This is my last catch-up post! We spent a long weekend in St. Augustine in January celebrate our five year anniversary & had such a nice time, I wanted to be sure to put something together on it to remember all the fun we had. St. Augustine was really a neat little town, I’d definitely like to go back someday. Lots of walking, lots of history, lots of shopping, lots of eating. That’s a good vacation to me 🙂

Kaden got this little gator (or dinosaur?) toy in the gift shop our first day there and he went everywhere with us the rest of the trip.

Our friend Ashley is a student at Flagler, and she met us for lunch & gave us a tour on our first day.  We stayed at the Hilton Historic Bayfront which was really beautiful and right in the middle of everything, so perfect for walking. The balcony off our room overlooked the bay, it was fun to watch the boats out the window. And horses and cars and people and lights. It was a really beautiful, active location (especially for a three year old boy’s appreciation!) Day 2 started with breakfast in the hotel lobby. The kids were thrilled that there were berries on the buffet. I think they may have eaten their body weight in blueberries, and half of that in cantaloupe.  Then we got ready to explore St. George Street.Alia and I really loved the Red Pineapple store. She sat in her little sling and looked at all there was to see. They had beautiful clothes, shoes, bags, wall decor, notecards, note books, necklaces, earrings, hair clips, rings, bracelets. It felt so fun to find such a unique shop with so much beautiful stuff. I just loved experiencing it together. We talked about a lot of the pieces and she liked to try on the bracelets and I’d tell her “pretty!” and she’d want me to try it on then too. I settled on getting some earrings and a notebook for myself and some springy flower earrings and hair clips for Faith for her birthday. I could have shopped in there a lot longer and spent ten times what I did. It was so fun.

We went to the Hyppo, the coolest little popsicle shop. We’d been there the day before and Kaden was so excited to go again he beat me to the counter, stepped right up and said “I’d like strawberry.” The lady working the counter (who had helped us the day before) and a table of ladies eating their popsicles couldn’t help but giggle, it was so cute. Then he remembered he wanted peanut butter today instead. He wanted me to try a bite of his, and asked for a bite of mine. As soon as he finished he walked right back up to the counter, I think hoping for another pop. We told him tomorrow 😉

After naps we all got dressed up to go out for the evening. We had dinner at Collage. It was a beautiful, unique, elegant experience, just perfect for our 5th anniversary. The food was delicious. The room was really lovely. The service was wonderful. The kids did really great too. It was so fun to have them with us. They looked adorable and behaved wonderfully. Had lots of O’s/granola bars, raisins, banana, & fruit pouches for dessert. Kaden had jasmine rice & the mango palate cleanser from the restaurant. It gave him brain freeze. He said “my head hurts!” Landon ordered the lobster ravioli and I had blackened grouper. They were both really fantastic.

Our third and final day we took a carriage ride tour of the town, which was fun. I’d been curious to hear more of the history and it was a fun way to do it (next time I think we’ll try the Old Town Trolley. A ticket lets you ride three consecutive days, and takes you to sights like the fountain of youth, the fort, etc.)

It was neat to see the oldest Catholic Church in America, the Presbyterian church Henry Flagler attended after he built it in honor of his daughter who passed away and where he is entombed, and drive down the oldest street in America riding in a horse drawn carriage. Hearing about the fort was cool too, how they built it out of cocina sea shells after the British burnt down the first two Spanish settlements, and the original town gates at the entrance of Saint George Street too.

After the tour we got popsicles, and went to lunch. Once we finished eating lunch I asked Landon if he wanted to go back to the “H-Y-P-P-O” one last time and Kaden said “the hyppo! Yes! Let’s get more popsicles!” And I was like “whaaaat?” But you know, then we had to (which we wanted to anyway.)

Kaden told Mimi when we got home that the popsicles were his favorite part of the trip.

I really love traveling with the kids. It feels so special because it’s so obvious that we will never be at this place with these kids at this stage of our lives again. Really every day is special because we will never be there with these kids at this stage again. But for some reason it’s just more obviously apparent on vacation when we’re outside our normal routines & surroundings. Easier to be happier and let things go. More natural to soak up the moment and smile and be happy.