Post-Vacation Check In!

Hey friends!!

Happy Tuesday!!

We got back from vacation this past Sunday evening and I thought it would be fun to share a little bit about our trip!!

We started planning a little beach vacation on Tybee Island (off the coast of Georgia) for just our family back in January and we have been looking forward to it ever since!

Since Aaron and I have been married, we have always taken our summer vacations with either my extended family or his family. Which has always been SO fun!! 

And while we are so grateful for all the super fun vacations we have been on- we decided we wanted to go on a trip "just us." I have so many fond childhood memories of my family taking summer trips and I wanted to create those same memories for our kiddos!

We rented the CUTEST little beach cottage through a local realty group on Tybee Island called Mermaid Cottages. Our cottage was ADORABLE (you can see it HERE) and the whole staff at Mermaid Cottages was just SO nice and helpful. I would HIGHLY recommend going through them if you ever plan a trip to Tybee Island!

Our goal for this vacation was just to have A LOT of fun....doing a whole lot of just hanging out and enjoying the beach. And that's exactly what we did!

The boys were up SUPER early every morning...so Aaron and I would fill up our to-go coffee cups and we would all walk to a cute little park just a couple of blocks from our cottage. After a good hour of playing...we would head back to our cottage, have breakfast and then get ready to go to the beach!

We went to the beach every day- we were SO lucky to have amazing weather every single day we were there!

Our kids LOVE the ocean. Which makes me so happy- because the beach is my FAVORITE place!

Just had to share a Walmart find- we bought this Ozark Trail beach wagon while we were on vacation (YES- even on vacation- you can find me at Walmart. HA!) and we really like it! We had been researching buying a "higher end" beach wagon off of Amazon- but in the end just decided to go with this one. It is $59.00, which is 1/2 the price of the ones we were looking at getting. It holds all of our beach gear and maneuvered through the sand really well!

If you are looking for a beach wagon- or just more of a utility wagon for the pool or long days at the ball park...I would check this one out!

Another fun "budget" find that we used every day on our vacation is this "soft" cooler by the Aldi brand Adventuridge. We picked up this cooler on a whim when we were getting groceries for our trip and it ended up being a HUGE winner! I have never seen the Yeti soft cooler in person- but just from looking at pictures- this one seems very similar. I have no way to compare the two of the them- but I will say this cooler is awesome, it's lightweight, holds A LOT of stuff and kept all of our things VERY cold. We got it for $14.99!!! 

A TOTAL steal!!

If you have an Aldi in your town...I would definitely see in your store has these coolers!!

Other than spending most of our time at the beach, we went on a few adventures, including going to the Tybee Island Marine Science Center, getting yummy coffee drinks from Tybee Art and Coffee Bar, and checking out several cute little shops including Latitude 32 and Seaside Sisters. We took a fun, early morning trip into Savannah to get donuts at Rise Biscuits and Donuts and go for a walk along the riverfront!  

We cooked all of our meals at our beach cottage except for one night, when we enjoyed a very fun dinner out at a beautiful oceanfront restaurant called, The Deck!

It really was such a wonderful trip! 

Of course, it should go without being said, along with all the fun we had, we also had a few tantrums, not very much sleep due to little Marshall and James waking up in the middle of the night and then waking up before 5 am every morning and several moments of some super "special" attitudes from 3 little girls who shall remain nameless. HA!

I tell you what- even in the midst of some of the crazier moments we had- all I could feel was GRATEFUL! It has been a long time coming for us to be able to take a family vacation together and I am just SO grateful for the time we got to spend with each other and all of the precious, amazing memories we created!!

I am already thinking our next beach vacation for next summer! 

Now to just figure out where we should go!?!

Hope you have the BEST day!!