we're home from an UH-mazing memorial day weekend!! in honor of the holiday, my parents 30th wedding anniversary, and my upcoming birthday.....we packed up and headed to palm coast for some good old fashioned fun in the sun!
i realized as we were packing up that this would be emma's first "real" vacation. we started a new july 4th beach tradition with friends last year but emma was just shy of 6 months old at that point and wasn't able to quite appreciate her surroundings as much. nor was she mobile yet....a MAJOR difference ;)
she was very interested and a tad confused as we packed up the house. and by "the house"...i mean THE HOUSE! my goodness. who knew the smallest member of our family would require the most gear for this trip!!!
we timed the start of our adventure to coincide with naptime. SOMEone isn't the biggest fan of long car rides....not mentioning any names....just sayin'. she opened her eyes as we were pulling into palm coast. the resort we stayed at is one i've been hearing about for a while and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to check it out. hammock beach is absolutely beautiful and i don't think i'll ever stay anywhere else again! there was so much to do and i can imagine it only being MORE fun as the kids get older.
our condo was fabulous. we had a view of the entire resort and the ocean and a huge wrap around porch. emma spent the first hour running around and checking out every last nook and cranny....and trying her voice against the echo in our huge space! so cute.
we were so excited at emma's reaction to the ocean. i'm trying to think of the best word to describe it.....enthralled??? obsessed??? it was like a giant sandbox + water....two of her favorite things. she literally went running head first into the waves....it was awesome! she was throwing wet sand around and rubbing it into her skin, digging with her sand toys, and squealing with sheer delight as the small waves crashed up against her thighs. she is a generally joyful child....but THIS was over the top :)
one thing i've come to realize is that, as a parent to a toddler....especially a toddler with as much energy and interest in novelty as emma....vacation is actually more just like a change of scenery. with all this new stuff to check out and a pretty fearless lady on our hands....there wasn't much sitting still to be done. those magazines i brought? that book i thought i might start? sleeping in? yea right, mommy!!!!
despite coming home probably more exhausted than when we left.....we couldn't have had a better time if we tried.
the girls at daycare always comment on emma's uncanny ability to get as dirty as possible. see above...case & point.
this later devolved into emma shoving a ketchup saturated hotdog piece {ew} into mommy's mouth. what can i say, we're a classy bunch! and you think THAT's messy? you should have seen the white tablecloth when emma was all done with it ;)
....not really having it with my family photo idea....oh well, i guess the other 2 billion photos we took will have to do! ;)
and the icing on the cake....how wonderful it feels to be home. isn't that the best feeling? of all the places i've been in my life.....the coast of italy, the greek isles, and now hammock beach.....nothing EVER feels as good as coming home and that feels really good to me. emma is unpacked and starting to catch up on sleep lost this weekend, laundry is going, the house is clean, and i've got a hot dinner date on the couch. talk about the perfect weekend ;)
this week i am SO grateful for un-interrupted time with my family. they are my everything.
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