Our first Disney trip! 2017

In the midst of completing our adoption home study, preparing to send Annalyn to kindergarten and Emma to preschool, we got the pleasure of escaping to Disney World for our first Disney vacation as a family (and first ever for Michael and the girls).  Luckily, we've been planning this trip for years (since I was pregnant with Annalyn and went to Disney with my mom), and it was entirely planned and paid for before we even started our adoption.  Honestly, I still had a hard time with spending any extra money, so we had groceries delivered to us and packed almost all our meals outside of the couple we'd pre-paid for.  This was one time I was so glad that I had planned ahead so far in advance, because we enjoyed every minute of the trip I never would've planned after starting the adoption process.  After promising the girls for years that we would go before Annalyn started school, I'm glad we were able to follow through with it while they are both in the short-lived magical stage.

 

Vacation Cooking Tips

Traveling with kids can be hard.  Traveling with two kids under 4, is hard.  For us, one of the hardest parts of extended travel is eating out.  Not only does it get hard to keep a toddler and preschooler content while confined for that long, but also more expensive and unhealthy compared to eating in.  So you can imagine how excited I was to rent a house instead of staying in a hotel this trip.  Sleeping arrangements were easier (everyone in their own bedroom), and having a full kitchen allowed us to make some of our own meals.  I even got to go grocery shopping at a Kroger on the island! (Yes, this excites me - I always like daydreaming about all the places I "could work.")  

The next challenge was how to stock a kitchen for a week without bringing everything.  Enter my label-obsessed, super-organized alter ego.  First, I planned our menu for the week, including built-in restaurant meals, since you have to try some of the local food down there.  A few of our plans changed along the way (like we decided not to make a day trip to Charleston since we'd spent enough time in the car) and we were able to easily adapt them, but all in all, this gave everyone an idea of what we would do that day.  Several meals, we opted for sandwiches/wraps, fruit, and pretzels, think picnic food.  It was cheap, relatively healthy, and easy to make/take if we wanted to eat on the go.  Of course, we also snuck in a few snacks - ice cream at Leopold's, coffee at Tybean, cookies from Byrd's - but this helped keep us on track. We even posted it to the fridge.

Next, I found all the recipes I wanted to make while down there (obviously, we had to splurge and make a peach pie and some peach sauce for our pancakes - it was vacation, after all!).  I printed everything out so it was all in one place, then measured out any ingredients that I could ahead of time (mostly dry ingredients).  I put all the pre-measured ingredients in a neatly labeled ziplock bag along with any remaining ingredients that needed to be added and cooking directions (it was so handy having that on there!).  Then I made a grocery list of the ingredients we wouldn't be bringing from home (things like milk, eggs, butter, yogurt, peaches, pie crust, etc.) so I'd be all ready to shop when we got there.  I brought some from home, too (condiments, cooking spray, applesauce).  The only thing I forgot was the oil for the pancakes, but I was able to substitute applesauce which made it healthier anyway.

All ready to go!  Packed in a reusable bag along with paper products 

and any kitchen essentials that wouldn't be provided at the house.

(notice how I even brought S/P/seasoning salt for the burgers?)

Here's a peak at our vacation cooking:

Georgia Vacation 2015

Girls, I know you won't remember much of this trip, especially Emma, so I jotted down some notes/memories for you.  This was the first time both of you saw an ocean (lucky you, I didn't until I was 20 years old and on my honeymoon!) or went to a beach.  Even with two little kids, the beach was definitely the most relaxing part of the trip (until it was time to leave... I hate sand). The photo below was taken with the self-timer on my camera in the master bedroom of the house we rented on Tybee Island.  We had to pretend that the camera was a volcano that was going to erupt and we all had to jump on the bed before the light stopped flashing.  Hey, it got all four of us looking and for the most part smiling, didn't it? 

Day 1:  drove through Nashville, Chattanooga, and Atlanta, lots of traffic. Stopped just south of Atlanta and stayed at the Holiday Inn in McDonough, GA.  Best hotel room ever! For $15, upgraded to a two room suite and the girls slept great. Even got to swim in the pool.

Mountains in Chattanooga 

Dance party with those other little girls in the mirror.

Day 2:  made it to Savannah! Just like last time we were here, got poured on by a pop up storm. Decided to make the most of it - picked up some muscadine wine at city market and ice cream at Leopold's. Annalyn, as we pushed you around Savannah eating your ice cream cone, people kept stopping to ask if we'd like their napkins/water bottles/etc. to help clean you up.  We kindly declined and just let you enjoy your first Leopold's cone.  See?  We were cool once.

Later we took you to see the ocean for the first time at Tybee Island North Beach. It was a gorgeous night and you guys were in love from the second your toes hit the sand.  Emma, we couldn't keep you out of the water!  You would walk/run in until the waves hit you about waist high, then sit down. Annalyn, you loved the holes in the sand that Daddy would dig and let you sit/splash around in. You pretended that it was your nest and you would collect shells to decorate it with.  And of course, you both chased a lot of seagulls...

Staycation part 2: Apple Picking at Stuckey Farm

As promised, here are some pictures from our staycation adventure to Stuckey Farm, a local apple orchard with u-pick apples.  They have so many different varieties that depending on the time of year you go, there are different types of apples to pick.  Our favorite from this trip were the Paula Red apples.  They had an amazingly crisp texture and the perfect mix of sweet and tart flavor.  I'm pretty sure they will make some awesome pies!

Staycation part 1: Apple Induced Euphoria

After much debate, we decided to use my 4 day weekend for a little staycation here in Indy.  Not the kind where you stay home, do nothing, and just enjoy the fact that you have no plans.  No, this staycation is more of a vacation that takes place in the area we live.  We even wrote out a little itinerary to help ensure we made the most of our time off together before Mike starts back teaching.  Like any vacation, we've been eating delicious food (granted we've been cooking it), exploring the area, and not worrying much about accomplishing anything.  We went shopping in Edinburgh at the outlets, picked apples at Stuckey's Farm in Sheridan, took Annalyn to her first splash park in Zionsville, and somehow found time to make 13 quarts of apple pie filling!  And that's all in the first two days...

 

Pictures and recipes will be coming soon, but in the meantime, here's a peak at my current source of insane happiness.  Well before Fall makes an appearance, we have lots of apple pie filling canned and ready for pies, crisps, and cobblers.  I can't even tell you how happy my kitchen is tonight! Take a peak:

 

 

 



Vacationing with a Toddler: Nashville, TN

The Grand Canyon - Spring Break 2008:

Savannah, GA - Spring Break 2011:

Nashville, TN - Spring Break 2013:

One of these things is not like the other...  But she definitely belongs!  This year over Michael's spring break we got to take a little family trip to Nashville, TN over a long weekend.  Although it's surprisingly close, we'd never actually been to Nashville, so we had a lot to see.  We started asking friends for recommendations on where to eat, stay, shop, etc., and soon realized that our trip was going to be quite different from theirs.

So we started searching things like "Nashville, TN family" and "Nashville with kids" and luckily, Michael stumbled across this awesome family site http://family.go.com/ which is a Disney site dedicated to, well, families.  The site isn't exclusively travel advice.  It includes things like seasonal crafts/activities, family friendly recipes, and even parenting advice.  I haven't even begun to delve into all of the amazing resources, but we instantly fell in love with the travel planning help.  The travel guides are arranged by city, so in our case, we went here to find advice on family-friendly activities in Nashville.  Scroll down a bit and you will see a section titled "Suggested Trip Plan by Age" - this is real bread and butter of the site.  Choose from babies, toddlers/pre-k, school age, and pre-teen/teens to see different things to do, places to stay, and places to eat based on the age of your kiddos.  Cool, huh?

The site also give tips for taking each age group to each of the attractions, such as "stroller friendly" or "plan no more than 2 hours here."  Based on the advice (and a little of our own searching/roaming), we were able to plan a pretty awesome family trip.  Here's a few of the highlights:

Our weekend getaway to Put-In-Bay, OH

This past weekend we got to take a trip up to Put-In-Bay, OH with some of our friends.  It was a much needed getaway and Annalyn's first little vacation. 

 

our first stop was Toledo where

Grandpa Eddie made us breakfast - so delicious!

 

on the ferry, almost there!