OUR FAMILY VACATION + FIVE THINGS I LOVE

Ah, vacation. It’s the best, right?

Ben and I took our sweet babe on our first family vacation last week and it was the funnest time we’ve had in months. We spent our week on Hilton Head Island off the coast of South Carolina, which is where I grew up vacationing pretty much every year when I was growing up. It’s a place full of so many memories and fun experiences for me, and now I have our own little family time there to add to it. Our two-bedroom condo was right on the beach, and there is something about sleeping with the windows open and hearing the waves crashing all night long that makes for the best kind of sleep there is, in my humble opinion. The first few days were a little cool and rainy, but honestly we didn’t mind because we just went out for coffee and did some shopping and cozied up inside with books. By the end of the week, the days were hot and sunny and perfect for sunning on the beach and dips in the pool.

It was so fun to introduce Ayla to the beach, and we would dip her toes in the sand and the waves and she would just stand there with her serious face but thankfully she wasn’t scared of the water or the noise of the ocean. We would only spend an hour or so each day on the beach, because that was about all she was fine with. We’d go out after her morning nap around 11:30, take a little swim in the pool, and then lug all.our.stuff to the beach and get set up for the afternoon. Beaching with a baby is no small joke, you guys. But it was worth the extra work, and she would lay under the umbrella for an hour or so and usually take a short twenty-minute nap before waking up and just being done with the beach life. We walked off the beach every day with a wailing child in the stroller, hehe, but at least we could spend a few hours out in the sun before she got tired of it.

We did a lot of biking during the week…whether going to eat or out for ice cream or just for a fun ride. Ayla seemed to like riding along in her bike trailer with us and I told Ben that it really is so fun to be able to take her along on those little outings. A child isn’t meant to be the adventure, but meant to join in the adventure…and bike trailers and baby carriers are such good ways to enable those adventures. Most mornings we would go out for a walk on the beach after breakfast, and Ayla would just bounce along in the Ergo carrier and everyone would smile at us as we walked along. I’ve learned that you lose your ability to be obscure when you have a baby with you, ha. Like the one night we walked down to a Mexican restaurant close by, and when we walked into the outdoor seating area to wait for a table to clear for us, it was like literally everyone was turning and watching us. I was like, yes i know we have an adorable baby girl but stop staring at us, hehe.

We spent one evening driving down to Tybee Island for a seafood dinner at a great restaurant that serves these giant platters of crab leg, shrimp, mussels, crawfish (ew), sausage, potatoes, and corn on the cob. We sat outside beside the water with cats roaming under our feet and seafood juices running down our arms and the salty-slightly-stinky marsh air tickling our noses and it was perfect. And even the emergency stop on our way home in an alley way in the middle of Savannah, Georgia for another car seat diaper blowout (seriously, how do they know to always go in the car seat?!?) couldn’t damper our mood and the beautiful evening spent together. Diaper blowouts ain’t got nothing on us, hehe.

We left the island early Saturday morning and had decided the week before that we were going to do a surprise visit to my family on our way home. They were actually planning to meet us for a quick lunch along our route, without knowing that we were already planning to spend the weekend with them. We got to my parent’s house and ran inside and managed to surprise them all pretty good. Such fun! We went out for lunch and then spent the rest of the day watching college football, eating dinner, and staying up way past our bedtime.

We went to church with my family on Sunday morning, and then left for home after having brunch together at Cracker Barrel. Our trip wasn’t the easiest one we’ve had, since the little miss was having a pretty hard time for the last few hours. It’s like, just go to sleep and it will be so much better dear child. She usually does fine in the car seat…but she wasn’t having it on this trip! We finally made it home and let her play in the tub to calm down and then put her to bed. I felt exhausted…because there is little else more emotionally tiring than listening to a fussing baby for hours when you’re traveling and knowing there is so little you can do to make them happy. But we survived and I went and grocery shopped after she went to bed and it was like a kind of therapy. #foodie

But our vacation getaway was the best, and it felt like a small oasis in the middle of a really busy season. The past few months and the next few months are pretty full of travels and visitors and such, which is so fun…but it was just a really good time of being together with my two people and spending endless quality time with them. Some of my favorite moments from the week were when Ben and I would both go in to get Ayla up from her naps and we’d snuggle and tickle and soak up her sleepy grins for a few minutes together before getting her up, and sitting on the balcony in the evenings with Ben talking and watching the ocean (and chasing away roaches…ew), and a breakfast date at a cute French bakery on a rainy morning, and honestly just watching my husband and baby girl spend endless time together.

Here are five things I love:
– this looks amazing
– these helpful tips
– this sermon (seriously good)
– this capsule wardrobe
– this book

Have a great week, dears!