Elyse @ the Beach~Our Family of 3

And back to the Destin trip reports...

Our first 3ish days in Destin were spent with just our family of 3 as my parents weren't able to join us for the first part of our trip.  The first afternoon we didn't have much time but of course we had to take Elyse down to put her feet in the sand for the first time!

1st time in the sand

Momma & her girl

Family photo

This sweet older man stopped us and offered to take our picture...our first family photo at the beach!

Let me tell you, having a baby at the beach or even just having a baby on vacation makes vacations look completely different from what they've been in the past.  Absolutely wonderful, but absolutely different.  

She loved the water!

The first day there was a sand bar a few feet out into the ocean that was perfect for her.  She loved it!

Walking along the ocean...perfection!

Oh how I love this girl!

We got to the beach early to have some time before Elyse's morning nap & then one of us headed up to the condo for naptime while the other stayed at the beach.  The majority of the time Hubby went up as he knows the way to my heart is some uninterrupted time sitting on the beach.  However, a few times Elyse would nap on the beach during the morning since it's always been her shorter nap anyway.  

Napping with daddy...

We'd have an early lunch and all come down again as a family before Elyse's afternoon nap and then one of us would take her back up, give her a quick bath, and relax in the condo.  We had early dinners most nights, not to avoid the crowds, but to give us plenty of time to eat and potentially have time for another quick activity before Elyse's bedtime.  

Dinner out @ Harry T's (not horrible, but definitely not the best meal of our trip!)

Sunset @ the marina

A family photo....so blessed!

 Needless to say, our nights ended pretty early and we were back in the condo by 7:30ish.  However, this gave us plenty of time to relax and honestly it was important that we head to bed early because...

Elyse was a less than marvelous sleeper on our first family vacation.  The first night we attempted the pack-n-play but quickly realized that she was NOT going to be sleeping in there all week.  So...Hubby pulled one of the twin mattresses off one of the beds and lined it with pillows, hoping that would give her more room.  But she wasn't having that either.  She napped perfectly fine on that nice large mattress...but during the nights she spent a lot of time sleeping on the twin mattress with Hubby or back in our bedroom with momma.  Yeah...we were just trying to get whatever sleep we could!

Daddy...are you almost done in the shower so we can go to the beach?

Talking in buckets with Daddy...a new favorite game!

My view...ahhhhh...

Of course we had to dig a hole for her to stand in!

Frameworthy for sure!

Daddy & Elyse during dinner at Grafiti (some good quality Italian food!)

My loves on a walk after dinner

Another gorgeous sunset!

 Thankfully, the reinforcements aka Papa & Gigi arrived on Wednesday morning during Elyse's morning nap. At least now we had 4 people who could share the overnight duties...and trust me, we needed every single one of us!

Weekend Rewind~Fun at the Zoo

It was another pretty fabulous weekend for my precious family of 3.  I had a night to myself on Friday night to celebrate my bestie's birthday.  We went out for Mexican & margaritas and then headed back to one of the girls' houses for a much needed gab fest.  We have been fighting a little bit of a nap battle with Elyse so I was more than ready for a night out. Fish tacos, mango margaritas, and fun with some of my favorite ladies is just what I needed!  

Only 4 of us went out to dinner, but we had a fabulous time...Ashley, Andrea (the birthday girl), Bethany, & myself

On Saturday morning, I had another outing with Andrea.  She normally sells bows, tutus, and other girly things at some of the local craftshows, but this year she decided to take a break.  So instead...we actually went to one of the craft shows & had a blast eating some fun festival food and just hanging out.  We got there early to avoid most of the crowds and ended up getting home right at lunch time.  

I spent the early part of the afternoon hanging out with Hubby, listening to Elyse cry as we continued to fight through the napping issue.  After a long afternoon, we finally gave it up, fed Elyse & headed out for a fun family outing...the zoo!  We are lucky enough to have a pretty great zoo just 20ish minutes from our house & a baby giraffe was just born a few weeks ago.  We knew Elyse wouldn't completely understand or even be able to see a lot of the animals, but we also knew it would entertain her with all the different sights, sounds, & smells.  

Pammy J (the baby giraffe) and her momma!

She was so beautiful!

 

In the beginning the sweet baby was just laying in the corner of their pen...but then decided to do a little showing off!

I think giraffes are just incredible!

Elyse wasn't much into taking pictures...but talked almost our entire way around the  zoo.

I think tigers are so beautiful....the coloring is just amazing.

& these little kangaroos where adorable, not sure if these were joeys or another species, but they were so cute.

Momma, thank you for bringing me to the zoo.  

I'm not sure what all these animals are, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it more when I'm older!

 After the zoo, we headed to one of our favorite local pizza joints:  The Pizza House.  Elyse had her first official cracker and entertained everyone by giving them big toothy grins.  We came home and I baked snacks for small group & did a little bit of laundry while Hubby caught up on the Ryder Cup.  A pretty perfect Saturday with my precious family!

Yesterday we had church and were supposed to be in charge of nursery afterwards, but with only one other kiddo, the other nursery worker told us to head home.  We stopped for a quick lunch of sandwiches and then came home so Hubby could mow the yard & I was hoping to nap while Elyse napped as well.  However, the naptime troubles continued yesterday so the nap was super short.  Hubby's dad came over to watch the end of the Ryder Cup (we can't believe that the US blew such a big lead!) and then we headed out to small group.

I'm actually home from work today...Elyse's nap schedule has been so nonexistent that I decided to take a personal day & try a little different schedule.  Nap #1 was a success...so we'll see how the afternoon goes.  Either way, I'm so thankful for another day home with my baby girl!  She brings such incredible joy to my life!

Elyse @ the Beach--How We Got There...& Back!

Well I think I finally have a few minutes to start our family vacation recaps, but with sleep training in progress there are never any guarantees...

Think we have everything???  Thankfully I don't think we forgot a single thing...except for Hubby's toothbrush!

I think the thing that worried me the most about driving 800 miles to Destin, FL with a 9 month old was the car ride there & back.  She has such a good schedule when we're here at home and I didn't know if we would be able to maintain that schedule on the road.  Would she sleep too much? Would she not sleep at all? What if she wouldn't nurse when we needed her to? What if she wouldn't sleep at night after being in the car?  I was definitely a little stressed.

Carseat check, pacifier check, snacks check...let's go momma!

We stopped for a picnic on our first day for lunch...this was a great idea even if the stop was a little longer than it probably needed to be!

Love these 2!

Playing with momma before we get back on the road!

However, as I should have guessed, all of these concerns were for nothing.  We had told ourselves before we even left that we would take long stops for meals, getting out and going into eat instead of just getting drive through and if needed, we would stop to give Elyse a break.  We scheduled our departure time & meal times to match up with Elyse's schedule as much as we could and if needed one of us rode in the backseat with her and played while she was awake.  This worked pretty fabulous until we were just a few minutes from our stopping point on Saturday night. We had plans to specifically stop at Jackson, MS which was a little over half way, so we could all take a break from the car.  She was definitely tired of the carseat & hungry & we didn't quite have her food ready for her...cue unhappy baby!  However, a little bit of food and she was ready to go.

My car had a little birthday somewhere in Mississippi I think...or maybe it was Alabama...

We drove the rest of the way on Sunday and arrived just after Elyse finished her afternoon nap.  If you were to drive it straight through, it would take approximately 12 1/2 hours to get to Destin from our home in Southwest Missouri...well with a 9 month old & several stops, it took us right at 16 hours total.  I'm definitely not going to complain about that.

More mirrors...this condo unit was perfect for Elyse!

When we came home, we had planned on making the entire trip in one day.  Cue another little stress out moment...however, again we made a plan and decided that we would simply give her a bottle of pumped milk for each of her feedings instead of taking time to stop and nurse her each time.  This worked like a dream.  Each time she woke up we simply pulled off long enough for one of us to hop in the backseat with her and give her her bottle.  This allowed us to get farther down the road much more quickly than taking time for nursing breaks.  Thankfully I was able to pump in the car to relieve myself and this plan seemed to work more easily for everyone.  We left Destin around 5:45 and made it home right about 8:00...we cut 2 hours off our trip and made it home in 14 hours...without any major meltdown from Elyse.

Soon I'll have some actual beach pictures...but all of this to say, you certainly can do long family road trips with babies!

Weekend Rewind~Fall has Arrived!

Well Fall has definitely arrived in our neck of the woods, temperatures over the weekend including highs in the 70s and lows in the upper 40s-low 50s!  I just love throwing open the windows in the house and turning off the a/c...there's just something about the smell of fresh air filling our home. 

 

Friday afternoon Hubby & I were off work because our local town festival was being held this weekend and our office is located right in the middle of everything.  We had plans to have a fun family outing to the zoo...Elyse's first visit!  However, I ended up laying down for a nap, Elyse fought her nap, and Hubby lost track of time installing the child locks on our cabinet.  So...the zoo will just have to wait.  We still headed out for the evening which included dinner at Qdoba (Elyse loves their guacamole!),  a stop at Bed, Bath & Beyond for a wedding gift, and dessert at Orange Leaf.  & by then...Elyse was done!  Time for bed! 

 

Seriously, this picture makes my child looks like she weighs twice what she does!  I hated to even show it, because it doesn't hardly even look like her...but it just cracks me up! 

Saturday morning Elyse & I spent the morning by ourselves while Hubby went & played golf with his dad. We just worked around the house & played while we waited on him to come home.  I did laundry and Elyse followed my every move...unless she wanted to take a moment to show off her new skills! 

Look mom, I pulled up & stood up by the couch all by myself! 

Hubby & his dad got to our house right about lunch time and brought food from a local burger joint!  Yumm!  We had a little while to relax before we headed out for Hubby's cousin's wedding.  I failed to snag any good family photos, but it was a beautiful evening for an outdoor wedding.

Elyse & cousin Jackson...she was not about to let us have her pacifier at this point! 

A little unsure about all the strangers around her!

Going for a walk with daddy...check out those leopard print leggings that Mamaw got her! 



Laughing with Mamaw!

& we tried to get a cousin pic...but it was a challenge!

One with Mamaw...Hunter was determined to hold Elyse! 

 Sunday morning we headed to church and didn't end up getting home until after 7:30 that evening!  After church we met up with my brother & my SIL along with my parents at a local park.  They have a huge pond with lots of ducks and some nice picnic areas.  It was absolutely gorgeous outside and Elyse loved to check out the pond and all the ducks! 

Hanging out with Uncle Nick

Elyse & Aunt Millie

 We gave Elyse dog-duty for a little bit...Josie was at the end of that leash, outside the picture. 

"Josie, Josie...come back!"

Checking out the ducks, the pond, and the rocks! 

After our picnic, we headed over to Mamaw & Pappy's house for a relaxing afternoon.  The guys watched golf with my MIL & I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies and just chatted the afternoon away.  After Elyse's nap, she played & played & played! 

I'm a little nervous, but this girl is going to be walking so soon!

All ready for dinner!

It was a fabulous weekend with gorgeous weather!  & thankfully the gorgeous weather seems like it's going to stick around for awhile!