Meet the Shaneyfelts

Archives for 2020

Life Lately

It’s been a little while since I’ve done a life lately! Life has definitely looked different–this summer compared to last summer. I’m dying to take Harrison out and about shopping and what not, but we have very high numbers that keep rising in my area, and since most people out don’t wear masks (not mandated here), I can’t take him out in public.

So I’m here to share what our life looks like lately all at home haha!

cup

I was really thirsty the other day but not feeling water or La Croix, so I blended frozen strawberries with the Simply Light Lemonade. It was pretty good! I remembered seeing an IG post from Megan Skalla, so I wanted to try it out since I had all of the ingredients on hand.

Just wearing my favorite royal’s shirt! Although I got this for my birthday back in October–before Meghan and Harry stepped down as senior working royals.

Speaking of, if you like royal podcasts, I highly recommend HeirHeads! It does have language so be aware, but Royally Obsessed swapped hosts and I’m not really liking the new hosts. One of the hosts from HeirHeads sounds British while the other sounds Irish–they both live in the UK, so they can give a perspective from someone actually living where the monarchy is. (P.S. They are antimonarchists!)

shorts

I snapped this the other day because this is literally what I look like every single day. Nike running shorts and some sort of tank top with my hair pulled back since we play outside every day. It’s going to be hard to go back to “real” clothes next month!

my sandals | dress is from Anthropologie | lipstick

Our 4th of July looked different because Dustin had to work and my parents did not have their usual picnic (we’re talking 60-80ish people). It’s been hard to get Harrison to smile in pictures lately, but he really didn’t want to take pictures of me that day–he wanted to run around outside instead!

Since we don’t have a swimming pool, a water table will have to do these days! Thanks to my bff for getting Harrison this for his birthday back in February. It’s come in handy!

I got to go with my sister last night while she took pictures for the newspaper. It felt nice to go somewhere alone. Like I said earlier, I never leave the house because I can’t take Harrison anywhere.

Friday Faves!

Happy Friday, y’all! I’m going to go ahead and jump right in to my FAVORITES for today!

The Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel has started their Christmas in July movie marathon, and I am so excited! Christmas is my favorite holiday ever, and these Christmas movies will be a nice distraction from all of the craziness.

I got two black stains on my Mi Golondrina dress at the beach. I used my Tide to Go pen once we got back to the car, but that didn’t work. A couple of days later when we got home and I was washing all of the clothes, I had forgotten all about the two stains–and they were obviously still there. I pulled out my stain solution, put two little drops on the stains, let them sit for about 20ish minutes, rubbed the fabric together where the stains were and they disappeared! I threw them in the wash and looked again when I took the dress out, but yes, completely gone! I am still amazed how this stuff works–and that’s why I’m still talking about it on my blog!

For those of you who follow this blog, y’all know my love of the British royal family–and even more so for Meghan Markle. I’ve got this book preordered because it doesn’t release until mid-August, but I CAN’T WAIT!!! From following the BRF, I’ve learned that certain reporters have connections with certain family members (more like their staff). I’ve learned quickly that Omid Scobie has great connections to Harry and Meghan and is very trustworthy in his reporting, so I’m dying to see what he’s written in this book!

Speaking of books, I finished this book on the way home from the beach. I’ve been on a Kristin Hannah kick lately and really love all of the books I’ve read by her! I enjoyed this one especially. My only complaint is that I wanted her to give me more at the end, but I knew exactly what she was guiding me to–I just wanted to read more story! But now I’m taking a break from Kristin Hannah and reading something by a new author!

I wrote about our summer vacation on Wednesday, and we went back to one of our favorite places! I don’t know if we will ever stay anywhere else on 30A because Rosemary has the small, quaint, family friendly vibe that we love. The next time we go back, Dustin and I agree that we’d love to go with a big group so we could rent a huge house (I told him with a pool!), so we could experience vacationing with a group 🙂

Another favorite from the picture above is that shirt! Mallory Ervin wears that brand all the time and constantly recommends them, so I ordered one to try…..AND IT’S MY FAVORITE! It fits perfectly and is so soft. I’m not the biggest fan of button down shirts because of my chest, but this one didn’t gap at the buttons any.

Monday I wrote about my love for Gilmore Girls now that I’ve finished the entire series, and so many of y’all love GG, too! Now I’d love to take a girls’ trip to Connecticut to take a tour of the town it’s based on! Who’s with me?!

Dustin has to work this weekend, so I’m going to watch Hamilton (probably over the course of a couple of naps ha!) and eat a 4th of July lunch at my mom’s house–we’re sad Dustin won’t be there but I will make sure to make him a nice, big plate! Our 4th will be looking much different this year thanks to you know what 😉

Rosemary Beach Vacation 2020

We returned almost a week ago from our very first family vacation! We didn’t take a vacation last summer because we basically lived in Texas for the entire month of March and we didn’t really need to spend a ton of money on a vacation #reallife

I had been looking forward to vacationing this summer since last year, and I was really hoping we’d still be able to take one. You know, there’s only so much I can do at home to entertain Harrison and I was going stir crazy.

**I’ve answered a few reader questions at the end!

We left out bright and early on a Monday to drive down to Rosemary. I think we left our home at 4:30ish even though Dustin wanted to leave at 4…yuck! Harrison was a trooper but only slept maybe an hour max the entire ride down there.

Harrison’s outfit is Angel Dear and his shoes are from here!

Our hotel room wasn’t quite ready (we stayed at The Pearl….more on that at the end), so we strolled around the town. Rosemary has a couple of green spaces so we let Harrison run free. This picture captures his personality perfectly–he is WILD! ha! And full of life and I love every bit of it!

We only walked around for about an hour and a half then finally got to check in–which is not bad because our check in time was 4pm but we checked in at 2pm. They brought us a welcome box of pimiento cheese and crackers. It was so good!

I took this standing at the entrance to the beach. Our hotel is the black and white building in front of me. See how it’s so centrally located to town, too? We let Harrison roam around on this green every night after dinner.

Harrison’s rash guard and diaper cover are both from The Beaufort Bonnet Company and are probably both sold out.

I really wondered if Harrison would love the sand or not. He wasn’t a fan of grass the first time I set him down in it, but he LOVED the sand! I have a highlight saved on my instagram (@saraheshaneyfelt) of everything from Rosemary and you need to watch the video of him touching sand for the first time if you haven’t. Make sure your sound is on!

Because I had so many people recommend it, we also brought along a small blow up pool filled with ocean water for Harrison to play in each day. The ocean was rough the entire time we were there, so we didn’t let him go in higher than his waist–and because that’s not really fun for a one year old, the pool worked out great! This one is very similar!

Thanks to portrait mode, he looks like he’s shooting a bird, but I promise he’s not! He’s in the midst of dancing and that’s a man’s leg behind him. I just felt I should explain 🙂

One night a band was on the green playing, and Harrison did a little dancing and running around. This is one of my favorite outfits he has right now! It’s also from TBBC and also probably sold out.

This is the same brand as what he’s currently wearing–we just bought from our local boutique.

We did breakfast one morning across the street at Southern Kitchen (I think that’s the name) and it was so good! Harrison ate a pancake and I had a cinnamon roll ha! Dustin had am omelet filled with lots of meats. These placemats were a lifesaver for eating out.

This was our beach set up every day. One of the perks of doing a hotel in Rosemary versus a house is that the chair and umbrella rentals came with your room! So we just walked down to the beach each day and everything was set up for us. (The pool went where the Bogg bag is.) The white towels on the backs of the chairs were the beach towels our hotel used and that also came with our room! A beach attendant gave them to us each morning!

So much fun in the pool!

His sunsuit is The Beaufort Bonnet Co and also sold out 🙁

Harrison and his daddy 🙂

My shirt | jeans | sandals

Harrison and his momma 🙂

I keep Harrison on a structured daily schedule, but I knew I would throw all of that out the window on vacation. I guess not being at home and on a schedule threw Harrison for a loop, so on this particular day, he was up by 4:30am and so he and I stayed in the room so he could nap at 9am while Daddy went and got our beach chairs reserved.

The hotel had a crib in our room and while Harrison would go to sleep in it really well, sometime around the middle of the night, he would end up in our bed (WHICH HAS NEVER HAPPENED AND WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN but hello, vacation and we’re all needing sleep).

Rash guard and diaper cover also from The Beaufort Bonnet Company!
Jon jon is TBBC and sandals are here (it says girls but it’s unisex)

One of our nightly runs around the green by our hotel! I’m pretty sure at this point, Harrison was running after those girls and Dustin was telling him to come back haha!

We wanted one family picture together and as soon as I picked up Harrison for a picture, that’s the face he made ha!

Our last night on vacation! I love this picture so much because I see how much I LOVE and cherish being a mother. I wrote about it a little on IG when I shared this, but I’ve always dreamed of being a mom–it’s all I’ve ever wanted. And I pray for those of y’all who are childless and want a baby so badly. I know how you feel and how much it hurts to even think about wanting something that you can’t seem to help but yet everyone else gets to plan out when they become parents.

During that time, I really focused on God’s character and who He is knowing that He’s trustworthy, He’s good, and He only does good things for His glory. Once you trust in the sovereignty of God, you will find rest.

Also, yesterday I asked for questions about Rosemary Beach so I wanted to answer some!

Family friendly restaurants and activities?

Things were very different traveling this time to Rosemary versus our last time before Harrison because of the pandemic. I was really looking forward to the nightly activities they had in the greens around town like cover bands, movies, balloon animal makers, BUT I obviously didn’t think about how any of that would be affected due to the crisis. If things ever go back to normal, those are the best kids’ activities because they are free!

Best place to eat?

We ate at a few new places this trip since our favorite last trip doesn’t provide high chairs LOL! Dustin and I both agreed that our new favorite from this year is Surfing Deer. it’s located in Seagrove Beach and was about a 20 minute drive. It’s a really nice restaurant, but the food was the best! Dustin had the Seafood Acadiana and I had the Pesto Pappardelle because I don’t really like seafood at all.

What was it like staying in a hotel?

I really loved staying at The Pearl! It was a splurge for sure, but it was our first family vacation and we wanted to do something special. There were so many amenities that made the price worth it. Like I said earlier, the chairs, beach towels, and water bottles for the beach were all provided for us on the beach. They offered little beach lunch boxes that you could take out to the beach for lunch. Our room was large and had a huge shower. The down side would be the fact that we shared a room with Harrison and we were also supposed to have a bath tub along with the separate shower, but we didn’t.

The location was great because of the beach and town being right there. They also provided bike rentals so you didn’t have to secure them yourself (unless your house also comes with bikes). Oh, and the pool is adult only–which is great if you’re on an adult trip, but we had to take a short walk to the closest community pool for Harrison to swim. And if you know Rosemary, you know those pools are really nice!

Was it worth the price?

I think it was! Everyone values things differently, so it may not be for you.

How was visiting right now during a pandemic? Still trying to decide if we should travel.

The drive down was made more difficult because so many things were closed so you really had to be careful about planning out bathroom breaks. The beach was more crowded that I was expecting, but restaurants did great about distancing us.