We live to tell the tale...the tale of surviving our first beach trip as a family of 4 with our 2 littles. Littles that are 17 months apart. At the time of this trip, Cal just turned 2 and Addie, 8 months. What a time! Let's get into it shall we.

Here is what you will find!

• Travel Options - Flight or Drive?
• First Day - Arriving to the House, Room Assignments with Littles, Unpacking, Dinner
• Second Day - Travel to Beach (and complications), Dinner Reservations at Old Florida Fish House
• Third Day - Travel to Beach again (a bit better, less complications), Date Night Dinner Reservations at Cafe Thirty-A
• Fourth Day - Guys played Golf, Gals walked around and went to the Pool, Birthday Celebration in PCB
• Last Day - Breakfast in 30A, Travel Home Day! 

​Congratulations! Or rather congratulations to your friend that just had a baby! You might be thinking, I cannot wait to see him/her, hold, and cuddle that new little bundle of joy. But hold up right there sis/bro/grandma/grandpa/aunt/uncle/neighbor/stranger on the street. If you've never been in this situation before (or maybe you have) and you're wondering "what can I even do for the new parents?" This is for you. I've listed out some DOS and DONTS when your friend has just had a baby! 

Recently we took a trip to Disney World in Orlando, FL with our (soon to be) 12 month old. It was about a week or so before his birthday! It was April and it was HOT. It was actually very abnormally hot for this time in April but you just never know how it'll be so we needed to come prepared! Plus being 4.5 months pregnant! 

I'm a milestone person as I've said before. Birthdays should be celebrated! It's another year, you've made it! And for me, this year, it was a BIG one. Wow, my big 3-0. I can't believe it. Not only that, it's my golden birthday! 

If you've never heard of a "golden birthday", it's just a fun little saying when the date of your birthday lines up with the year you are turning. So, really you can only have a golden birthday up to year 31. Anything under 21 is probably not celebrated as largely so really you're probably only in luck if the date of your birthday is between 21-31. For me, it lined up so we figured we'd celebrate! 

At first I wasn't sure what I wanted to do or if we'd do anything but after some more thought, I said yes! Let's do it.

My husband and I love historic old buildings, beautiful scenery, and learning about history. I'm not a fan of the cold and with my birthday in November; it can be sometimes hard to figure out. We both have been to Charleston, SC before but never together. See, we both went for our bachelor and bachelorette parties but not together and certainly wasn't a trip that we used for exploration haha. So, we used this excuse to go together finally and we brought out 7 month old, Cal, with us! 

We took this opportunity to see many of the "Notebook" staples as well. You'll see all that reflected below.

​The Itinerary 

Now that I've had some time to recover and my little one is now 3 months old, I have had some time to really think of the most used items I used in my first couple of weeks during postpartum. I always use the notes app on my phone and this is what I wrote down in my most tired state of being in those first 4 weeks! 

Of course, there's the obvious things or what I thought would be obvious, like:

• Bassinet
• Crib
• Stroller
• Baby Camera Monitor
• Baby Wrap or Carrier
• Pump (if breastfeeding)
• Diapers
• Wipes

However, some folks just go straight into a pack and play versus a bassinet or directly into a crib which can be totally normal too. It's all up to you and how you want to set up the sleep environment for you and the new baby in your life! We opt'd to start in the bassinet and then work up to the crib. 

It happened! I had a baby. It's been a while since I last talked to you, obviously. But I went through a whole 9-10 months growing our sweet boy and he has finally arrived! I have never really understood, am I to say "we" had a baby, or "I". I don't know, I mean it did take two of us to make this happen and my husband helped out tremendously while I was pregnant so I have no problem with calling "us" pregnant but when it came to labor, yeah no, "I" had that baby, haha. 

You didn't ask but I am sharing with you my/our birth story! 

It all started when I was around 38 weeks pregnant. I went into my weekly appointment and I was 2 cm! I was super excited but tried to not get too excited for I heard and knew, especially for first time moms, that you can stay 1-3cm for weeks on weeks! And that's similar to what I did. 

The next day, I was feeling around the same but a little better. Just kept trying to drink my water and paying attention to how I was feeling and how my body felt. I was still in pain but I just didn't think it was time yet. It wasn't bad enough to where I wasn't able to speak or move so I figure, we were all doing alright! I just remember being on my back porch in so much pain, It's hard to explain BUT in an effort to keep moving, I  joined my husband on the golf course to walk the course to really try to get this moving. I joked because apparently, that's what my parents did as well for one of her pregnancies. ​

Oh mm gee! A wedding, how exciting! I am a GUEST at a wedding, what the! I know it's crazy right. The last time we went to a wedding was December 2019. COVID took the biggest toll on weddings, as we know, I don't need to say it again but seriously, a year and a half! Of course though, I've been to weddings. I go to weddings every weekend, but not as a guest. It was nice to finally be able to switch my work shoes for dancing shoes!

I thought this would be the PERFECT time to revisit
​what you should not do as a wedding guest

1. Disrespect the venue or staff
2. Be on your phone during the ceremony
3. Switch or move your seat
4. Bring a gift
5. Try to take the microphone
6. Wing a speech 
7. Talk, move, during the first dances and toasts
8. Arrive late
9. Arrive early
10. Don't wear anything white
11. Leave the ceremony after the wedding party
12. Ask the caterer to make you something different
13. Do not start a line dance
14. Make any sort of announcement
15. Tell the bride and groom something is wrong
16. Bring a "plus one" when you were not given a plus one
17. Not take the wedding favor

Devon and I bought our first home in April 2019. We were so excited to be able to make this place "ours". We could do whatever we want without permission. We could paint, pick out our own washer and dryer, change out the blinds (because apparently that's a thing), even change our light fixtures, which we did. And is also a whole other story in which I also had a LARGE learning lesson on that. Large learning lesson, Say that three times fast. Or how about every day for a whole year. 

Another part we were pretty excited about is hanging stuff. I mean, that is a massive part of turning a house into a home. Photos of your family, your marriage, your dogs, whatever you want. Other items that require hanging could be decor pieces like a sign, or a massive clock that has sat on your open-concept living/dining/kitchen floor for six months. Not to mention, your giant TV that you have never mounted in your life because your actually scared shitless. Luckily, we got some help with that one. Hanging "stuff" just feels like the next step up, you know? It is the, "I'm an adult, I bought this house with my money, and now I don't have to worry about my landlord yelling at me for holes in the wall". While that might be true, the yelling thing still stands holy. It might not be your landlord yelling, only now it's your spouse. You guys, hanging shit is not all it's cracked up to me. There's measuring involved, something called "dry-wall anchors", nails, screws, screwdrivers, hammers, levels, AHHHH. I'm going crazy over here. 

When I first told my husband I wanted to throw a party at our house, he told me I was crazy. There's no way we could throw a dinner party at our little shotgun home. It's too small, we don't have a large enough table, and what will we cook! Well honey, lookey here! Some of that was definitely true; our house is small, we have no formal dining room; Our table was a fold out table that sat 4 people if we moved it out from the wall. We are not great cooks either, Devon is much better than I am for sure. 

My birthday was the weekend after Thanksgiving this year. Naturally, you would think of having a friends-giving get together either the weekend before or the weekend after. I figured people would be so tired of having turkey and dressing when it came time for Saturday. Why not think out of the box a little, what about a friends-giving/birthday brunch! Is that a long enough name for that or what? Perfect!

We invited our close family and friends no really even sure who would even be in town. I believe we had about 12-14 people in our house enjoying an unseasonable warm November morning with breakfast casserole, meatballs, apple pie, biscuits and gravy, pumpkin rolls, sausage, bacon, mimosas, and bloody Marys! 

​Here's how we did it at our house!

Table -
we used an 8 foot table I borrowed from work but you can usually rent these at a local party rental place for under $20

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We also used our real dining table for the buffet (which we ended up having to use our kitchen island part for seating and overflow buffet space). Lastly, we used our living room credenza for the drink station. 

Table set-Up
This was one of my favorite parts of planning this brunch. I started finding inspiration on Pinterest of different styles, patterns, and designs for table decor. It was comprised of grey table linen, black cloth napkins, wicker chargers, white dinner and salad plate, silver and black flatware. Along with small fake white and orange pumpkins, gold glass lanterns, one large flameless candles, gold mercury votives with tea lights, and a buffalo plaid table runner! 

Linen
The table linen used was actually linen we used from our wedding. It was grey and was perfect with the table runner, napkins, and other buffet decor. It's from an online wholesale store and super cheap and not bad material either, classic polyester. For an 8ft table, you will need a 90x132.