family: vacation tips with kiddos

Before going on our vacation, I looked on Pinterest for ideas and tips for making vacation time with kiddos easier and more enjoyable for everyone. So I have put together this post to share a few of my favorite ideas for vacationing with the little ones. I hope you find them useful!

In the car...

- Bring entertainment. I packed a bucket of fun for the girls. It was filled with snacks, lollipops, games, batteries for the games, notepads, crayons, markers, and stickers. I would only give them one thing at a time so each time I gave them a new item it was exciting and fun. I didn't start giving them anything from the bucket until I could tell they were bored or getting antsy... or starting to cry or argue with each other. This bucket will be your traveling buddy in the car. Julianna was occupied for almost an hour with a little notepad, a couple of crayons, and a book of stickers. Olivia played with a deck of Old Maid cards for almost that long too. My girls are two and four so they enjoy many of the same things so I just had one basket. If you have children with ages that are further apart or they have different interests, you could make a basket for each child. I found the basket at the Dollar Tree and during the year I save birthday gifts or kids meal prizes for when we need something new to do.

- Music. Be sure to have some sort of kid-friendly music readily available to play. My girls are instantly happy when they hear their favorite tunes. 

On the beach...
- Mesh laundry basket for toys. I saw this one on Pinterest and it's just genius. Buy a cheap mesh laundry basket from the Dollar Tree or Wal-Mart to tote beach toys. The sand just falls through the holes and you don't end up carrying {as much} sand back to your hotel or house.

- An inflatable baby pool. My girls like the water but only if mommy or daddy are right with them. Filling an inflatable baby pool with ocean water gives kiddos the freedom to enjoy the water in a safe and more comfortable setting while still on the beach. My girls went crazy over this! They loved being able to splash and play without being scared of the waves. I bought this little pool for less than $10 at Big Lots.

- Other necessities. An umbrella to shades the babes are they play on the beach. We set ours up right over the baby pool. Sunscreen and lots of it. Snacks- my girls love Gold Fish and fruit snacks as a special treat. Water bottles and juice boxes are super handy too. You don't have to worry about sand getting into the spout of your sippy cup... which happened to us too many times last year on the beach. Lots of toys! We brought some but lucked out by finding a Dollar Tree a few minutes from where we were staying. 

In the hotel/house...

- Make it like home. Bring all of their favorite things such as stuffed animals, blankets, pillows, and sheets. The more like home it feels, the better the littles will sleep. Keep your bedtime routine as similar as it is at home as possible. A good night's sleep makes the whole family enjoy the trip more.

- Nap. I'm usually pretty strict when it comes to my kids napping at home. Julianna is 4 and doesn't need much of a nap, just at least an hour of quiet time and rest. When she doesn't get that relaxation, she isn't a nice person the rest of the day. So grumpy. Olivia is 2 and still needs a good 2 hour nap each afternoon. We skipped nap one day and completely regretted it. Whiny and crying kids at dinner. It wasn't pleasant at all! The next day, we made sure that they laid down for some rest, at least an hour and the rest of our day was so much better for everyone. I like naps for myself too.

- More entertainment. A rainy day at the beach is better than a rainy day at home but they still need things to keep them busy. The bucket of fun also came in handy when we were stuck in our hotel room during Hurricane Arthur during our vacation. My kids also ended up playing with the beach toys inside too {hello, sandy mess} so next year I'll bring more rainy day toys but hopefully we won't plan our vacation at the same time as a hurricane plans to visit.

And my biggest tip of all... take lots of pictures!

I annoy my husband and my kids sometimes by constantly snapping photos. But I can't help myself. I love taking pictures and looking back at them later. Candid moments are my favorite and the picture below is of my sweet girls holding hands on the beach. It will forever be a treasured photo of mine. 

Happy Vacation!

fashion: vacation style

Vacation style is so much fun. My suitcase was packed with tank tops, shorts, and dresses. I only took flip flops and two other pairs of shoes and a few accessories. I wore lots of color and pattern. It was such a fun trip to the OBX! Check out my vacation looks:

// shorts // shirt // hat {similar} //

// sandals // bracelet // necklace {similar} //

// shorts {similar} // tank // purse //

// pink bracelet // sandals //

// dress {similar} // necklace // pearl bracelet //

// shirt // shorts //

// anchor tank // dot tank {similar} //

// watch // shorts {similar} //

// dress //

// tank // shorts {similar} //

// sunglasses {similar} // flip flops //

// shorts // tank //

family: vacation 2014

Wow! What a vacation we had! It was full of new adventures and so many fun memories. We left Tuesday and our drive was going great until we hit something in the road it popped one of our tires. We were thankfully safe and able to get to the side of the road. Two awesome strangers stopped to help Josh change the tire to the spare and even offered to lead us to a repair shop to get a new tire. The repair shop was in the middle of nowhere but they were so kind and friendly. I got a new tire and we were on our way within 25 minutes. We were amazed at the kindness shown to us. We arrived in Buxton, North Carolina only an hour later than planned and a sweet lady offered to take our picture. 

As soon as we arrived, the hurricane talk was all around us. We tried to do as much as possible in Buxton on Wednesday because of the Hurricane Arthur. I took a beautiful beach walk, we spent a couple of hours enjoyed the beach, and we visited Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. That evening we were informed that Hatteras Island was being evacuated and we would have to leave Thursday morning. Such sad news because we were so looking forward to staying in Buxton. After the girls went to sleep, we called tons of places to find a room on the Outer Banks for the rest of our trip. After an hour, we were finally successful. 

We spent the rest of our vacation in the Nags Head/Kill Devil Hills area. Hurricane Arthur was also supposed to make an impact here but not as bad as Hatteras. When we arrived, we visited the beach before the storm was supposed to roll in. It was quite foggy over the water and the waves were strong. We were standing on the beach and I saw a stingray wash up right beside Josh's feet. With a crowd around him, he successfully helped the stingray return to the water. It was pretty amazing.

The hurricane came through Thursday night while we were sleeping. I actually didn't hear anything from our room. The next morning was incredibly windy and many of the local attractions were closed down. But we enjoyed some relaxation in our room and got bacon donuts. After nap time, the storm had passed and the sun was shining. The storm wasn't as bad as predicted in our area and we were so thankful. We were even able to squeeze in some beach time on the 4th! For dinner, we went to the most kid friendly restaurant in the area. They had a backyard area with a playground and the girls absolutely loved it. When we got back to our hotel, we went out to the beach to see some fireworks that were being set off since the ones the city were doing were postponed. The staff at the hotel were actually setting them off right on the beach where we were. We laid on the beach and the fireworks were right above our heads. Such a cool experience!

Friday was Josh's 30th birthday! To celebrate he bought this crazy hat and silly sunglasses. The morning of his birthday, one of the hotel staff members put a candle in a danish and sang happy birthday to him. We spent some time on the beach during the morning and then headed out for fun in the afternoon. We visited Jockey's Ridge. I have been to the OBX many times but I have never actually went out on the dunes. It is an amazing experience and so breathtaking. We booked Josh's 30th birthday gift: a ride in a stunt plane over Roanoke Island.

We ended our last day with fun and adventure. Josh got to the ride in this stunt plane. They did all sorts of tricks and he was even able to drive the plane for a little bit. He loved the experience. Afterwards we visited the aquarium and the girls enjoyed it so much. The sea turtles were my favorite thing there. So beautiful. We also stopped at the Elizabethan Gardens before we hit the road. It was gorgeous and it was a relaxing experience to wander through the gardens- it even put Olivia to sleep.

We had a wonderful drive by home and we are happy to be home. I love vacationing but there's nothing like your own bed. We are so blessed to have been able to take such an amazing vacation!