The Journey of Parenthood…

Cocoa Beach Spring Break Day 1

For Christmas I got Zach surf lessons down in Cocoa Beach! He loved surfing so much in Hawaii that I thought he’d enjoy getting a chance to fine tune his natural skills 🙂 

We decided to stay at the same place we stayed at for fall break back in October. I love visiting new places, but when it comes to traveling with kids…I really, really love returning to places that we are familiar with. Knowing the accommodations ahead of time makes packing and planning SO MUCH easier! If you are ever looking for an affordable, family friendly place in Cocoa Beach we have been super happy with Wakulla Suites and will for sure be staying there again in the future!

We headed down on a Sunday. Tess woke up early from her morning nap which worked out really well. I nursed her early and we hit the road. She fell asleep right on time for her 1:00 nap! (3rd kid problems: I keep forgetting to bring a blanket in the car to cover her car seat and help it be darker for her!)

When it was time for her to eat at 3 we stopped and I nursed her. Zach and the kids all went potty and got a little treat at McDonalds. It was such a sweet sight to see. I sat there feeding one baby while watching my others spend quality time with their Daddy. Zach said it was just one of those moments he’ll never forget. Isn’t it funny how those special moments always tend to  happen at random times in random places?

The rest of the ride wasn’t as smooth as the first part. Tess was pretty fussy and just ready to be out of the car! We were all happy when we arrived! I LOVE visiting the Melbourne area. It’s where I’m from originally and where most of my family always lived. It’s like home to me. However, it’s SO annoying that it’s 4 hours away. 3 hours and under are pretty easy with young kids but that 4th hour just is the deal breaker haha! 

We got unpacked and settled in! I was so proud of Kye and Britt. They both unpacked their own suitcases and had everything organized in drawers. 

And made their beds 🙂

I cooked a meal in advance for us to eat that night for dinner. It’s easier on travel days to have dinner in the room! Our favorite travel meal is crock pot cube steak 🙂 We even had time for Zach to run to the store before dinner and grab some Hawaiian rolls which are like a delicacy to our family bahaha. 

With our other kids we’ve always had a high chair that hooks onto the table for travel. It’s worked fine and I wasn’t on a hunt for anything different. But our neighborhood has a Facebook page where people list stuff for sale and someone listed this travel high chair. It looked cool and they were asking $15 for it. I went over to check it out and offered ’em $10 and they took it. Y’all. Best $10 I’ve ever spent! This thing is AWESOME. It folds up into itself and provides a legit high chair for Tess. It’s great b/c it doesn’t take up table space, keeps her from reaching and grabbing our food, and we don’t have to worry if it’ll hook on the table or not! It’s called the Evenflo BabyGo High Chair
and I seriously recommend it!

Speaking of new stuff…I will probably do a separate post about this but I recently switched up how I wear my hair 🙂 I did it like this for the first time the day before our trip and I thought vacation mode was a good chance to work on the technique for the new style!

Hotel Rooms = jump on the bed!

The weekend prior to our trip Tess and Carter spent some time together and then that week they BOTH got fevers and had the same symptoms. It was so weird! Zach took Tess to the dr the Friday before we left and they said it was just a virus and to keep an eye on her. She broke out in a rash on Monday morning while on the trip. Everything I read sounded like she had roseola. I hated for her to be miserable on our vacation!  

During her morning nap I took the big kids down to the beach for some mommy time. I have to say it was one of my favorite parts of the trip! The beach access was part of the hotel but it was a little way down so we jumped in the van! 

Isn’t that photo bomber creepy? It was a lady offering to take a pic for me haha

Our mission was to walk on the beach and find seashells but of course Britt saw the water and just couldn’t pull herself away from it!

I love how different my children are. Kye and I are alike in so many ways and it’s so neat that we bond over those similarities. And then Britt and I are so different in so many ways and it’s so cool how we bond over those differences. I wish I could be a Duggar and have 19 kids just to see them all become their own people and see how different and interesting and awesome they’d all be as individuals! I love how I can see parts of myself in each of my children and I love the unique relationships I have with each of them!

She spent the whole time dancing in the ocean 🙂

And Kye and I spent our time on a seashell hunt 🙂

I HATE when my babies don’t feel good…but I sure do love the snuggles they give!

You can also tell in this picture that one of Tess’s eyes gets a little puffy and smaller when she’s sick. So pitiful! 

We were excited to go to Bagel World for lunch but got there and they were out of bagels. Ugh. We ended up eating lunch at a random Dunkin Donuts. We didn’t have time to go somewhere else because we needed to be back for Zach’s surf lesson! He headed out at 12:30 and had a 2 hour lesson from 1-3. 

I had the big kids split up so Britt slept in their room, Tess was in our closet, and Kye was in our bed. I really wanted to take a nap myself so I did something I’ve NEVER done before…I cuddled up with Kye in our bed and took a nap. He actually didn’t sleep at all but I was OUT. It was so sweet to feel him scratching my bag and snuggling with me. 

Now that I have three kids it’s hard for me to truly focus on each one all the time. My goal for this trip was to make sure I had a special moment with each of them. A favorite memory with each child. My nap with Kye was my favorite memory with him 🙂 He said it was the highlight of his trip too! Precious boy!

After Zach got back we headed to the beach! We packed the kids dinner to eat a beach picnic and just took our time playing and enjoyed the beautiful weather! I was a little nervous that it would be cold being the last weekend in March. The water was chilly but not as bad as I’d expected and the kids didn’t mind it at all! We were also staying in a family friendly area and didn’t have any issues with Spring Breakers. The weather was seriously amazing! I love the beach any time of the year but now especially love it in the “off seasons” of Spring and Fall! We had awesome weather back in Oct and again this trip as well. 

Last summer I found some boogie boards on clearance and grabbed them for the kids. They were SO excited to have their own boards for the trip and Kye is hardcore into some boogie boarding! I’m so glad we have a couple more beach trips planned for this summer!

This cracks me up. This is the “omg my sister is so annoying” face 😉

I was a bit nervous about Tess being in the sun at all with her rash. I remember when Kye was a baby and had a rash that they told me it’s SUPER important to keep them out of the sun because it can cause scarring. Her rash was no where near as bad as Kye’s was (remember?!?! Ugh it hurts me to see that baby covered with that awful thing!) but I still wanted to be careful. I covered her in sunscreen and stuck to the shade the whole time we were out!

Even though she had the rash she was fever free and acting more like herself!

Britt is needing a 4T bathing suit but the bottoms in them are SO baggy. It cracks me up! The 3T is too short and too low on her chest but the 4T is too baggy in the rear. I pick baggy rear over revealing chest 😉

I took Tess down to the water and while I was watching the kids play a group of college age guys all walked by. You know you are 30 and have 3 kids when a group of early 20 year old dudes walks past and not one of them take a second glance. Sad day for the ego haha. Oh but don’t worry. Within minutes this dude came cruising on by and totally upped my self esteem (sarcasm). I love how my husband knew what was going down and took pics of it happening hahah

My “omg did you see that guy?” face bahaha

Twins haha

Happy Baby!

Zach and I waited to eat until after kids went to bed and the kids loved having a beach picnic for dinner!

Loading up the car with three kids from the beach is a job for sure…my camera got dropped in the process and so a picture was necessary to make sure it still worked 😉 nikon needs to make a life proof case!

Zach took the big kids to the pool to play a little bit (they skipped bath) and I bathed Tess in the sink of the kitchen area. There is just something SO CUTE about a baby bathing in a sink to me?!?!

I loved loved loved ending the day with my sweet baby cuddles!

Emily Parker
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