This is the first time since Kamin & I went to Disney World in 2004 that I can remember going somewhere for Spring Break. The girls are usually with my mom for the week and we operate on a normal schedule. How boring?! This year Josh & I were both having serious withdrawals and it seemed like a pretty good excuse to “take the camper down so we can get there quicker in June”. Because spending money on two vacations inside three months makes PERFECT sense.
Our girls had been counting down the days for weeks. We left on Wednesday after lunch and made the five hour drive (it takes an extra hour with the camper in tow), hoping to get there by dinner. We were super impressed with the girls, who traveled so well. There were several movies, lots of books and very few potty breaks. Sophie opted to wear her headphones around her neck “like the boys do”. This kid has a serious sense of humor.
There are two things we look for as we start getting closer to the coast. Right after we leave the interstate, this sweet green sign tells us we have less than an hour to go! Ella likes us to wake her up before we pass the parkway sign… she’s just like her mommy.
Then, as we turn off the beachfront into Gulf State Park, the water tower says hello. I don’t know why, but generations of babies in my family squeal as soon as this thing comes into view. My cousin, Jared, used to call it the “potty” and we still kind of joke about that today.
We were sad to miss dinner with Kamin & Cory (who had been there since Sunday, but were leaving the next day). We grabbed a quick bite at the Shrimp Basket and then met them for a cone at Scoops. Can you tell this boy was eyeing my mint chip the entire time?! We let him go to town after this picture and apparently it kept him up all night! No more overeating for Huddy.
Our plan had been to hit the beach on Thursday morning, but it was pretty chilly outside. We also discovered that Josh managed to bring no shoes on vacation, with the exception of the ratty running shoes he drove down in. We made the outlet mall our first stop and picked him up some new shoes, everybody a new pair of sunglasses and some clothes for the girls. Sophie stayed at the camper with my aunt and uncle, but Ella never turns down a shopping trip. We spent the afternoon outside around camp and worked on resting and relaxing.
You’ll remember that both girls got new bikes for Christmas, but we haven’t been on them a single time! We took them down in the back of the truck and had every intention of conquering them before the weekend was over. Sophie’s has training wheels, so it was just a matter of mastering the pedals. She was up and moving by the end of the first day.
She had also been begging for us to teach her how to play the Princess Candyland we keep in the camper. We broke it out on the picnic table and the girls played for so long, it eventually had to be relocated inside so that the big kids could take a nap. Naps are a must on vacation!
Sophie ended up napping, too, so we took that opportunity to work on biking with Ella. Her new bike is significantly larger and has no training wheel option. She was really nervous, but it only took about an hour to get her up and going. She yelled. A lot. She can be pretty angry when she doesn’t get her way. There is a great video of her biking, but she was so embarrassed about her yelling that she asked me not to share it. Ha!
Of course we had to make a few phone calls to report our new skills and she asked me to take this photo for the blog and caption it, “This girl just learned how to ride a bike!” Done.
We partied at the Hangout for dinner that night and were a little later getting home. That meant we all slept late the next morning. I had zero complaints about enjoying my cinnamon roll in the dark while I finished up Insurgent. The wind was whipping and it was raining pretty hard, so we scrapped our beach plans again and talked about taking the kids to a movie instead.
The played really good in their room for a few hours and ended up watching a movie over breakfast. I had literally JUST snapped this picture when the camper began to sway and Josh practically tackled me to the ground. You can see that the sky went white outside the windows and we had no visibility at all. He was yelling at us to get down, but where do you go in a camper? I turned around to grab some shoes and he and Ella were gone. The camper door was wide open and slapping the side of the trailer in the wind?! I grabbed Taz and jumped in the truck when I realized he wanted us to leave. He drove us to the bathhouse across the street to wait out the worst of it. We were SOAKED and Ella was laughing so hard about him being in the womens’ bathroom. He was so worried it was a tornado and since he never panics, I was a little worried, too. Eventually we went back to the camper and although the weather never really let up, the wind wasn’t ever that strong again.
This is him surfing the net and trying to find some kind of reliable forecast we could depend on. We kept referring to it as a “tornado” even though it probably wasn’t. The girls kept yelling, “We’re all gonna die!!” and Ella asked if she could call home and tell Gran goodbye forever before we were swept out to sea. The girls are so funny and have the best sense of humor. I shared our story on social media and unfortunately I think many people thought we were in real danger. Yes, it was a pretty bad storm to survive in a tin box, but we were fine and laughed about our luck all day.
Of course, we had to call Gran eventually and recap the entire story. You can see the girls were really shaken up ;). We finished Friday out with the Lego Movie and popcorn for lunch, followed by dinner at our favorite restaurant and another trip to Scoops. Are you sensing a theme here? We were lazy and we ate a lot. End of story.
