things for breakfast and lunch while we were there. 

 

Check back for days 2-6...coming soon! :)

 

Spring Break Sneak Peek

I know I need to do a gigantic post about our amazing Spring Break (which happens to feel like it was forever ago, by the way), but I thought I would go ahead and do a sneak peek with some pictures from my nice camera.  I did end up using my phone to take pictures most of the time.  But I did manage some cute ones on here too!  So here are a few of those!

 

The first day at the beach was so fun!  I love these of the kiddos sitting together looking out at the ocean.  I do this every time we go to the beach.  It is also nice because they don't have to be looking or smiling :)

 Ryan's first time at the beach!  He liked the water (as long as it didn't splash up on him too much or too quickly)!  And of course he kept wanting to eat the sand.

And a kiddo shot before we went to dinner that first night.  Love them!

 Love this picture of them!  We ate at a great restaurant called Yellow Dog - it was our first time eating there and we loved it! 

And another day at the beach!  I love this picture of Katie - you can tell she is just having the best time!

 And I love the perspective of this picture!  I squatted down to take it - and I love it!

 Yay!  I made a picture with the good camera! :) I got quite a bit of sun the first day at the beach, so I opted for a tshirt in order to give my skin a break.

 Oh man I miss this!  It definitely wasn't the same as heading to the 30A area, but it was still beautiful!

 And they actually played with each other - nicely - on the beach!  I got this Velcro ball set at Target and they had a great time with it!

 And in true third child form, Ryan napped anywhere he could!  So funny...

 I think this was the only way we got pictures together this trip - a selfie!

 And it was St. Patrick's Day, so we were all sporting the green!  Love this picture of Katie :) She is looking so old these days!

 And Jack and that cheesey grin :)  Sweet boy.

 And I managed to get a pretty good candid picture of Brad too!  I love this one a lot!

 And Ryan - I think we put him in the high chair to contain him for a few minutes before we went to dinner :)

 I asked Brad to take my picture as well - and this was it.  At least it isn't super blurry.  And I am in there. HA!

 And another selfie - love this one!  Clean and real clothes and I even have makeup on!

And another adventure we went on while at the beach....A DAY TRIP TO DISNEY! --- We surprised the kids - all we said was we were going on an adventure.  Katie was convinced we were heading to an aquarium :)  But they were SO excited once they realized what was going on.  Katie was speechless (which NEVER happens)!

 Here are the three amigos when we were on the ferry ride over to Magic Kingdom!

 Happy baby!

 Goofy Jack!  I'm not exactly sure what was going on with that expression!

 She couldn't believe we were really there.  Love it!  She had a blast for sure - and of course can't wait to go back!

 Daddy even wore his Mr. Incredible shirt!  Way to go, Daddy!

 And a Katie-Mommy picture!

 When we first walked in, we watched the parade.  Next stop?  The castle!  Katie was in absolutely awe of Cinderella's castle!

 We also watched the show out in front of the castle!

 We rode the train too!  The kids loved that.  I think Ryan enjoyed getting out of the stroller!

 Watching the train pull up to the station...I can hear the squeals of excitement now!

 And the castle lit up as it was getting darker!  We couldn't stay to see the fireworks - everyone was worn out! 

And here are a few picture of our last night at the beach (I didn't take the nice camera down to the beach or pool with me as much later in the trip)!  I can't get over this picture of the wild guy!  May have to frame this bad boy!

 And Katie clearly took a shower - she still had wet hair!

 I went on down with the two big kids, so of course we had to take a selfie!

I even managed to get a decent one with both big kids!  That's pretty miraculous that they were both looking and smiling!

 

Daddy and Ryan finally came down and I got a quick picture of all three crazies!  Not too shabby!  Jack absolutely loves it when he and Ryan match - I'll take what I can get! 

 And a family shot!  Love, love, love this picture!  We were getting ice cream after dinner and had them take a picture for us.  And not too bad!   

We had such a great trip.  And I have a lot more pictures on my phone, so check back for the next post from spring break!  Makes me want to go back to the beach now!