Last year the 4th was on a Saturday. It was annoying to have check in day be the same as the 4th, but it did help minimize some of the crowds to the area. People were split between the week before the 4th and the week after the 4th. With the 4th being on a Monday, pretty much everyone and their mom was in St Augustine at the same time we were!
Every year we go to Katie’s family’s rental condo to enjoy the 4th with them. This year they had a lot more people than usual and moved things around a bit and did a lunch rather than a dinner. We decided to hit the beach for a couple hours then head to their house. They invited us to to come to their beach with them but with Zach’s back it was smarter for us just to stay put rather than him having to carry our stuff on their beach!
#reallife
Kye is “all boy” in a lot of ways. He’s allll about some boogie boarding at the beach but I’m super thankful that he also loves hunting shells too. It’s something I really enjoy doing myself and it’s a great thing we can do together!
The girls and I discovered a new fun beach activity this year: hunting clams!
Watching these two just melts my heart!
Ready for the 4th!
Best we could get 😉
Britt was all about picture taking and ALL about some Aunt Katie!
While Kye was all about some punch drinking haha
We don’t often go over to people’s houses, let alone without other kids so it always makes me a tad nervous. We didn’t end up eating until 2ish which is smack dab in the middle of nap and a solid 2 hours past when the kids are used to eating lunch. I was SO PROUD of how awesome they did. Especially Tess being that she’s still had such a schedule sensitive age! They were cute and fun and entertaining for everyone 😉 It was a great time and we’re always so appreciative to be included (and for the ammmmazing leftovers they always send home with us haha).
Proud of my helpers!
Doing the pledge before lunch
We got back and still put the kids down for naps. We planned on the big kids staying up late so they needed the rest! I love these bedhead girls!
We headed to the condo pool for a bit 🙂
Epic jump contest!
I saw these water gun things at the dollar store and snatched them up for the trip which ended up being a huge mom fail on my part as they shoot SUPER hard and it’s mega annoying!!! Zach kept trying to hide them so the kids would forget about them haha
Tess has entered a VERY independent stage! She really just wants to do everything her siblings do, including walking by herself everywhere we went. It took longer and required a lot of reminding and forced hand-holding when it was needed (parking lots!) but she did SUPER great with it overall and it was such a big girl status moment!
We had a feast for dinner (we had BBQ for both lunch and dinner haha) and while Zach did the cooking (which I LOVE that about VACA!) the kids and I made up songs for America. Tess was even super pumped about it and they were all SO CUTE:
Kye’s, Britt’s, Tess’s and mine 😉
Kye also made a “magazine” for America
He shared all of his “articles” with us during dinner
Once Tess was in bed we did sparklers on the porch…I need to make sure I buy new ones next year. Kye was SO excited about them and I bet Britt will enjoy them even more next year and Tess will be old enough to participate too!
We played some Uno then the big kids watched a movie and Z and I watched some How I Met Your Mother until it was fireworks time!
Big Kid and Mommy tradition! This year I packed jackets b/c last year we got eaten by bugs!
We went down to the beach and couldn’t see the real fireworks show but ohmygoodness the locals put on plenty of a massive show themselves! I’ve NEVER been so CLOSE to fireworks. It was a little unsettling to be so close. The crowd was also pretty rowdy. I’m so thankful my kids don’t know foul language because when they do hear it they don’t even flinch b/c they don’t know it’s a word they shouldn’t hear. I did get uncomfortable with how one guy was clearly wasted and acting out too much so we headed back to the room but we enjoyed the show!
We found a spot on the grass when walking back to watch a little bit longer since we were out of the way of the loud people 😉
It was such a great 4th and somehow we all were still able to sleep even with the fireworks going all night long 🙂
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