Last weekend, we took a family trip to our beach town. I've been vacationing in this town my whole life and I'm so glad to keep the tradition going with my own family! We are still in the process of waiting for lumber costs to come down a bit from the Covid spikes, so we're unable to rebuild our cottage for the time being. This means that I have to find places to stay when we go to the beach. In March, I ventured away from Airbnb and stayed at an RV park that offered little cottages and cabins. The cabin that we rented at that time was okay and doable but it lacked things that we now know are necessities for us (like a full size fridge, and an actual table to sit at, etc.). This time, I booked the next size up in their accommodations, which was a little cottage with an actual kitchen. This place was PERFECT for us and I'd totally book here again. (It would actually be nice to get the same one we stayed in this time since I could see the beach from the back porch!)
Here's a little recap of our quick weekend trip!
We left on Saturday morning around 6:30 and I had three happy kiddos ready for this vacation!
We made pretty good time and arrived in time for lunch at a local seafood restaurant. My hope was that the kids would use the bathroom here since we couldn't check into the cottage yet. However, no kid needed to use the bathroom, which was fine. Aaron and I got lunch for the kids here and we sat inside while they ate, but Aaron and I got our lunch at the Korean food stand a block away and we ate at a local playground. :) We are choosing to really try supporting local restaurants and endeavors when we go out of town. (PS- when did Michael start looking like a teenager?!?)
Noah was adamant that he was going to order hushpuppies with his food. Since his entree didn't come with hushpuppies, we ordered him a side of them and it came with 4 huge ones!
This is the view from the living room into the loft and kitchen area (the bedroom is at the back there where that other door is located).
It's so funny how we really came to view a full kitchen as a non-negotiable in any future rentings. It's our tradition to make muffins for breakfast and we couldn't do that in March due to having no oven. It was such a treat to have a full kitchen (albeit a tiny one)! When I took this picture, I was standing in front of the full size fridge and near the dining table (also now non-negotiables).
My sweet little girl posing in the downstairs bedroom. There was so much storage packed into this room, in addition to a door that led to a private deck. Noah and I ate breakfast out there on our last morning when he needed some "mom one-on-one time."
This is the back porch (but the stairs leading to the parking space are from this porch, so I guess it might be considered the front porch?). The door leading to the living room is behind me. Although this tree is directly in the middle of the view, I can still see ocean on either side of it and that's a game changer! Being able to get eyes on the water when you're at the beach is so calming! On this porch were a high-top 4 seater table and two wicker chairs. It was a great size!
This is the light fixture above the dining table. Aaron is really into fishing and he thought this light was so cool! My dad is also into fishing, so we sent him a text with a picture of this.
On the loft railing was this shark cutout and Avery loved to pretend she was being eaten.
For my birthday in April, my parents got me this beach wagon and it came in clutch this weekend! It was SO NICE to load everything up at the truck and pull it down to the sand, rather than hand carry everything!
My three kiddos in one of our favorite places on Earth.
One of my favorite things to do is to catch candid moments of the kids with their Daddy.
I bought sturdy sand shovels for each kid before this trip, and the boys made these really cool designs in the sand by setting their shovel on the hard sand and then running while dragging the shovel. The straighter lines are caused by the shovel imprint, and the sand that was removed from the imprint was flung out in cool patterns.
We were so excited to have an oven that we made one batch of muffins on Saturday night at 9:00! Since the batter only had milk in it (no eggs), Avery got to have a bedtime snack while her brothers were upstairs watching Animal Planet.
We buried Aaron's feet and created "Bigfoot" designs with a shovel.
My love!
Great weather day on Sunday!
I took this picture to show the color of the house that we stayed in. It really seemed like all of the other houses were muted neutrals, but ours was an "in your face" Tic Tac aqua. I took this picture right before we went to lunch at a seafood restaurant in the neighboring town (of which I took no pictures).
Having an afternoon snack at the table!
I love this picture so much! This was right before we went for a walk around the RV park before heading to the same neighboring town for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. We tried out this restaurant for the first time in March with my parents and we were really excited to go back because it was so good! It didn't disappoint this time either!
While we waited for time to go to the restaurant, we played on the playground. I was pumped that Avery let me put her hair in a ponytail!
Our dinner at the Mexican restaurant was really good, but the best part was being able to say YES when the boys asked if they could have dessert! We told them that they'd be sharing with all of us and they were totally fine with that. Noah wanted churros because they came with cherries on them. He was so excited when this arrived that when I told him to say "cheese" he actually put his hands together and bowed his head because he was going to pray for this dessert!
Michael ordered fried ice cream and none of us had ever had it before. It was so delicious! (There are no pictures of Avery because she fell asleep on the way to the restaurant and woke up at dessert time, but wasn't in a picture taking mood.)
After dinner, I took each kid on a one-on-one walk around the RV park. Michael wanted to walk past the cabin we rented last time. Noah wanted to walk past the pool. Avery wanted to go back to the playground!
At bedtime, we'd let the boys choose a show on the TV in the loft. It was a fairly good sized room up there. Avery was the only one of us who could stand upright in the loft, but there still seemed to be enough space for everything we needed to do. The queen size mattress was on the floor and there was still ample floor space in between the end of the bed and the railing, so the boys played up here for most of the time we were inside.
After breakfast on Monday morning, the boys played tic-tac-toe very nicely while we waited to be able to check out.
Three kids ready to head home and see our pup!
Before heading out of town, we stopped at the grocery store to get a snack and we let them eat the snack at a local playground pavilion and run around a bit before sitting in the truck for a long length of time.
On our way out of town, Aaron stopped at our favorite seafood market and ordered some raw shrimp to bring home to cook. We stopped across the Alabama line for lunch and made it home in early afternoon.
It was a great little trip and it seems to be exactly what we needed for a nearly mid-summer boost!
Until Next Time,
Much Love, Reba
