Last week, my family took a week long vacation to Florida and then on a cruise to the Bahamas! The Royal Caribbean’s Enchantment of the Seas cruise ship did not disappoint. We had so much fun! I was so worried about Hampton’s cast getting wet or worse – sand in it. Luckily, my husband is a Jedi Google Master and found an amazing cast cover at a surgical supply store in Jacksonville! Hampton was able to swim, and take baths. He was so happy and it made the trip really enjoyable!

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #TwizzlersSummer #CollectiveBias

We are officially 14 days away from our cruise! We are actually leaving a couple of days earlier to visit my grandmother in Florida where I will be spending my birthday! I can’t tell you how excited I am to have this week long vacation. It is so needed. 

I have been sort of dreading making the 7 hour drive to my grandmother’s house with our two babies. Mostly Hampton, because we can’t keep him still. I’m so scared he will be miserable that long in the car. After thinking about it, I decided to put together a travel activity bucket to keep him busy while we are on the road.

My friend and I ran to Walmart after our lunch date last week and grabbed some fun things I thought would keep Hamp busy in the car. In addition to a coloring book, stickers, and games, I also thought it would be fun to add one of our favorite family snacks – Twizzlers Twists. I also threw in some rainbow twists for fun! 

Here is what to put in an activity bucket for your summer road trips:

Coloring Book – This will keep them busy for a while. All kids love to color!

Games – We love to play all sorts of games in the car. Including some little hand held games for your toddler will help keep him occupied.

Snacks – I threw in one of my favorite snacks that we can all enjoy as a family! Twizzlers Twists have been my road trip choice for years and I can’t wait to share that tradition with my son. Snacks are always a great thing to have on hand with children. They get hungry and it’s not fun when you aren’t prepared for that.

Books – My son loves to read, and for that I am thankful. Reading books can keep him occupied for a few minutes at a time and they can also be educational, so it’s a win/win!

Your bucket doesn’t have to be complicated. Just think of things that will keep your child occupied and try to get several different things so that when they get bored with one, they can easily move on to another. Having an activity bucket will also help limit their screen time, which is something badly needed this day in time! Don’t forget to sing songs and make pit stops so the kids can stretch their legs for a bit. That will also help break up the trip.

Twizzlers Twists remind me of my childhood summers. We used to eat them all the time. I remember always stopping on our road trips to grab some snacks and they would always be my go-to. 


What would you include in your activity bucket? Twizzlers Twists remind me of my childhood, do they bring back memories for you, too?

Ryan travels to Washington D.C. several times a year with his job. Although I have been to the city before, I have never been with him. I’m determined to go with him after the baby is born. I have been so excited about visiting our nation’s capitol again that I am already planning our trip. Of course, I would like to visit the monuments and museums, but I really want to spend more time touring the city itself. Vimbly is one of the websites I have been using to find things to do and places to see and it has shown me that there is much more to DC than the typical tourist stops.

I thought the monument tour looked really great and being the chocolate lover that I am, I’d love to go on the chocolate tour. As far as food is concerned, the possibilities are endless! Did you know you can go on a Gelato factory tour? Yes, it may be the pregnancy cravings talking, but yum. I don’t turn down gelato.

Vimbly has made it extremely easy to plan our entire trip to D.C.  They operate in 18 major cities across the U.S. and are expecting to establish a national presence this year. It has helped me tremendously in finding great restaurants and date ideas. Be sure to check out all of the incredible classes, food, tours and more going on in your city!

We are welcoming a new year tomorrow. I love this time of fresh starts and new beginnings, opportunities and for us, we are going to welcome a sweet baby girl into our lives. It is an exciting time. Here are 15 goals I look forward to completing this year:

– Complete the Love Your Body Series and #100byVDay (it starts tomorrow!).

– Read 15 books

– Save $1,500.00

– Improve my photography with my NEW CAMERA!!

– Travel as much as possible.

– Read through the bible.

– Sell our house

-…and buy a new one.

– Try 15 new recipes.

– Organize and set up Hampton’s big boy room. and organize and re-decorate our little girl’s room.

– Brush up on my French. I just bought a couple of books to help me get started!

– Take more pictures. I already take so many, but there have still been times I regretted not taking any.

– Clean out our closet.

– Blog productively.

– Make new friends and spend more time with my old friends. Friends are everything (along with family and good food. :))

Well, there you have it! Some of my goals are super easy if I will just get organized. haha This year is sure to be a wonderful exciting time as we welcome our baby girl, travel, and hopefully sell our home. Yes, it is still for sale. Sigh.

Today, tonight and tomorrow, we will be spending time with family and friends while eating more food (Yikes). That LYB challenge is coming at the PERFECT time! I look forward to continuing my exercise journey throughout my pregnancy and the future. My TIU girls have been wonderful in helping me and encouraging me to stick to it. I am so thankful because it has made this pregnancy so much easier than the last.

What are some of your goals for the new year? Do you have big plans tonight?

Happy New Year!

Destin is my favorite beach to visit. No offense to Gulf Shores, but Destin’s waters are so clear (most of the time). I am really funny about getting out in the ocean. I’m not trying to get eaten by a shark. No thanks. This trip, I actually felt comfortable being out there. I could see the bottom of the ocean at shoulder length deep water, so I felt okay about it…until the one day when the life guards ran frantically down the beach blowing their whistles and yelling to get out of the water. It turned out to just be a school of fish. haha It was still exciting, though.

We enjoyed a lot of sun, and food, but my favorite part of the trip was walking on the beach with Ryan and Hampton our last evening there. The sunset was beautiful. I hope to go back to Destin before the summer ends, but I don’t know if it will happen. We will see!

Where have you traveled this summer? Do you have any other trips planned?

To see more photos, follow me on Instagram!

We walked all through downtown and loved seeing all of the buildings. We did a lot of shopping, and I bought my very first Kate Spade bag! I just love my little “”Kate” as I call her. She is beautiful.

Friday morning we woke up early and walked down Bellevue Street because I just had to see Giuliana and Bill’s house! This is it! It was really cool. Their house is only a block away from Lake Michigan so we also walked down by the lake which is so big it looks like the beach. It was really foggy that day.

We ended our trip by one last stop by Millennium Park!

That’s “Kate” at the bean!

Kate touring Chicago. Here are more pictures from my phone:

Ryan and I traveled to Orlando last week for a conference. We stayed at the Gaylord Palms Resort, and let me tell you, it was nice. I seriously felt like I was at a resort in the Caribbean rather than Orlando. Ryan worked most of the trip, although we did have dinner together both nights we were there. I left Hampton with my mom for the first time and it was tough being away from him, but it was really nice to get a break and be able to relax for a couple of days. I read 2 books and lounged by the pool. It was pretty great.

We recently attended an out of town wedding that I was a part of. Of course we brought Hampton along. I love to be efficient with my packing so that I don’t end up taking 15 bags on every trip. Who wants to carry those? Not me. My goal was to pack as little as possible, but still have more than enough for any situation. Here is what I packed in Hampton’ bag:

Baby Spoons
Lots of Zip Lock Bags
Garbage Bag for dirty laundry
Garbage bag for diapers
Diapers
Wipes
Baby Food
2-3 onesies
2 sleepers
Pack ‘n Play (to sleep in)
A few of his favorite toys
Pacifiers
Blanket (to spread on the floor for him to play on)
Travel size Shampoo and Lotion
Baby Towel (optional – the hotels have several so you can save room by not bringing on unless you just want to.)
2-3 nice outfits
Socks
Diaper Bag

There you have it! We were set for the weekend with these items. Hampton did great and we had plenty.

What did you take on your overnight stay with baby? Are you planning any trips this month?

I went to the beach for my cousin’s Bachelorette party this past weekend. When you put us together, there is nothing but fun and good memories in the making. Although it rained most of the weekend, we did get a little beach time in. We shopped till we dropped and ate…and ate and ate.

Once we got to PCB, we went straight to Margaritaville, wore funny balloon hats (I didn’t get a picture of myself, darn) and got our Parrotheads on. I also enjoyed a Cheeseburger in Paradise that was as good as always.

Downtown Jacksonville on the river.

My grandparents live in the best part of Jacksonville, FL.- Jax Beach. We try to go visit them about every other month or so because we love spending time with them and don’t get to see them as often as I would like. My grandmother and I have always been very close. We are very similar in a lot of ways and she is always making me laugh. I also love the city of Jacksonville. It is a big city with a lot of smaller suburbs and it has a beach and a river. Their food is wonderful, the atmosphere is extremely laid back and their stores are on steroids (at least compared to Montgomery’s). We love to go shopping while we are down there because you can always find the best deals.

I won’t get into all of the clothes that I bought because we will be here all day. I will however tell you about the books that I purchased. We stumbled upon a little used bookstore where I bought all of these for $8 + tax. No, I’m not kidding. Most of them were $0.50 a piece! How can you beat that? My mom was agitated surprised to hear that this Christmas entertaining book I found was only $1 when she paid $34.99 for the exact same one. Needless to say, I was pretty pumped about the purchase. They are all in very good condition and look like they’ve hardly been opened. I really wish we had a used book store in Montgomery. I buy most of my books on Amazon because I read too fast to justify spending full price. I recently bought a book that I paid $8.25 for after shipping. It was used on Amazon. When I received the book, I was a bit perturbed because it was in terrible condition and the seller had listed it as “good” condition. Then I flipped it to the back cover…the original cost of the book was $7.50. That’s right. I was not a happy camper, but that’s life. It happens. So having a used book store around would save me from paying too much for a sad looking book. If we stick around here much longer, I may just have to open one. 😉

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