Our annual trip to St Augustine is our FAVORITE family trip of the year! We have the best time and it’s just always a chance to do a lot of relaxing and reconnecting as a family. We are so beyond blessed to have a family friend who gives us an incredible deal on his perfect-for-us condo. We are just so thankful and were so eager for this time together!
I will tell you what. This point in the game of children packing is no joke. It took me the full week leading up to the trip to be completely packed and ready for it! There was also a high chance of rain every day so I did pack more than usual just in case we had to seek indoor activities.
Something that was also extra exciting about this particular trip was that it was the oldest we’ve ever had kids go to the beach without another baby. Tess is super close to being 3. Life is SO MUCH EASIER. While we are ready and waiting for Tab to join us, I have to also find the positives in the wait and this phase of “older kid” life is such a breeze and is something we’ve never experienced. We decided to really YOLO it up this trip. We headed down to the beach first thing Saturday (July 1st) morning even though check in wasn’t until 3. We figured we’d find some fun and enjoy the day! Who cares about naps when you have kids old enough to go with the flow 🙂
Loaded up!
Poor Kye haha We did agree: when Tab comes, it’s time for a luggage hitch or storage rack!
With the high chance of rain for the trip we thought we’d be smart and go ahead and knock out a “must do” item from our list: putt-putt! We love this tradition of playing putt-putt as a family and even in the HEAT we had a great time!
Kye is VERY serious about it!
Britt impressed us too with how seriously she took it and how she played almost every hole!
Tess was hit and miss. She played some, she whined some, she was happy some, she was miserable some. 18 holes of putt-putt during the hottest part of the day during the hottest part of the year makes me a little miserable too 😉
Zach is SUCH a great daddy. He’s a great “boy dad” but he’s also so sweet and patient with the girls too.
In the pirate ship!
Hole-In-One!
Then Kye turned around and made a hole-in-one on the same hole! Last year Kye didn’t get a hole-in-one so he was extra excited for this one 🙂
Hole-In-One Club!
Tess loves keeping the look out for animals 🙂
So. Sweaty.
Hanging out in the cave out of the sun!
Gah I can’t remember the last time that I got to be present for all 18 holes. I’m always the “kid keeper” and end up having to call it quits as some point and go sit in the building and wait for Zach and the other kid(s) to finish. I won’t ever forget the year Britt pitched a HUGE fit early on and I got stuck sitting in the car with her haha. It was great to actually get through all 18 holes…but I did miss that excuse for some AC 😉
Real life 😉
Our family!
(sidenote but I found this top from our HONEYMOON and love it!)
Here’s some videos from Putt-Putt:
We finished up putt-putt around lunch time and were SO crazy (for us anyway). We didn’t pack lunches or even have a plan of where we’d eat. We totally made a decision in the car in the parking lot of the putt-putt place. I know that’s probably the norm for most people but it’s something that never happens with us. We ended up hitting up Sunset Grill We were seated in the bar area and once we finished eating and walked through the main dining area I wish we’d asked to be moved to there. But it was still a good experience!
Kye did SO GREAT at putt-putt! He had a WONDERFUL attitude and scored really well! He was super close to Zach’s score!
How cool are these kids cups?
Coloring pages the kids did for me 😉
We got two kids meals, I got an appetizer and Zach got another cheaper menu item and our bill was still at $40. INSANE. Again, I know that’s the norm. We talked a lot about how people probably look at us and all the trips we take and assume we drop some CRAZY money. But y’all that couldn’t be further from the truth. We very, very rarely eat out and when we do we bring a lot of filler items for the kids so we can spend less. After that $40 lunch we totally understand how families could easily come to St Augustine for a week and spend thousands. I typically budget $200 out of pocket spending for the week and we usually come in around that depending on the activities we do!
I did get a spinach, artichoke and crab dip and if you ever go to Sunset Grill it’s a MUST GET. So SO good!
Silliness 😉
We all felt full but snacky and still had some time to kill before we’d be allowed in the room so we went back to the putt-putt place and took advantage of their cheap deals on ice cream! Perfect treat!
Gah. I love him in a baseball hat!
We were able to check-in and get settled in right at 3 which worked out great!
While unpacking I was SO PUMPED to find Tess’s hair from her first haircut!!!
The condo has two bedrooms and two bathrooms. So far we’ve been doing Kye and Britt in the twin bed bedroom and Tess in the pack and play in the master bathroom. We already talked about how next year, assuming we’re blessed enough to be welcomed back, that we will do an air mattress for Tess with the big kids and, again if we’re blessed with a baby by then, put Tab in the master bath 😉
The kids love the big mess they can make in the bedroom during the week. And I love how I never have to go in there haha!
Our routine is that Zach runs to the grocery store while I get everything unpacked and settled in. It’s a solid system! It was such an extra blessing of being so well acquainted with the condo and knowing the things we needed to bring and knowing where to put everything. When he got back I headed to the St Augustine Outlets. Last year Britt and I took some time to go shopping together. We had planned to repeat that this year but we just couldn’t fit it into our plans. Britt said she didn’t care if we went shopping or just did something else together so I figured it’d be better for me to just go solo. The outlets were open late that evening and I could knock out some shopping while Zach got the kids fed and in bed!
At first I struggled with finding much. H&M was SO OVERPRICED which was frustrating. Not many good deals at all. Then I went into Francesca’s and was pleasantly surprised! I ended up scoring both of these cute dresses for $16 total!
My main mission though was one place: GAP FACTORY.
Our Gap was my JAM and it closed down a couple years ago. I was so pumped to get to hit it up again!
I stayed in there for a good couple of hours 😉 I was really focused on our family pictures and trying to find outfits to wear and then I just shopped around for DEALZ. And boy did I find ’em!
19 Items for a total over $104! Whoop whoop!
I got some cute stuff for the kids but I LOVE the stuff I got for myself! TWO adorable jackets, three pairs of super cute pants, and a ton of other great finds!
Plus Gap Cash to spend later 😉
Our first morning of the trip we woke up and took our time getting up and spent lots of time snuggling. And singing Moana, of course.
Zach had called me while I was shopping saying Tess was crying a lot and wanting me and I about died when I realized he let her sleep with ALL HER FRIENDS haha. On vacations we let the kids fill a trash bag of friends and let the big kids sleep with however many they bring each night. I cracked up that he let Tess do the same thing!!!
Another advantage to no baby yet? Getting to get out to the beach SO EARLY. It was BEAUTIFUL and not crowded. Each morning we were usually at the beach by like 8! And that was even without having to rush or anything!
Britt LOVES the waves! She’s our beach girl for sure 🙂
When we were packing for the trip I had Tess’s little blow up pool out to bring with us. Since she’s been a baby we’ve used it at the beach to put water in and let her play. Zach said she’s old enough now not to need it. Sure enough we got to the beach and the FIRST thing she said was “where is my pool?” hahaha! She did love the water and the sand but it was so funny to me that she remembered that little pool and wanted it! I do think if we’d brought it she would have still enjoyed it, but she was also fine without it too!
Britt loves having her hair DOWN. I can’t stand how it’s all in her face and so messy but she loves it!
We built Elsa and Anna drip castles 😉
The big mission for the boys this trip was to build a sand ball racing track!
I took several videos for them of the races (Kye requested for me to put them “on Twitter” haha)
Zach and I both love the beach but get annoyed by ALL THE SAND. Looks like Britt and Tess were enjoying annoying us haha
Yes. Completely on her own the child starting making sand angels!
One of our favorite things during the trip each year is to just CHILL. All the kids nap and Zach and I can just hang out and binge watch whatever show we’re into. We were both feeling eager I guess to get done with How I Met Your Mother because we thought we were on the final season but then realized we had an entirely unwatched disc from Season 8 to still get through ha!
After nap we headed back to the beach! Sure, it was 5:00 but who CARES. We still had plenty of beach time left 😉
Here’s Kye riding a wave…and here’s him having an epic fail
I always read those articles about how dads need to do better at taking pictures of moms. And I agree with them! I am ALWAYS quick to grab my camera and because of that we have loads of awesome pics of Zach doing things with the kids. But most of mine with the kids are posed because they only happen when I ask for them. I’m so thankful that Zach grabbed my camera a couple times on this trip. I love, love, love these pics of me enjoying my babies! Both Zach and I spent a TON of time being IN the moment with the kids this trip and really focused on that rather than watching our kids from afar, we wanted to be having the experiences alongside them.
Classic haha
You can get my suit here! It runs true to size. It is a little cheeky for me but I got LOADS of complements when I wore it to the beach that night so it must not be too cheeky.
My new favorite pic! I love that Kye is in the background too so technically it’s me with ALL my babies 😉
Dinner at the beach!
I put the kids down while Zach ran out to get us some “date night” dinner! I love sweet snuggles with Tessie as she still likes for me to hold her while I sing to her 🙂
All the friends haha since Z let her on night 1 we were kinda stuck with it the whole trip!
Zach went to A1A Burrito Works (SO YUMMY) for our dinner and saw this funny sign
Burritos, Queso, and this hottie 😉
As you can already tell, this was SUCH a wonderful trip!!! Much more to come!
My work has been featured on Love What Matters, Today Parenting and Babywise.Life. I'm also honored to be a member of the Babywise Friendly Blog Network.
You can read more about our family on my About Me page. Also be sure to follow along with me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest!
- What I’m Gifting My Family: 2024 - November 21, 2024
- Effective Parenting Tips to Discipline a 5 Year Old Child - September 24, 2024
- Happy 9th Birthday to My Daughter – Letter to Tess from Mom - August 26, 2024
