Florida Beach Trip

Last year at school, Little JCrew was told that you go to the beach for vacation. He then spent an entire year talking about the beach.

With Baby F's due date in May, I knew I would not be up for a beach trip during the summer. However, in Alabama, the schools have a Fall Break! I never understood it, but now I embrace it! We can postpone our summer vacations to the Fall when everyone else is in school.

My mom had a trip to FL planned to meet my sister. When I asked when and where they were going, I asked if we could tag along. We would be her transportation. She welcomed the idea and we booked our travel. We were going to the beach!

Little JCrew had been to the beach when he was 10 months old. Mr. Brigglesworth had never been. Our trip was planned for right after Mr. Brigglesworth's fourth birthday, so he thought you had to be four to go to the beach.

We made it down to FL right as Hurricane Matthew was predicted to come. We stayed on the Gulf Coast in the Panhandle, so we were unaffected. However, my sisters were coming from central FL, so their plans changed a little to accommodate the Hurricane.

We spent our mornings on the beach and headed back to the hotel for lunch. Instead of naps, we played in the pool all afternoon. Poor Baby F took his naps on the go.

The first day there were loads of jellyfish. There was no way we were getting in the water.

The boys liked tasting the salty water.

We built plenty of sandcastles. We got better and bigger each day.

There was always a moat around the castle that we tried to fill with water.

It was such a fun and amazing trip. We made no plans and woke up each day excited to have fun.

A bonus was that I got to get swim clothes for cheap as most places were marking down their summer gear right before we left. I bought the boys swim shirts and they wore them. It was my lazy way of no sunscreen reapplication every 3 hours, but I mainly got them so that we would avoid sunburns knowing we'd be outside all day. They were a lifesavor.

And Baby F had a 3-month size shirt and shorts, but those no longer fit his chunky self, so I bought new ones for the cheap and didn't care that this would be the only time he wore them. Score!

He also got some cute sunglasses!

I didn't realize how much I loved the beach. Growing up around it, you know you love it and it's there whenever you want it. Now, it is at least a 6-hour drive, meaning you have to rent a hotel room and make plans. But it was so nice to have no agenda and be able to play all day.

My mom enjoyed her time on the beach as well. The boys had her playing with them.

And we discovered the sensitivity level of Mr. Brigglesworth's skin. He cried in the salt water. The sand irritated the skin, and then the salt water burned. Every time he went in the ocean, it was full on tears. Then we'd check the skin on his legs and see them inflamed. I thought salt water was a healing agent?

The fun of jumping waves did not last long. We have since been able to manage the sensitivity, but it was an eye opener for us on the triggers.

It felt like we had the beach all to ourselves. There was only one day that felt crowded, and it was not the kind of crowd I would call crowded, but it was compared to the other days of our trip.

We were refreshed and ready to come home. And I was excited I could check the beach off of Little JCrew and Mr. Briggleworth's bucket list. They got to use their sand toys, so it was a success.

We have now had TWO vacations in one year! I still can't believe it. We will definitely be making a beach trip an annual thing. It was just too nice.

Until next year!

Memorial Day 2015 Weekend

Mr. JCrew is our traveler. We haven't taken a vacation, EVER! We've taken little trips back home to Florida, but we haven't counted those because we haven't done any "excursions."

We especially haven't taken trips since we've had the boys. Traveling with babes is hard. But Mr. JCrew has been itching to go on a vacation and thought the boys were plenty old enough (they're 2.5y and 3.5y).

I am a home-body, but I like little day trips. I put together a fun overnight trip. We started off going to the hot air balloon festival in a nearby town.

The balloons took off at 6:30AM.

We got there early to see the crews get ready.

They allow you to get as close as you want. Our first year to go was last year, and we went at night. It's cool to see the balloons lit up at night.

My favorite Reading Rainbow show growing up was the episode showing all the work that goes into getting a hot air balloon off the ground.

I still think this event is so neat as a grown up. The boys love it too.

It is an all-day event with vendors and games. We stayed and the boys got hot air balloons of their own.

Little JCrew then wanted to get his face painted. He did so well.

He really wanted to be Spider-Man.

That face paint lasted all day until he wanted to wear his ninja turtle mask that night and we had to clean his face.

The next day, we woke up to the road-trip part of our vacation. 

The boys did really well riding in the car. No videos, just occupying themselves. Mr. Brigglesworth turned a Gatorade bottle into a clarinet. Drove his brother nuts, but he had fun.

We were driving to Nashville. First stop, was the Zoo!

We have not ever taken the boys to a zoo. We've talked about it a lot and they are very into animals, so this would be perfect.

Little JCrew said he wanted to see the Giraffes; they are his favortite. I didn't know that was his favorite animal. Right now, I think his favorite word is "favorite" as we like to call everything our favorite.

He wouldn't let me get a picture of him with the giraffes though.

Mr. Brigglesworth talked about monkey's prior to the trip. He wanted to ride a monkey.

When we first went by the monkey's they were quiet in the tree. By lunch time, they were so loud! We went back to see them and they were swinging from the trees and making so much noise. It was appropriate that Mr. Brigglesworth was attracted to the monkey's. They are just like him!

The Nashville Zoo had a lot of areas to get close to the animals. Our first encounter was with birds.

These birds sing and fly above you.

There was a petting zoo with goats and the boys liked brushing them. 

My favorite encounter was with the kangaroo's! They were babies. There was one that was a year old that Little JCrew got up close to.

I told him he couldn't pet it, but the roo just kept getting closer.

Finally, the keeper said he could pet him, and it made his day!

Mr. JCrew then started sneezing. He must be allergic to Kangaroo. Guess a trip to Australia is low on the list.

My favorite animal is the elephant.

They did a great job with their exhibits. Each exhibit has multiple places for you to view the animals. If the animal is not in view from where you are, you can walk around to another spot and see them.

We kept following the elephants around until we were so close and then the elephant decided to use the restroom. I include this picture because it is the memory that Mr. Brigglesworth brings up if you ask him about the zoo. The elephant was pooping! (and he was, but no picture of that.) Of all things to remember about a trip. Such a boy!

The zoo had a tunnel to act like a meerkat.

The boys weren't tall enough to see on their own, so they asked for help.

The meerkat's were active, so it was fun to see them.

Even the flamingos were active. We had two in the water running around and acting goofy.

After the zoo, we went to the Bicentennial Mall. It's a park downtown.

The boys had fun walking around and pretending to be statues.

There was a globe and Little JCrew started singing, "He's got the whole world in his hands" song.

We then went to check in to our hotel and swam in the hotel pool. The boys thought the bed was awesome!

For dinner, we went to the Aquarium Restaurant.

It was so fun. We sat so close and saw so many fish!

We had more little things planned for Monday, but we were worn out and ready to get home. We didn't hit up the Rainforest Cafe, but we did go see it and look inside. We will definitely go back for that.

We hope you had a great weekend! Time to get back to the grind.