Spontaneous Trip to Florida!

We took the most spontaneous, last-minute, throw-stuff-in-the-car-and-GO kind of trip last weekend. The kids had a winter break, which means they were off school all week long, and of course, I'm always dreaming of sunny days. My sister-in-law Lauren texted me and my other sis-in-law Katie and said, "Wild idea - wanna take the kids down to the beach??" We were all like, YES. Lauren has taken like 10,000 church group trips down to the Panama City area over the years, so with her hook up we found a last minute rental that was available. Then we all basically tossed our children into their carseats and HIGHTAILED down to the ocean.

The water was too cold for me, but kids are so resilient! Everett and Daxton had such a blast with their cousins. These kids are the cutest - they really love each other and it brings back such amazing memories that I have of growing up near my cousins.

And I have no idea how I ended up with no pictures of Katie here, except that she must have been avoided my paparazzi eye. She wins mom of the year award, because she toted her kids down to the beach solo while pregnant. #momsohard

Daxton was so much fun at the beach this year! Last year it was a ton of work with him, because he was still so little. But this time around he just crawled everywhere, ate a lot of sand, and really played, with sand toys and everything! It was so much fun to see him coming alive in a new way! Also, he started walking while we were down here. Just another sign from the LORD that the beach is always, always a good idea.

Oh - and we biked! In the same impromptu fashion, we bough a bike trailer while we were down there so we could take both of the boys on the back of our bike and ride to dinner! I've wanted one of these for a while, because I know it will come to good use this year. Everett is learning to ride his bike right now (he's getting really good!), but when we want to take longer rides this is such a great option and you guys - they hold hands while riding. I could just die.

I mean. We weren't having a bad time you guys.

These two just make me laugh SO MUCH. I cannot handle Brent's shenanigans. In all honesty - I lucked out in the in-law department. I love them so much!

Found a purple wall that was incredible. Unfortunately it was a little too dark when we tried to take some pics in front of it - but I love this one of the kids jumping off the ledge!

I think this trip was just so refreshing to my soul because it was just so spontaneous. January was such a crummy month, haha. Everyone in our family dealt with different forms of the flu bug, so we were kind of down for the count. And February was suuuuuper busy for me - my essential oils business has really picked up the pace and I'm still figuring out the "balance" (muahahah the elusive myth - BALANCE!) of how to work and still do all the mom things I love to do. This was actually a really busy week for me, when we decided to come down to the beach, but I figured that working with an ocean view is still way better than not! Plus Stevie was able to take a few days off and it was really great for all of us to be together down there.

It makes me want to simplify our travel - less planning time meant bringing way less stuff and it was easier to make decisions when we were down there - pb & j for lunch because that's all we've got! This ONE tube of sunscreen because that's all we brought! This ONE bathing suit - because that's all we grabbed when we packed!

Simplicity and spontaneity. I think they might be my new love languages. xx