family

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

Harrison and his daddy 🙂

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).

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.