seaworld: aquatica

Our first stop on our Florida vacation was SeaWorld’s waterpark, Aquatica! Honestly, I didn’t even know this place existed until I was looking to buy tickets for the regular SeaWorld park and the day resort, Discovery Cove. We ended up getting a 3-park ticket (good for unlimited visits for 14 consecutive days), which included the waterpark! I had no previous expectations, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun we ended up having.

We went on a Monday in March, so although the park wasn’t all that big, it wasn’t crowded at all, which was wonderful. We had the perfect weather, too!

As soon as we arrived, the girls were eager to go down the “rapid lazy river” with Daddy, so while they jumped right in, Little Man and I just hung out and waited for them. He thought it was the most fun thing to climb over this little rock barrier and take leaves in and out of the water. It’s the simple things when you’re this little.
We found this awesome section of the park, intended for smaller kids, called Kookaburra Cove, that had some inner tubes, slides and other splash pad-type features. We ended up staying here for the vast majority of the day, parked in a shady spot where we could see just about everything. This was my happy place.I fell in love with all the foliage in Florida. Just look at these beautiful palms!
Eve was soaking it all up!I loved floating around with my girls! Nella had better things to do than pose for this picture, as you can see in the background, haha.Chandler humored me for a bit and floated in the tube, but he was honestly bored with this pretty quickly. It was a nice way to get a break from carrying him around all day, though! He did REALLY love the baby slides! Nella and Eve went with him a few times, and I held his hand as he went down, too. He was laughing and smiling so much, which was the best.All the girls loved these smaller slides and went on them as much as they possibly could!

Kaya and Kaelyn took the camera down the slide! I feel like Kaya sounds a lot like me here, which is funny to listen to!

Daddy took Kaya and Kaelyn on some of the really big slides elsewhere in the park, and then we all split some lunch (no outside food is allowed in the park, although we did have some fruit snacks)! Chicken tenders, fries, fruit, and chips poolside felt like perfect vacation food.Baby Girl was just starting to make her appearance this week, so I had to have some belly pictures!We did move over to the “big kid” section of the park after a while. There was a TON of water spraying and dumping everywhere, which ended up being a bit overwhelming for Eve. Nella wasn’t as sure about it at first, but she ended up having a good time.Eve needed a little break and took a nap on Daddy.We all felt like this by the end of the day!This boy. He was happy as can be just rearranging all the chairs. At our AirBnB, he kept reorganizing the baskets on the shelf, too, so we joked that maybe he’ll be an interior designer one day.
So much sun, sunscreen, and smiling. I love seeing my kids happy.We ended the day with showers and ice cream back at the house. Eve cracks me up in this one!

Aquatica was the perfect start to our vacation week!

the beach house (2017)

This is it… the last of the beach posts! (Are you all breathing a sigh of relief? These have been going on forever, I know, but I have actually loved reliving this time with my little family!)

About one month before we knew Michael would be able to take some time off work, I found a great deal on this little beach house, and it was available for an entire week, which was a longer stay than we had ever had in Myrtle Beach thus far. The girls were so excited and asked to see pictures of it constantly before we headed down there. There was a cute little living room, where we watched a couple of movies at night (Trolls and The Secret Life of Pets)!A dining area (and it became very clear to me that I will never, ever, have a glass tabletop, especially with kids)! It had a little red kitchen! That’s what always seals the deal for me… wherever we stay has to have a kitchen, because there is no way we’d want to eat out for every meal. We cooked and had leftovers for several nights, and bought supplies for breakfast and lunch at the house. We all love our routines, so we were happy eating muffins for breakfast, and salads and sandwiches for lunch, just like at home. This house actually had three bedrooms, but we ended up just using two, since the third one was on the opposite side of the living room, and I didn’t want to put Nella in there all on her own. She slept in the pack ‘n play in our room, and it worked out just fine.
These beds were king-sized, and when Kaya and Kaelyn overheard us saying that, they thought we meant that real kings sleep in them. It was the funniest idea to me, so I went along with their imaginations for the rest of the week. They thought that kings must have owned the beach house, and we were sleeping in their beds. They were also a little concerned that the kings would come back while we were still there. It was pretty adorable.
Kaya and Kaelyn shared this bed (and had plenty of room for Daddy to read to them or Mommy to snuggle in the middle)! On the last morning, we headed out to the beach at sunrise to take our traditional family picture. It’s always so hard to get up and out that early (these were taken around 6:20 am), but it’s always worth it to remember our trip. It’s never too early to be silly!
Goodbye beach!

mini golf, mini golf, and more mini golf!

One of the main attractions for us down in Myrtle Beach is the array of themed mini golf courses! These little girls could never get enough, and I think they’d play all day long if we let them. We kicked off our putt-putt spree with Jungle Safari Golf! This was the first year that Kaelyn had some idea of how to play, so it made things extra fun. Our big Minnie Mouse fan would always excitedly gasp when we asked her if she wanted to go play, thinking that we were saying, “Minnie Golf!” Maybe that would have been an option if we’d gone down to Disney World! 😉 She was always happy to play anyway. Kaya was so glad to be golfing around all these animal statues! Can we just reminisce for a moment about Kaya in this exact spot, 3 years ago? The giraffe looks just as dilapidated, but Kaya has grown so much! I forgot to bring the Ergo on this trip, so we took turns carrying Nella around. If she got the chance, she tried to eat our golf balls! I came within one point of tying with Michael on our first game! That’s unusually good for me! Later in the week, we went to Jurassic Mini Golf! The girls loved the animatronic dinosaurs, although they were actually terrified of this Tyrannosaurus Rex that really blinked and roared! Everyone made their best dinosaur faces for a photo! This course had dinosaur footprints all along the walking path. There were also several waterfalls! Kaelyn adopted what we started calling, the “hockey technique”. To be honest, both the girls cheated a little bit, but they’re still so young that we let it go. In a couple years though, it’s on! Right up until the end of the trip, the girls kept requesting (and even asking in their morning prayers) for us to go mini golfing one more time. We ended our final evening with 18 holes at Jungle Lagoon! This course was the most physically challenging with kids. There were two routes, and we chose the one that took us to the very top of the hill in order to see the view. It was a little slippery from all the waterfalls, too. It was a pretty wonderful panorama of the city, though! Sleepy baby! Our trip as a whole wore her out. Kaya struck this pose completely on her own. She is totally my child. We ended it all with a little more “hockey” and some Chinese food. It was the perfect finish to our trip!

on the beach (2017)

I know, I know… two months later and I am still trying to get all my beach trip posts up. Hopefully within the next week, I can finish and call it done, although I’d be mistaken to say that I don’t enjoy reliving these sweet memories and recalling the warmth of the summer during these increasingly chilly fall days. We spent six days down in Myrtle Beach this year, three of which found us on the actual beach.
On the first day, as soon as I set Nella down, she started trying to eat sand. This was a losing battle- she ended up with sand in her diaper for the whole week.
Nevertheless, she was still completely excited and enthusiastic about the time we spent playing on the beach. Twice while we were there, they ended up closing the water to swimmers because the tide was just so rough. I’ve never seen the ocean so tumultuous, but our trip occurred just before all the hurricanes and tropical storms hit, so that definitely would explain it. Kaelyn loved playing in the waves with Daddy! Meanwhile, I still kept trying to prevent Nella from eating sand. On the one day that the waves weren’t too rough, we got to do a little boogie boarding! Michael is a little more experienced than I am, so I liked watching him have fun. Confession- this was actually my first time swimming in the ocean (i.e. I went in further than knee deep). I know, I know! But I only went to the shore once as a kid, and half of the times I’ve been down to Myrtle as an adult, I was pregnant and not looking to go swimming. Anyway, it was so invigorating and refreshing! I loved trying to ride the waves (even in my somewhat inefficient manner). Making sandcastles was definitely on the beach bucket list… (see what I did there?)
This watering can is often an item of contention in our family. Everyone wants a turn with it, all at the same time! Michael helped the girls build up some big fortresses to try and block the waves. He’s really such a fun dad. Meanwhile, I finally wised up in our sand-eating war and tried to keep Nella in the stroller as much as possible. These are the days I will never forget.

ripley’s aquarium (2017)

On our family vacation to Myrtle Beach this year, we spent one day at the aquarium! We went once back when Kaya was still just 20 months old, so we figured it’d be fun to try it again, this time with older kids. It turned out to be a lot more enjoyable this time around, and hey, it was a great opportunity for some “homeschooling”.We happened to be there on the day that public school started for the area, so it ended up being a lot less crowded than a typical day, since there were no field trips, et cetera.  It’s always fun seeing their wonder and amazement at everything. Can you find Michael among the fish?
Kaya loved the light-up tunnel that led to the jelly fish room.We spent quite awhile watching all the jellyfish swim. Their movements seem to have some sort of mesmerizing effect, and they really are quite fascinating creatures. We did spend some time learning about them beforehand, so it was fun to review some of our jellyfish facts. (Did you realize that jellyfish don’t have brains?)There were many different varieties……including these “upside down” jellyfish!Daddy, Kaelyn and I even touched some little ones!Kaelyn was beyond excited to see the sharks, and continually asked about them until we finally reached their tank. I’m really surprised at how much affection she seems to have for these sharp-toothed creatures, but she was ecstatic over them.I really loved all the rays……and especially this sawfish! How cool is he? There’s a “shark tunnel” that you can walk/ride a conveyor belt through, which is really neat for looking up and seeing these giant fish swimming above you.Seahorses!And my other favorite, the Sea Dragons! We had a little break so that Nella could nurse. The big kids had fun on an indoor slide while they waited!A random lady asked if we’d like her to take a picture of all of us, so of course, I said yes, but Kaya was still scared of the megalodon jaw replica behind us.We spent some time watching (and touching) the horseshoe crabs!Did you know horseshoe crabs’ blood is used for testing for bacteria in drugs and medical equipment? They’re often referred to as “living fossils”, and are very interesting creatures, if you want to read more here.Nella was a sweetie the whole time we were there, just sitting in the stroller and taking it all in. She might have missed her nap, but she was still a dream baby. We love this contented little girl.

michael’s 30th birthday celebration

We celebrated Michael’s big 30th birthday while we were down in Myrtle Beach! What better way to enjoy your birthday than a full week of sunshine, waves, and family time? Okay, so maybe that’s just my dream birthday, but I do think that Michael felt like the solar eclipse was nature’s gift to him that week!

I am awake before him 95% of the time, which made it easy to blow up some surprise balloons. I snuck into the girls’ room to get them to help me, and we would have gone undetected if one hadn’t popped on us in the process. Oops.
Everyone loves surprising Daddy!(forgive my voice, it was first thing in the morning!) 

We got dressed and headed out to brunch at our very favorite eatery down in Myrtle Beach, the Omega Pancake House. Michael ordered something called “The Mac Daddy French Toast”, which was basically a slice of heaven covered in frosting, pecans, bananas, and Nutella. We had to stick the candles in it for a photo! I’d been daydreaming about these pancakes for months, and they were worth the wait! Yes, that’s Nutella drizzled on top. Mmmmm! Kaelyn also ate a lemon while we were there… and loved it! She’s taking after her Uncle Karl…

We spent the rest of the day at Ripley’s Aquarium (which will have to be another blog post, because there are a lot of pictures), and then had pizza and picked up a cake, because I definitely didn’t bring all my baking supplies to the beach! Those candles just keep reappearing. We asked Kaya if 30 is old, and she told us it’s not old, it’s not young, it’s “nothing”. Good answer! Haha. I hope the girls still get this excited about birthdays when we’re 60.
Happy Birthday Buddy! Even though you’re in a whole different decade than me (for now), I still think you’re pretty cool. 😉

dragon’s lair mini golf & the skywheel

On our last full day at the beach, we headed down to Broadway at the Beach to walk around for a bit. Mini golf was on our must-do list, so when we saw “Dragon’s Lair Fantasy Golf”, we knew we had to try it!_MG_7664Who wouldn’t want to golf inside a castle?_MG_7661 Kaya was SO excited about golfing (maybe she remembered last year?), and was big enough for her own club this time. She was persistent and made it through 14 of the 18 holes before she was just too tired to keep going._MG_7649 Cutest little putter I ever did see!_MG_7652 _MG_7651Kaelyn and Caroline were troopers in the heat and enjoyed just watching from the stroller!_MG_7658 Kaelyn’s entertainment was trying to take her hat off the entire time…_MG_7655 After naps and some more time at the beach, we headed down to the boardwalk to get some dinner. We passed a place called “New York Pizza” and stopped in. It reminded me of this little pizzeria we had in the town I grew up in, so I was hoping the pizza would be just as good. Well… it was amazing. And HUGE. And I didn’t take a picture of it because we were too busy stuffing it into our mouths…_MG_7667Afterward, we headed further down the boardwalk to ride the SkyWheel._MG_7669 Normally, I’m terrified of ferris wheels, since the cars usually seem rickety and about to fall off the hinges. The SkyWheel was all enclosed and didn’t rock at all, so I loved it. It was so beautiful to see the whole city from up there!_MG_7672Question: How many crazy people can you fit in one ferris wheel car?IMG_20150521_210253_1And that’s the last of the beach posts. It’s time to go back so I have something else interesting to write about, right?

on the beach

There’s just something magical about the beach that makes me never want to leave.

Hot sand on your toes, the clearest blue sky, and the swish-swish of the ocean current. The view of the pier, people laughing, and kids running up and down the beach.

Those things might have something to do with it._MG_7601 Hearing Kaya creep into our bed in the early hours of the morning, whispering “beach beach beach!” added a whole new level of excitement to our trip. There’s nothing like watching your children enjoy the experiences you’re providing for them._MG_7589 We spent our first morning (and second afternoon) on the beach. Poor Kaelyn started to cry the moment I put her in the sand. I definitely wasn’t expecting this reaction from my typically calm, easy-going baby!_MG_7579Baby Caroline was more than happy to just sit in the sand (and attempt to eat seashells)!
_MG_7591 Kaya definitely had the best time of anyone. She had some brand-new beach toys to try out, and everyone helped her build a little moat to play in. She was thrilled!_MG_7599 Kaya’s construction team 🙂 :_MG_7593Everyone took turns walking her down to the water to fill up her bucket…
_MG_7602 _MG_7587 _MG_7596Brittany and I sat our babies on our laps, right at the edge of the water. It was so fun to watch their reactions when the cool waves would wash over our legs!
_MG_7605 Someone was happier after some mommy cuddles and getting a turn to play with the bucket…_MG_7608 These are my favorite days._MG_7622

sleepin’ on the rooftop

Or, you know, the 21st floor. Same thing, right?_MG_7564 We stayed on the 21st floor of the Oceans One Resort when we went down to Myrtle Beach! We had a spectacular view. Just don’t look directly down… you might start to get a bit of vertigo!_MG_7565Seriously… it was so wonderful to read a book out on the balcony and listen to the waves crashing below.
_MG_7566 _MG_7558We enjoyed our own room (and bathroom)! Michael and I took the bed, Kaya camped out on the floor (and didn’t mind one bit, probably because she still chooses to sleep on the floor at home!), and Kaelyn had the pack ‘n play. It was a giant room!_MG_7568We enjoyed some cable TV (mostly HGTV) 🙂 …_MG_7570 … lots of Apple Jacks cereal…_MG_7574 … and cute matching outfits!_MG_7639 Kaelyn enjoyed mostly just sitting around and taking lessons from Caroline on how to crawl._MG_7576 There were several pools and even a lazy river downstairs. Brittany and I got to enjoy some time there just by ourselves after the kids went to bed on the first night! Michael took Kaya through it the next afternoon. We all loved it!_MG_7629 Our view at night was incredible- we could even see the SkyWheel! We enjoyed the city lights and ice cream on the balcony._MG_7636

five on friday: currently…

Currently, I’m…

ONE. Baking… Donuts for seminary breakfast this morning! I spent yesterday afternoon making these, and as Michael put it, they were “spectacular!” Seriously, try these cinnamon-sugar ones. They’re amazing! The chocolate recipe is from here.

Processed with VSCOcam with s1 presetI make such a big mess when I’m glazing them that I have to put a towel underneath the cooling racks to catch the drips… it does save a lot of clean-up time, though!_MG_6716TWO. Daydreaming… about taking some sort of family trip! Being cooped up indoors all winter seems to give me the itch to travel somewhere new. Lately, I’ve been thinking about us maybe heading to Pigeon Forge, TN for a few days early this summer… but then I might miss going to the beach, so we might just end up waiting until fall to take a beach trip. Maybe everyone else already knows about this, but I discovered Roadtrippers.com, and it seems like a fun and handy tool for planning a trip! The map alone is pretty cool.roadtrippers03132015THREE. Planning… Kaelyn’s 1st birthday party! It’s still 3.5 months out, so I’m not making any serious decisions over here, but I am putting together some ideas. A baby giraffe theme is what I’m leaning toward!giraffeboard03132015FOUR. Dancing… with this little muffin! We had a mini dance party on Wednesday night, and this girl loved having some one-on-one time with her mama. She also LOVES to spin in circles!Processed with VSCOcam with s1 preset

FIVE. Feeling… grateful for some green(er) grass and that the snow is all melted! We enjoyed so much time outside this week, and I’m hoping we don’t see any more snow this season!_MG_6711

HAPPY FRIDAY! 🙂

Linking up with Christina and friends today!