This year July 4th fell on a Wednesday. We weren’t sure when to go on our trip…the weekend leading up to the 4th or the weekend following it. I called our go-to place (our “beach house” as Kye calls it) and rates were cheaper if we went the days prior to the 4th, so that’s what we did! Sunday July 1st was our check-in date. Zach and Kye went to church as I still wasn’t feeling well (good ole strep!) and it gave me a chance to get everything 100% ready to go. As soon as they got home we loaded up and headed out. It was our first real test with our Traverse. We bought a luggage trailer from Matt and Robyn awhile back and went ahead and bought a luggage storage thing for it for this trip, we used it for the Disney trip for the first time and it worked GREAT! It made life easier and we were able to put both Zach’s and Jordan’s golf clubs in our trunk with still TONS of space. We also invested in a roof rack storage thing but didn’t need to use it. We would be gone 5 days for the 4th so the Traverse can officially fit our entire family (dogs included) for the longest family trip we take each year!
Third year in the same room at the Inn at Camachee Harbor!
This is the luggage storage bag we bought for the trailer…it’s awesome!!! However, it already after only two trips with it has some small holes in it. I’m not sure if they are ones that will cause water to get in or not, I need to talk to Zach about it and decide if we should return it!
On our trip last year we figured out how we’d be able to rig it up to fit both kids in the room with us this year. We both thought we’d be able to make it work and could probably continue to stay in this same room for a few more years, at least until baby #3 arrives. Here’s what we did:
Zach hung up sheets from the ceiling in the corner by the extra bed (we sleep in the other bed closer to the entry door) and we put Kye’s mattress inside this “room.” We moved the futon to close in the space and to free up the area to bring in the outdoor table and chairs for us to use to meals.
There is an inside entry as well as a patio door to the room. We have always put Kye in this little hallway where the interior door is so this year we rigged it up to be Brittlynn’s area. Zach also hung up her video camera for the monitor and he poked a little hole in the bottom of the pack and play to feed the wire for the angel care monitor through it. My husband is a genius 😉
Spoiler alert: All of our awesome rigging up didn’t work out the way we’d planned. We skipped Kye’s nap to drive down there on Sunday because we assumed he’d get his nap every other day we were there (we didn’t plan to ever have Brittlynn skip any naps other than 1 or 2 5:00 cat naps). Turns out Kye never napped. On our last day he napped his best the whole trip. But he just couldn’t sleep in that crowded of a room 🙁 He’s old enough now where noises and such will bother him and it’s hard to expect him to be able to sleep in the same room as two adults, a baby and two dogs. Kinda tough. It was heartbreaking for me. I felt so, so guilty because it was our fault. He has NEVER gone two days in a row without napping. Let alone 4. He didn’t completely skip the naps but he didn’t get nearly enough sleep. We still made him stay in his “room” during his nap time so he may have slept more than we think, but it sure didn’t seem like it.
Due to his lack of sleep he actually experienced night terrors one of the nights we were there. It was horrible. He woke up every hour yelling out. I ran to him and just laid him back down. I read up about it online and read that it often happens when children don’t get enough sleep (sadly that was our situation) and that they wouldn’t remember it happening so it was best not to even wake them up. It was still frightening to experience and even more guilt feelings came over me. As a mom I’m sure many of you get where I’m coming from…the sleep issue with Kye tainted my trip. This is my FAVORITE trip of the year and when I think about it the first thought in my head is poor Kye being overtired and having those terrors. Thankfully his lack of sleep didn’t really affect his behavior and we still, overall, had an awesome trip!
While it was a terrible situation, we didn’t have any other choice than to just keep doing what we were doing. It made me thankful in a way I’ve never quite been thankful for Babywise. What if I didn’t keep my children on a schedule? Would Kye have those terrors all the time? Many people stop having their kids nap at Kye’s age…what if I had done that? Thank the LORD I found Babywise and know the importance of sleep in a child’s life!!!
It also made us realize we can’t stay in that room again next year 🙁 We need to upgrade to a space with at least two bedrooms. Or some way to divide up the children from each other for naps and bedtime. We also learned we are not taking the dogs with us again. Gah they were a PAIN. We will figure something out with them as well. I’m SO SAD about not staying in our place next year 🙁 It has EVERYTHING we want: mega close to a secret public beach that’s never crowded, awesome view of fireworks from our room, pretty affordable, free breakfast, dog friendly, close to old town, has a pool, has tons of boats on the water, free internet, etc etc etc. I’m starting the hunt NOW for a place to go next year…any advice??? I’m hoping to find somewhere with all the same qualities we love in our location but with a divided sleeping area for the kids!
I love the microwave, fridge and even storage spot for the dog crates!
Brittlynn getting her first shower 😉
When we got there is was time to nurse Britt for her 3:00 feeding. I nursed her then Zach gave her a “bath” and we got settled in. We wanted Brittlynn to have her evening nap that night since she didn’t sleep much in the car ride down. We put her down for a nap and Kye and Zach went on the porch to get their fishing stuff set up for the next morning.
While she napped they watched a movie 😉
All pretty for dinner!
We LOVE St Augustine. However, it’s not the most family-friendly town when you have young kids. This trip is the first time we actually semi-looked forward to being done with babies and having older children. Ghost tours, nice meals, the fort, Ripleys, etc will all be SO fun when the kids are old enough to enjoy it and when we don’t have naps to deal with!!!
I asked for suggestions on Facebook and used Tripadvisor for some suggestions of family friendly restaurants. One of the places I found was Gypsy Cab Company. I ate there with Katie the weekend we went wedding dress shopping for me…umm 6 years ago…I remembered it was good but didn’t remember how kid friendly it was?!?! Turns out, it’s not really what I would call a family restaurant!!! The food was SO good though (even though pretty pricey) and it was loud so I don’t think the crowd minded our kids. They were for sure the youngest ones there though!
Kye was SO hungry and ate a ton of the bread!
I love the way she’s looking at her daddy
so sweet
I brought some puffs to keep Brittlynn happy but some of our food was okay to give her too. I gave her bits of our pastas and some of our vegetables. It was neat to see other people at the restaurant watching her chow down on legit food. Who knows the kind of stuff they were thinking!!!
Love me some Baby-Led Weaning 😉
We get compliments on this place mat every time we use it. I had it for Kye too…it’s SO great! Rolls up small, suctions to the table, has a little spot to catch food that falls and wipes off easy. It’s lasted for 3 years so far and it’s still going strong! It’s a Kiddopatomus Tiny Diner Placemat in case you want one for yourself 🙂
The food was good and FAST. We were shocked at the quick service! I had already made Brittlynn a bottle for dinner so we decided to hit up Dairy Queen on our way back for some dessert. Kye LOVED getting to eat so much ice cream on vacation. I think he and I both enjoyed that perk 😉
Brittlynn looks like she’ll be an ice cream lover too!
Legit
That night Zach and I finished Season 6 of The Office and started on Season 7. I LOVE the lazy nights at the beach just relaxing and cuddling together. The kids go to bed so early so we have so much time to ourselves. It was nice 🙂
Monday morning Zach and Kye headed to get our free breakfast so Britt and I played and enjoyed each other for a little bit. I’ll take all the quality individual time with my kids that I can get 🙂
Think we were having fun?
Child has a HUGE mouth 😉
Kye picked what he wanted for breakfast and of course he picked pancakes!
The fruit they gave us was too small to give Britt so I tried putting it in one of those mesh feeder things…omg she did NOT like it! I think it was frustrating for her to not be able to eat the real food, ya know? We haven’t used it sense!
Pancake bigger than your face!
figured it out but still not a fan
The kids needed to get a little work in while on vaca 😉
Brittlynn still has three naps a day which is tough to plan a vacation around. Thankfully we stay in SUCH a great location with TONS to do nearby. I love the marina area with all the boats. Zach bought Kye his first fishing pole before we left so they could do some fishing together while Brittlynn napped. It was a great idea! They fished for awhile then came back and took our stuff to the beach to set it all up so when she woke up we’d be ready to go!
Gotta have bait right? 😉
First fishing pole!!!
When we talked about going fishing Kye kept saying “we can only go fishing at Grandpa’s house!” We literally got out a map and showed him how far away Grandpa’s house is from St Augustine and that we couldn’t drive up there to go fishing. It is SO sweet to me that he remembers so vividly when he went fishing at my dad’s house in May of 2011. How in the world does he remember that?!?! It’s precious to me that it made that big of an impact on him though 🙂
Zach and Kye are SO close and love doing things together!
This belongs on a Father’s Day card or something doesn’t it? 🙂
Zach kept my camera while Brittlynn napped and got some pictures of Kye’s catches!!!
Zach took this video of him throwing back a fish they caught…and he talks about Grandpa’s house again in it too!
This trip is just getting started! If you have experience with the St Augustine area I’d REALLY love some suggestions of places that we could stay next year…as well as any other fun family friendly places to eat or experiences we should do!
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Have you considered getting two rooms that are connected? Jeff and I have done that when we went on a weekend trip once. Put Rhyan in one room and us in the other. Kept her outside door locked and then we had access to her just like another bedroom in a suite. I wonder if they have that (i'm SURE they do) in this hotel…which, btw is WHAT?! Where do you stay? I'd LOVE to take the kids to st augustine and would love to know your great place!