Jacksonville Trip Part 2: St. Augustine and NYE (December 31)

Our second day in Florida, we opted to take a little roadtrip down to St. Augustine.

It was a short 45 minute drive down, and we were there in no time!

We made our way to the little shops and had fun doing a little shopping - even the boys did!





We stopped for some gelato at this little place, which was so yummy!

♥

Love these people ♥


We found this little coffee shop just before getting to the crossing to the parking lot for the fort, and when I stepped inside, Cashel followed me in and said, "My Mom needs coffee!" lol

Gotta love a mirror selfie lol

Goodness, I just love this woman so much! She has been such a great support to me! Can I say it enough? No?
I can keep gushing... ;)


Gifts for the kiddos back home? Check!

This was right before we told the boys that we could walk around the fort, but not go in it. Lauren had planned a little party back home for 5, and we couldn't do the fort and still make it home in time, so...

At this point, there were some sour faces.

"Why did you get my hopes up just to let them down?" We are quite obviously the WORST!



Still a little sour, but still not too sour for a picture.

We had no trouble getting down to FUN when we got back to the house! In fact, the immediate plea upon hopping on the plane the next day was for Cashel to get a hoverboard when we got home lol

The kids thoroughly enjoyed the fireworks, and quite frankly, it made me wonder: Why on earth do we only celebrate holidays with fireworks in the middle of the summer, when the sky doesn't get dark until like 9:30pm? It makes SO much more sense to have them when it's 5pm when it gets dark, and the kids can enjoy them without having complete meltdowns!


I'm fairly certain the kids had a good time as well ;)

We ended the evening with a roaring fire while the kids jumped on the trampoline and ran around the yard.

Jammied up and ready for bed! What a fun, full day!

Jacksonville Trip Part 1: Traveling and Day 1 (December 30)

As I mentioned in my December "Lately in Windom" post, I got the big boys tickets to go with me to Jacksonville to visit our dear friends the Rowans family. I wasn't thinking too clearly when I booked the 5:20am flights for the morning after family Christmas down in Iowa, but we managed just fine.

We took the 3am shuttle to the airport, and these two were all smiles, and Cashel was SUPER chatty. I tried really hard to explain to him that people likely don't really feel like talking at 3am, but he persisted.

It was the first time either of them actually remember going through security, and, by FAR, the easiest experience I've had going through security with kids in tow!

FAR too early for selfies, but here we are!

Ready to get to the beach!

It isn't often these guys get their tablets for longer than 2 hours each day of the weekend, but for the trip, we made an exception, and they were THRILLED.

It gave me the opportunity to meal plan for an entire month...

The flight was just long enough for us to feel the need to stretch our legs, and we had a good hour and a half in Atlanta. Our next flight was out of a different terminal, so the kids were SUPER excited to take the shuttle.

SO grown up!

We grabbed some smoothies and settled in for flight #2! On this particular flight, I got to read 3 chapters of an actual book, which is a pipe dream these days! It was just a little puddle jumper flight, and then...

...we were in Jacksonville!

We grabbed our luggage easy enough, then went outside to wait for Lauren and the kiddos to pick us up!

We wasted zero time in getting ready to hit the beach! It felt SO nice to be able to wear shorts and tanks!

I figured it'd be too cold to actually go in the ocean, so I didn't pack the boys any swim trunks, but apparently it was PERFECT weather for the beach (mid-70s lol), so we had to swing by so I could pick some up for them. Then, it was time to get out there!

It was just the perfect day!

Man, do I ever love this woman! She had a rough year, as she said goodbye to her husband Tim, who was taken by FTD in early September. But I LOVE seeing her living and moving forward with strength ("IMUA", as the Hawaiian people would say).

It was so great to see my boys enjoying themselves so much!



Cashel found this cool little squishy thing that we couldn't figure out what it was. We thought at first maybe a sea turtle egg or something, but as it turns out, it was actually a sea cucumber. Crazy, huh?

These four...oh man, did they have fun!



Although we had been up at unmentionable hours, this was an A+ day for sure!

After the beach, we went right on over to dinner with some other friends we've met through FTD for dinner at Safe Harbour a short jaunt down the coast.



SOOOOOOO yummy! Fresh seafood is my favorite!

The kids had so much fun playing with their friends...so much so that it was hard to pin them down to eat!

Becky and Shelly are another sweet couple ravaged by FTD. I've communicated with Shelly a few times via Marco Polo, but this was the first time meeting her! She's one of a dozen FTD spouses I've met so far in this journey, and I mean it when I say I've yet to meet one who I don't feel like I've known for years. I hate this disease and what it has done to families across the world.

I hate that we had to ever meet, but the silver lining of FTD is that we did. ♥