It's the Fourth of July on Sunday and I'm bound and determined to finally post our winter/spring break trip to Rosemary, Florida before the Fourth actually arrives!
So here we are and here we go!
All those months ago, we picked up the kids from school and quite literally headed south!
My sister had made me little gifts to open hourly. First up - a little gift of a note pad and fun pens to play the game MASH! This was fun to play with Jon and some of his answers were...well, not surprising in so many ways. Ask me about it sometime and I'll tell you. ;)
We had decided to stop somewhere halfway to Florida and wouldn't you know it - a waterpark in Nashville happened to be almost perfectly halfway. We stayed at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Spa in Nashville, Tennessee. The kids were thrilled to be able to visit a waterpark after months of being stuck inside.
We made sure to check it all out!
This place is massive and absolutely stunning! We joked that we had arrived only to "mess it all up!" Hello Toddler-ville!
*insert nervous laugh here*
Also, total Beauty and the Beast vibes, am I right?!
Water park time (Woohoo!) and apparently crazy eyes for me - it had been a long year. Haha!
It felt so weird to be in an indoor space without our masks!
Jane and I stayed away from the crowds and decided to play it safe up in the children's pool area which was perfect because there weren't many people in this spot!
More exploring! We wanted to find the indoor boat! Yes, you heard right - indoor boat!
I took Jane back to the room for naptime while Jon and the kids stayed back to play. Jon at one point left me a Starbucks outside of the hotel room door for me to enjoy while I waited for Sleeping Beauty to finish her two hour nap. :) 100 points for Jon!
Here we are watching the fountains - sooo cool! This place is on steroids, I swear!
After a two night stay we continued our journey to Florida, but not without stopping to see a space shuttle rocket at a rest stop in Huntsville, Alabama! I mean, when you see a rocket ship at a rest stop, one must stop and prove they were there, right???!!!
Jon and I jokingly told the kids that this was Florida and that we were going to be camping at this parking lot of a fast food chain. They didn't find us comical. We're those parents. *facepalm*
Made it to Florida and Jane FINALLY decided to nap...that only took 15 hours. Oy.
We made it to Rosemary!
I had planned for us all to look nice for our first dinner out or to get groceries and eat in, but everyone was starving and tired so we ventured into Cowgirl Kitchen! I'm sure we all smelled, were super greasy and looked a hot mess, but it was the "gotta do whatcha gotta do" mentality that kicked in at this point!
We woke up the next day we were pumped for the kids to see the ocean for the first time! We had thought about going the night before but due to the tiredness and darkness we decided against it and I'm so happy we did!
The cutest post office ever!
This downtown!!
Here we go - ocean time for our love bugs!
When we weren't at the ocean we were poolside.
The pools in Rosemary are crazy gorgeous! I do believe we had access to three or four of the pools and they did not disappoint!
Coquina Pool...
We rode our bikes over to Alys Beach. All the buildings are white and it's a beautifully unique area.
We ate at LA CREMA for dinner. I knew the kids would absolutely love the chocolate fondue!
Post dinner family selfie!
The Pearl at Rosemary Beach - it's the epitome of picturesque.
A rainy, cold day at the ocean, but with our Michigan blood....and a dose or two of pure craziness, we went for it!
I tried everything in my ability to NOT look like this walking back to the condo.
Thank goodness for HUGE bags!
A couple of rainy days called for shopping and a visit to WonderWorks over in Panama City!
We ate a yummy dinner at Lola Coastal Italian! It was fairly empty due to the off season and weather, but we loved that we had the place to ourselves! So good!
Dessert at Smallcakes Cupcakery and Creamery - soooooo good! So much so that Jon went back again later in the week to pick up some more delicious goodness.
Another cool day called for another visit to a pool!
Sky Pool...
It finally warmed up...well into the 60s and we were at it once again!
We made sure to breathe in this sunset.
For dinner we ate at the Donut Hole - they brought us this huge basket of donuts for free as an appetizer!!! I'm still not certain if this was customary but we sure as heck didn't decline. ;)
The next day we woke up and rode our bikes to Alys Beach to see if we could find Charlie's Donuts!
Mission Accomplished.
We sat at a different part of the beach on this day. The weather was perfection and we could finally see those emerald colors of the ocean.
A major bonus - Henry found a perfectly intact sand dollar!
There's an Air Force Base not far from Rosemary so seeing all sorts of cool aircraft became a daily occurrence!
I forced my family into taking beach jumping pictures as well as more-than-I-care-to-admit handstand attempts!
The kids still had some school work to attend to so on a bit of downtime they'd work on getting their paper packets done. We were pros by this point, thanks 2020.
These were the only two pictures I took of this area in the kitchen/dining room at the condo. It was beyond beautiful.
Oh and for those who follow influencers and know Natasha from her Hello Happiness blog, she was just a few units away and I was basically starstruck as I rode by on my bike one day and saw her! Seriously, such a highlight of my trip to see (from a distance) an influencer I look up to so much!
Our last day. Boo!
We hit up the beach and made a visit to The Hub at 30A!
There you have it AND before the holiday weekend officially begins! Thanks, as always, for following along! Happy Fourth of July!!!
Marie :)
