John told me that for my birthday this year he wanted to take me to the beach, and of course I was beyond thrilled! My birthday was two day before Thanksgiving this year, so we would travel to the beach for Thanksgiving week. We had to travel further south than our usual vacation spot so that it would be guaranteed to be warm enough to swim and stay on the beach all the time. After this trip was planned John ended up needing to travel to Sevierville, Tennessee for continuing education and so we debated if the kids and I could tag along and then travel from there on to the beach. We decided that over the past several months since the kids had proven themselves to be such good travelers that we could do this! We mapped it all out and if we traveled from Alabama to Sevierville for John's conference, then to Maryville to visit family for two nights, then to Gainsville, Florida for one night then on to our Monday-Saturday stay in Indian Rocks Beach and then back to Huntsville that it would be 29 hours in the car. We were confident we could do it...and we did and had a great time!
We mapped it out and then tried to reassure ourselves we weren't crazy for doing this much driving with 4 kids! Haha!
We decided to take a picture every hour of the trip to help the kids (and us!) count down (or up, rather). Here's hour one...we left Alabama late on a Wednesday night and drove the 4 hours to Sevierville.
Somehow the only hour we missed taking a picture out of all 29 was hour two...obviously we hadn't gotten in a good rhythm yet I guess.
Hour Three
Even though I say that we only packed the bare necessities since we were going to travel through different climates, states, and time zones and need different items at each stop...despite this packing light...we still somehow managed to pack a storm trooper mask?!
Hour 4: Almost to the Wilderness in the Smokies where we would spend the next two nights.
Beautiful view from the hotel
John attended his conference both days and said it was really good and informative...we hit the indoor water park and it was AWSOME!
Storm trooper ready to go back to the waterpark after a brief nap in our hotel room.
The kids were excited about their wristbands...for some reason they thought this was so cool that they got wristbands that gained them access to the waterpark and the big three got an extra blue wrist band showing that they were big enough to "surf" the indoor waves.
They thought thought this was so cool in fact that Carter didn't take his wristband off until January 1st...that's right over a month after our trip and we finally convinced him to take it off. He said it reminded him of our fun trip, sweet boy!
I was curious how crowded the indoor waterpark would be, but we practically had it to ourselves since school was in session and it was a Thursday and Friday! That was great!
The wave pool!
We also visited the arcade. Clayton clearly loved this car. Dawson and Carter won some playing cards which we put to good use for various games the entire rest of the trip!
The resort was decorated beautifully for Christmas.
They even had ice skating there...we didn't try it though since John was in his conference I didn't think I could handle 4 kids ice skating outside for the first time in their entire lives to ever ice skate. We did check out the rink though.
The resort was also beautifully decorated for Christmas.
After two days of enjoying the waterpark and John learning lots in his conference we were ready to make the drive from Sevierville to Maryville where we would stay the next two nights.
This was hour 5 of driving.
When we lived in Tennessee John and I always talked about how we wanted The Missing Link of the Foothills Parkway to be completed so we could drive it. Well, of course, after decades of it being unfinished, wouldn't you know that the finished it right after we moved to Alabama! It was a cloudy, damp day but we decided it would be the perfect opportunity to drive the Missing Link on our drive from Sevierville to Maryville. I was worried it would be too cloudy for good views, but it actually provided us with lots of beautiful "smoke" on the mountains
We pulled over at several spots to get better views.
We arrived at Lolly's where we would spend the next two nights. The original plan was that we would all attend a local venue for some "mountain music" that night, but after NK and Clayton weren't feeling awesome after 2 days of playing hard in the water and Clayton had started complaining of an earache, we decided that the big boys and I would go with Lolly to the music. John ended up having to take Clayton to a walk-in clinic where he was diagnosed with an ear infection (I think he's had one other one in his entire life!) Thankfully everyone perked up and we were able to enjoy the rest of the trip!
Saturday Uncle Logan came to Lolly's and we celebrated Logan's birthday which was the next day and my birthday which would be Tuesday. It was fun and a good time visiting. Then John and Grandad took the kids bowling which they thoroughly enjoyed. We also spent some time visiting Nana and Grandad, Em and Eric, and Zoe and Zachary...however the most talked about visit of this portion of the trip was with Nana and Grandad's new dog Oreo. They love this dog and talk about it constantly.
Visiting with Uncle Logan
Birthday celebration at Lolly's
Nora Kate has always been slightly nervous around dogs (I'm not entirely sure what caused this), but she LOVES Oreo.
I was trying to line my kids and Zoe and Zachary up for a picture which was photobombed by Oreo...thanks to Dawson calling her.
These six had fun playing together!
Then Sunday morning we loaded up to leave Lolly's house and start on hour 6 of our driving time. This day we would drive from Maryville, Tennessee to Gainsville, Florida. Everyone had had a blast at our first two stops of the trip, we were recharged and ready for more fun.
Hour 7
Hour 8
Hour 9
Hour 10...this was the point when the kids decided to focus on playing tables and/or watching movies..as you can see from Dawson's stare at the tv.
Hour 11...everyone was still in good spirits but Nora Kate decided she was going to make her own "room" in the van under a beach towel...that's her under the blue towel.
Hour 12
Hour 13 called for coffee
Hour 14
I look at this picture and I'm not even sure what's going on here! HAHA
We were ALMOST to Gainsville, Florida and everyone was ready.
We arrived at our hotel, checked in and since it was still early in the evening went out for dinner and a little shopping (mainly just shopping so we could walk around and stretch our legs after sitting in the car all day long!)
The next morning we loaded the van yet again and drove from Gainsville to Indian Rocks Beach.
This was hour 15.
Hour 16 the kids decided they all needed their "own rooms in the van" so they all spent some time under a self constructed beach towel van fort.
Hour 17....we can finally smell that salty air!
You can see the bay water out the window...getting so close!
The pictures from the beach that follow are in no particular order, somehow they got jumbled around. The beach was amazing. It was the most wonderful birthday...and it was by far the very best Thanksgiving ever! We stayed in a condo in the Narrows so we were on the beach and across the street was the inlet waters. I enjoyed some beautiful runs along the inlet waters and down gulf blvd while we were there, both alone and with the kids (continuing to log miles for their upcoming kids marathon). Our routine was that we would wake and run and go shell searching. This time of year the tide was bringing in beautiful shells in the morning and we found tons. Then we would go back in for breakfast and get in our swim suits and spend the rest of the day on the beach. We also enjoyed Putt Putt and eating at some delicious restaurants. We cooked in a good deal, but we ate out on Thanksgiving and it was by far the most delicious Thanksgiving dinner ever-->seafood! eaten outdoors on the water.
We went to John's Pass one evening. The kids enjoyed hearing my stories about going all these places many, many times growing up. We even have two new family members purchased from John's Pass that we brought home from our trip--two hermit crabs. haha
We spent as much time on the beach as we could recognizing what a treat it was to be at the beach in November and for Thanksgiving and my birthday.
John and me on my birthday.
We met an older couple that convinced the boys they could catch lizzards with fishing line tied in a circle on a fishing pole...the kids had absolutely ZERO luck with this but still tried for hours! That's what Dawson is doing here.
It was a beautiful beach.
The abbreviation for the beach is IRB (Indian Rocks Beach) Carter said it stands for I Rob Banks HAH! So now he refers to this as I Rob Banks Beach
We visited the Bird Sanctuary twice! I remember how I used to complain about the STINKY birds here when my brother was little and wanted to come all the time! The kids LOVED it and (no surprise) it was still stinky!
The kids dug super deep holes every day and hit water!
Ice Cream at John's Pass
I think this was the picture from when we first arrived and we ran out to the beach before unloading or dressing in our swim attire!
Everyone gets in on the digging action!
Putt putt fun!
Clayton even spoiled us and fell asleep on John's lap and later on my lap on the beach!
It was fun and a first for us to see Christmas decorations at the beach!
We got a kick out of the street light decorations which where things like starfish beside Christmas gifts and palm trees beside Christmas gifts when the lights at home on street lights are things like snowflakes!
Look who was excited to catch the tiniest lizard of our trip.
My birthday cake at the beach!
On my birthday I went for a run, played on the beach with the kids, came in for lunch and this yummy birthday cake, then went back out to the beach...pretty perfect birthday if you ask me!
Obviously with a pretty relaxed dress code too hah
Carter relaxing.
A beach tradition for our kids at this point since we ALWAYS pack glow sticks for night beach walks! It was neat to see the condos lit up in Christmas lights (you can kind of see here that our condo behind the kids has red and white Christmas lights on it).
Clayton relaxing in the beach chair wearing John's hat.
Early morning shell walk
There was another family walking by on the beach on Thanksgiving who graciously offered to take our picture...so this is our picture of Thanksgiving 2019.
Our trip was so amazing. I look at these pictures and long to go back to the warmth and salty air already.
Saturday morning we loaded the van, yet again...this time with a little extra sand and two hermit crabs added and started the longest leg of our driving time on this trip...driving all the way from Indian Rocks Beach, Florida to North Alabama.
Hour 16
Hour 17
Hour 18
19
Hour 20
Hour 21
Hour 22...at this point Dawson was keeping a close eye on the hermit crabs (in the cage on his lap) which he worried were getting jarred around too much because they were staying in their shells, Clayton and Carter had resorted to headphones and tablet time, and NK was just smiling.
Whew, hour 23...6 more hours to go.
Hour 24...we have a strict no food in the van rule...however hour 24 we decided to break this rule and let the kids get junkfood from a gas station and eat some in the car...ya gotta do whatcha gotta do!
Hour 25...Mommy's turn to drive
Hour 26...getting closer to home
Hour 27 Are we there yet?
and
Daddy's back to driving
Hour 28...Clayton has resorted to wearing the Storm Trooper mask again and Mommy's driving again.
Hour 29....we are almost there!
We drove for 29 hours on this trip and the ONLY time we drove in rain was for the last 8 minutes of our drive when the sky opened up in an absolute downpour. I'm thankful that we had wonderful driving weather the entire rest of our trip and beautiful weather at the beach.
This trip was oh so fun! I would do it all over again in a heartbeat...29 hours in the car and all. The kids did amazing, and we all absolutely loved our 10 night trip. I'm ready to go back to the beach again already. It was a perfectly relaxing and fun time we all spent together.
