The weekend kicked off on a great note for me when I headed off to Orlando with my friend Kaitlyn to spend the day with Laurel, one of our best friends from college. Longtime blog readers may remember Kaitlyn and Laurel as they made frequent appearances on the blog when we lived in Orlando!
We’ve all been friends for 18+ years and it felt like such a treat to be able to celebrate Laurel’s 36th birthday with her! I also finally met her second little boy who is only 6 weeks younger than Rhett. It’s wild, but my best friends from college and I have had 10 boys between us and not a single girl. What are the odds!?
Our visit was too short (as they always are) but it was so, so nice for the three of us to be able to catch up in person after not seeing each other for well over a year.
Saturday
On Saturday we had only one thing on the agenda: Beach tiiime!
(My bikini top + bikini bottoms / Sunglasses / Hat / Ryder’s rash guard)
My brother-in-law is the master of the beach setup and he and Ryan put up a big tent for some shade for our crew. The comfortable space coupled with mostly overcast weather made our beach day last 5+ hours. It was awesome!
My 5-month-old niece Colette gave the space two thumbs up based on the quality of the shade + towels for her morning nap.
Rhett, on the other hand, refuses to nap anywhere other than his crib so we were incredibly grateful for my parents’ offer to take over the nap trap and have him nap at their place before my mom brought him back out to play with our gang once he woke up.
We passed our time at the beach by helping the big kids hunt for fish and mole crabs and had quite the oceanic habitat going in the boys’ catch-and-release aquarium before the day was over.
For anyone with little ones who love creatures and have a beach trip on the agenda this summer, I cannot recommend this little aquarium enough. It’s sturdy and our boys always want to bring it to the beach!
We stayed at the beach until the late afternoon and transitioned to the pool for a bit before making our way back into my parents’ place.
(My kids won’t sleep on me anymore but at least Colette will!)
The rest of our Saturday looked like penne pasta for dinner, dance parties with the kids and a lizard walk before bed. My parents also had a concert on their agenda for the evening proving that they are officially way cooler than we are these days since I was ready to faceplant into bed with my book by the end of the day.
Sunday
On Sunday morning, we kicked off the day with yet another lizard walk.
We’ve been here just over a week and I’m a little surprised all of the lizards in this area aren’t diving under bushes and out of sight the minute they hear us step outside. Chase and Ryder are lizard hunting machines!
(Shorts / Tank Top / Flip Flops)
After our lizard walk and breakfast, we made our way back out to the beach and pool where we stayed until the skies opened up and we dashed inside to avoid the rain.
The rest of our Sunday was a bit of a lazy day since most of the kids needed longer naps. We made the most of our Sunday and just hung out at my parents’ place while the cousins napped off and on and played inside before we headed back down to the beach for an hour right before dinner.
Once we were done with dinner and the boys were in bed, we hung out with my parents and I spent some time working before calling it a night.
Aaand now I’m off to get this Monday rollin’. I hope you all have a great week and I’ll do my best to pop in with another blog post when I can!
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I don’t know why but after going to a beach I feel like I feel so liberated. Thanks for reminding me of that feeling.
Is the Michael Stars tank really baggy? Zappos says it is one size, 0 to 12. Any issues with it being see through?
Julie you look incredible and are such an inspiration!
After the birth of my first son, I joined a moms group, and there were three other women with baby boys. The four of us started hanging out… Fast forward 10 years later, and our get-togethers now include 9 boys and one girl!
I also just realized that two of my best friends from high school and I have 7 boys all together! One of my friend’s mom’s has eight grandsons and no granddaughters! Another mom I know had six sons before her seventh baby was a girl! My aunt has four boys and her oldest just had twins. He and his wife didn’t find out what they were having…they ended up having twin boys!
Where is that pink bathing suit from? Super cute!