The Coronavirus really wrecked our Spring plans. Matt and I had an anniversary vacation planned for May that got canceled and all the kids' activities and end of year celebrations were canceled too. Everyone handled it really well, but by the end of April we were all worn out and in need to something fun. So Matt and I went crazy and planned a last minute beach vacation for our family. We had originally planned a beach vacation for the end of the summer, but we decided to move it up because we were all in need of a change of scenery and we're hopeful that maybe by the end of summer more things will be open and we can do a different vacation then.
So at the end of April when beaches on the gulf coast were starting to reopen, we decided to try and plan a trip. That process was full of waiting, drama, and stress. We had to wait to find out what counties would open their beaches, wait for responses on which pools were open at which condos, then had our trip finalized and booked and got word a few days later that the governor of Florida was extending a ban on short term rentals, so a week out we switched out destination to Alabama. It was a mess, but it was SO worth it once we had our toes in the sand!
We kept everything a secret from the kids. Since it was a last minute trip and because everything was so up in the air, we thought it would be fun and better to surprise them. We packed everything while they were at my parents' house and loaded the car after they went to sleep Saturday night. Then we woke them up at 4:00am and told them to go to the bathroom and get in the car that we were going on a trip!!
Once they woke up that morning during our drive, I gave them puzzles to solve to find out where we were going. I do think they all assumed we were going to the beach since they knew about our trip in August.
They were pretty excited when we officially told them!
The kids did amazing during the twelve hour drive. Because most things were still closed, we pretty much drove straight through with only short bathroom breaks and a drive thru for lunch.
We made it to our condo in Gulf Shores about 4:00 on Sunday afternoon. We unloaded the car, ate a quick pizza for dinner and headed to the beach! The kids couldn't change into their swim suits fast enough!
We've always done our family beach vacations in Fort Walton Beach, FL, so I didn't know how the beach in Alabama would be. We're pretty spoiled with our clear blue/green water and powdered sugar sand in Florida, but this was a close second. It definitely wasn't quite as beautiful, but it was close and it was a beach, and we were all in heaven!
Sunday was actually Mother's Day, so Nathan wrote me a message in the sand. Apparently they had big plans to make me a homemade breakfast for Mother's Day, but I don't think anyone (including me) was too disappointed in the change of plans.
We played at the beach for about an hour and then headed back to the condo to change and head out for some ice cream to kick off our vacation! We found a great local place named after Matt, so that was perfect.
The next morning, the kids were up early ready to spend the morning at the beach.
I bought the kids some new sand toys for the trip and I thought this little ice cream set would be cute. It was a hit! They loved making and serving sand ice cream all morning.
The got right after building a sand castle while we waited for the temperature to warm up some to get in the water.
Katherine was the snack queen at the beach. She was always asking for one.
Nathan decided to build Elisabeth an ice cream shop in the sand for her to serve her ice cream cones. He made a seat and a counter and even a sign.
He was so proud of the ice cream stand, and I loved watching their playfulness and creativity come out at the beach.
They played so well in the sand that Matt and I had plenty of time to sit down together and read our books with frequent ice cream breaks of course, ha!
The kids managed to build an ice cream shop and a castle in the same morning.
After lunch we played a couple of board games, while Katherine napped. Then we took baths/showers and cleaned up for dinner. Initially, when we booked our trip we assumed restaurants would still be closed. We were a little bummed about that because we really enjoy fresh seafood and not cooking much on vacations, but we figured we'd get takeout and it would be fine. We were even trying to troubleshoot how to keep Matt's fried shrimp good with takeout and thought about packing our air fryer, ha! But on the Friday before we left, Alabama's governor made an announcement that restaurants could reopen on Monday. Yay! We were ready for some yummy sea food. We did some research and found a great restaurant to try on Monday night.
Matt was pretty excited about his friend seafood platter. Everything was delicious, and the kids behaved pretty well, even after forgetting how to act in a restaurant because it had been so long since we'd been able to eat out.
After dinner we went for a walk and called it an early night after our big beach day. I thought the boys were cute little bookworms ready for bed.
We were ready for another fun day on Tuesday. The kids were up early as usual.
Samuel and Katherine asked to eat breakfast on the balcony every morning.
We were back at the beach around 8:00 on Tuesday ready for more fun.
Nathan tried to catch some waves with the boogie board.
Matt took turns taking the kids out and teaching them how to ride the waves.
Our Little Builder was back at work on another castle.
And there was never a shortage of ice cream. I had fun sitting down with Elisabeth and helping her make desserts for part of the morning.
Another day, another snack break.
There was a cool wind on Tuesday morning and the waves were pretty rough. Elisabeth complained about being cold, and she ended up wrapping up in towels and falling asleep. Sweet girl had had too much fun for the morning.
We headed back to the condo around 11:00 again so the kids could swim/wash off the sand before lunch.
We ate lunch together and talked about our fun morning.
While Katherine napped, the boys and Matt and I played an escape room challenge game. I actually bought two games for Nathan's birthday, and so we brought the extra one on our trip. We were trying to find sunken treasure, so it was perfect to play at the beach.
After Katherine woke up from her nap, we headed out to play putt putt for the afternoon.
Katherine was pretty cute trying to get her ball in the car.
She really was more excited about all the decorations than playing the game. She had to have a picture with the mermaid.
We ate an early dinner at a great Mexican place and then headed back to the condo to change and get ready for beach pictures. I'll share those in a separate post. It's a tradition to take pictures of the kids on every beach trip. It's always stressful trying to get the lighting right, keeping the kids out of the water, and getting them all to cooperate, but every time Matt does his magic and we get awesome photos. This year was no different.
We rewarded the kids with snow cones to finish off our night.
No comments:
Post a Comment