Posted in Navarre on November 8, 2011
Navarre Beach sits between Pensacola and Destin on the gulf coast of Florida. We are lucky enough to live in Pensacola and we visit Destin regularly during the summer for its great shopping, restaurants, and beaches but we normally cruise right past Navarre. In a recent visit to Navarre Beach, I realized that we have been missing out on a great family friendly beach destination.
The beaches are filled with laughter from kids splashing in the water and digging in the sand. All of the restaurants that we ate at welcomed children of all ages. There is an amazing park and splash pad as well as a butterfly house that is great to visit. We stayed at the Summerwind West.
Summerwind is a condominium located on the water just steps away from the Navarre Beach Pier, the longest pier on the Gulf Coast. There are so many pros to staying in a condo and they often outweigh the cons. I love to be able to spread out and give the kids their own space. It is nice to put them in bed and not have to worry about disturbing them if I want to watch some late night television or stare at the stars from my balcony. This was my view in the morning…not too bad.
We stayed in a three bedroom unit managed by ResortQuest that was decorated in beachy decor. One bedroom slept two in one bed, the second bedroom slept two in bunk beds, and the master bedroom had a king sized bed. In the living room, the couch was a pullout, sleeping a total of eight. The unit had two large bathrooms and a fully equipped kitchen. Both the master bedroom and the living room led out to beautiful balconies facing the water.
Things to know before you go with kids: When you first arrive at your condo, be sure to check the sliding glass doors that lead out to the balcony. Our living room door was locked but our bedroom door was not. I promptly locked the doors so my little one couldn’t head out on the balcony by herself.
The unit we stayed in also had a washer and dryer that were great for cleaning up the towels after a long day at the beach. Exiting out the back of the condo building, it is just a short walk past the pool and on to a boardwalk that will take you directly to the beach. The pool is big enough that even though there were usually at least two other families there, it never felt like it was crowded.
You don’t use a key to get into the condo; you use a keypad. The number was easy to remember but I tucked a copy of it into my bag so that I always had it with me in case we forgot. Using the keypad was great because it meant that we didn’t have to worry about carrying a key with us while we were at the beach. It also meant that I didn’t have to worry about whether or not I was putting the keycard next to my phone which inevitably always makes it so the key doesn’t work.
The location of Summerwind is perfect for a family vacation. There are a lot of condos and houses on the strip of beach but Summerwind is within walking distance of the pier where kids will love to watch the fishermen bring up their catch and try to spy stingrays or sharks in the water. It is also a short walk from several restaurants so you don’t have to get in the car and drive after a long day spent at the beach.
Do you prefer to stay in condos and house rentals or hotels when you travel?
Just a quick post to share where else you can find me this week!
The Vacation Gals is one of my favorite travel blogs and is one of the first that I started reading on a regular basis. I am so honored to have a guest post over at The Vacation Gals about the things that you should to do before you go on vacation without the kids.
I am also at Traveling Mom sharing four reasons why you should choose Hollywood Studios as one of the theme parks to visit on your Disney trip. We have always avoided it and when we went recently we fell in love with the park.
Over at my Pensacola with Kids site, I wrote an extensive review of our trip to LEGOLAND Florida in Winter Haven and the things that you need to know before you go.
Happy Halloween!
We were told by Captain Kirk of Condor Sailing Adventures that October is a great time to sail…he wasn’t lying. Our sail with Condor Sailing Adventures was a blast and the kids are still talking about how much fun it was.
Little S thinks she is rather suited to this sailing life!
Big S has decided that he doesn’t want to live in a house when he grows up…he wants to live in a sailboat. Driving the boat is serious work!
And really…who can blame them?
(That is the new baseball stadium that is finally going up. It has been years in the making and we can’t wait until it opens for the Pensacola Blue Wahoos 2012 season!)
Stop by Delicious Baby to see other Photo Friday adventures.
*Thank you to Condor Sailing Adventures for hosting us! As always, my opinions are my own with no outside influences.
Posted in Sharing on October 26, 2011
Before last weekend, we had been to exactly one character dining experience in the past seven years of theme park adventures and frankly it wasn’t a fabulous experience. We don’t have fond memories of the event for several reasons! The food was good but my kids were not impressed with the characters. That is why I was wary when I first found out that we had a voucher for the character breakfast at Nicktoons Café in the Nickelodeon Suites Resort.
Read more about our character dining experience and what we thought about it over at Traveling Mom!
In addition to writing here, I also write as Southern TravelingMom over at TravelingMom.com. TravelingMom is a great way to find information for a trip and read funny stories but did you know that TravelingMom hosts some pretty amazing giveaways? They have two going on right now that you won’t want to miss!
Win a Galapagos Cruise aboard the National Geographic Endeavor where you will visit islands, hike, swim, snorkel and more with your family. There are several ways to enter and they will up your chances of winning!
You also can enter for a chance to win an iPad2 with TravelingMom and the sponsor Tauck Bridges family travel tours.
LEGOLAND Florida is a LEGO lover’s paradise! My two children, one who is 7 and one who is turning 5 at the end of the month, fell in love with LEGOLAND Florida the minute we walked through the gates. My daughter was tall enough to ride every ride she wanted to and my son was big enough to ride almost every ride by himself. This is important to note about our trip to LEGOLAND Florida because I made the visit by myself with my two kids.
One adult, two kids. Young kids. Kids that are not very tall. Or extremely brave when it comes to amusement park rides.
I was worried about what would happen when we got to a ride where both children had to have an adult with them but the rides at LEGOLAND Florida were designed with children ages 2-12 in mind. Aside from the roller coasters, we only had one other time that my son could not ride by himself. Unlike other theme parks where you find yourself hanging out in one section most of the day, the entire park beckons children to hop on the rides and experience things by themselves. At the same time, adults can ride with their children enhancing the family experience.
What I loved best at LEGOLAND Florida was the number of rides that my four year old could ride on her own. Here are a few of our favorites!
Jr. Driving School – After watching big brother drive his own car around the streets at the Ford Driving School, Little S was ready to practice driving herself. The track is smaller and perfect for the little ones to try their hand at driving. Parents are able to sit along the fence around the track to talk to their children or take pictures.
Beetle Bounce – This was, by far, both children’s favorite ride. They rode it several times both days we were there. Children are strapped in and the ride brings them up in the air before dropping them and then bouncing them back up. This ride was also one of the least crowded both days.
The Lost Kingdom Adventure – You ride around in a car that fits four people. Each person gets a laser gun to fire at targets and the person with the most points at the end wins. Both of my kids were able to sit in the front of the car and I sat in the back. I was able to keep an eye on them and beat them at the game!
Rides that would have been more fun with a second adult:
Aqua Zone Wave Racers – This was one of my favorite and least favorite rides at the same time! We actually entered through the exit because of a misplaced sign, so we didn’t see the height requirement. My son was too short to ride by himself. Luckily when we reached the front of the line, the Model Citizen (LEGOLAND Employee) told me that my son could wait while I ride with my daughter and then my daughter can wait while I ride with my son. Sounds like a great idea right? Um, it was except for the fact that the ride does nothing but whip you around in a circle. Over and over and over again.
Roller coasters – While both of my children were tall enough to go on all four of the roller coasters at LEGOLAND, my son refused to ride in the seat by himself (and frankly, I don’t blame him!) and there was no way I was putting my four year old in a seat by herself. I am sure that we could have waited in line until someone came up that was going to ride by themselves, but we decided not to.
Rescue Academy – At LEGOLAND Florida, most of the rides have some sort of interactive element and Rescue Academy is no exception. You hop on a fire truck, pump a handle back and forth to race to the fire, put the fire out by pumping the fire hydrant and then you pump the fire truck back to the finish line. I am not going to lie…this was a lot of work. With two little ones that didn’t do much of the work, this mama was exhausted! I definitely could have used some help and I wish I had paired up with the mom and toddler in the car next to me. They were having as much trouble as I was!
Thank you to LEGOLAND Florida for hosting me and helping to subsidize my expenses. All opinions are my own with no outside influences (except maybe my kids!)
The road to…well, you know what we say about good intentions! Today was a very long day of theme park walking, hotel pool swimming and kid wrangling. I am exhausted and all I have in me is a few pictures from today!
They can hardly contain their excitement!
Pure joy!
Giving boating school a whirl…
Trading a minifigure with one of the friendly employees!
I am not promising anything, but I will try harder to get more in a post tomorrow. It is time for bed…we are exhausted!
Stop by Adventuroo to see other fun #weekinmylife posts!
Today’s post is going to be short and sweet because we spent much of it in the car driving from Pensacola to Orlando! We had to leave Daddy J at home because he has to work so since I was the only driver I wasn’t able to snap many pictures! I dropped the kids off at school and raced home to get one last load of laundry finished. I packed up my suitcase, loaded up the car, picked the kids up early, and we hit the road.
This is what much of our drive is from Pensacola to Lake City…boooooooooooring.
We only had to make one stop in between Pensacola and Lake City but from Gainesville to Orlando (all of 1.5 hours), we had to stop four times. Ugh. Four times. For this.
Speaking of the bathroom, am I the only one who won’t let me 7 year old go into a strange bathroom by himself? He is allowed to go in a very select few bathrooms by himself. He is probably getting to old to take in the bathroom with me but this semi-paranoid mama doesn’t care.
We snapped a few fun pictures in the rest area parking lot before we hit the road again. I love this one! Originally I took one of just the kids but when I showed it to them, they wanted to know where I was. They liked this one much better.
After about seven hours of driving, we finally made it. Look at who is sharing our room.
We dropped off our luggage and raced down for a 20 minute dip in the pool. When we were walking back to our hotel room, we found somebody’s chair!
Don’t forget to stop by Adventuroo to see what everyone else did this week!
It was a good thing that Monday and Tuesday were quiet days because I made up for it today. Today we went through the hectic packing rituals before a trip. We are headed to the Grand Opening of LEGOLAND Florida and my children can hardly believe it! Unfortunately, because my husband just got out of town he was unable to take any more time off of work so it will just be me and the kids. We had some practice road tripping without daddy. Awhile back, we took a quick trip to New Orleans where we were able to stay with Grandma and then I bravely drove 1000 miles from Florida to North Carolina to South Carolina and then back.
Even though my kids are only four and seven, they have been helping us pack their bags for quite some time. I tell them what they need to get, the go get it from their rooms and make a pile. It usually looks like this:
I do a quick check to make sure they grabbed appropriate clothing and then I pack it up in the suitcase. They also pack their own backpacks (see pink backpack in above picture) with toys, books, and other things that they would like to bring with them. I don’t really check these. I have found that if they pack their own bags, they actually play with what they bring. If I pack their bags, they are usually complaining an hour into the trip about how they have nothing to do. Some trips, we end up with a backpack full of stuffed animals. Other trips, nothing but Hot Wheels.
Our kitchen becomes a charging station as we get ready to travel!
I also pack up all of our food. One of our favorite things about traveling is that we indulge in little snacks that we normally don’t eat at home. We always buy the over priced tiny boxes of cereal for snack and some sort of chips that can be tossed in the backseat!
And the best part of the day? Daddy is home so that means I am off of homework duty!
Quote of the day: “Your son totally ratted you out this morning when I took him to the bus stop. He told me you skipped dance, didn’t take him to soccer, and they had chicken nuggets and white noodles (fettuccine alfredo!) the whole time I was gone. Hahahahaha!” Daddy J
In my defense, I was sick when we skipped dance and I already told my husband. Soccer was cancelled by the coach. And we totally ate chicken nuggets and white noodles every night for dinner…unless we went out to eat!
Tomorrow, we will be on the road so I will be capturing pictures of our stops, our lunch and our arrival at our destination!
Don’t forget to stop by Adventuroo to see other Week in My Life posts!
Posted in Sharing on October 12, 2011
We started our Tuesday off on the wrong foot. Without daddy around, nobody was sleeping well and we all overslept. Big S missed the bus and we had to drive him to school. Luckily, he got to school on time so I just swung through carline. Little S is not so happy about being in the car at this early of an hour!
After dropping Big S off, we raced back home to get Little S ready for PreK. While she was at PreK, I stopped by Target for the most important part of our road trip.
Swedish Fish! We buy the $5 bag of Swedish Fish whenever we go on a road trip. It is the only time I purchase them so when my kids see a bag of Swedish Fish, they know a trip is soon to follow! Usually, I bag the Swedish Fish in individual snack ziplocs so I can just toss them into the back seat as needed during the drive.
All of the sudden it was time to pick up Little S. That three hours sure goes by quickly! We went to our monthly lunch with some of my pals and then headed home to get Big S off of the bus.
After homework time, the kids played outside together while I got some draft posts ready to go for my other website, Pensacola with Kids. I try to post things to do, calendar events, and more daily or every other day. When I go out of town, I try to get as much as I can in draft so that I am not spending the evenings of my trip writing blog posts. When I am back in the hotel and things have settled down, all I have to do is a quick re-read of the post and hit publish.
Dinner tonight was chicken nuggets and chips (*gasp* Call Food Police!) in front of the television (*double gasp* Call the Parenting Police!). With daddy out of town, we are not as strict with meal times and after four days of arguing with the kids to sit and eat at the table I just didn’t have it in me. We leave to pick him up in a few hours and the kids cannot wait to see him!
Quote of the day: (As he is hugging me) “Mommy…you are the bestest mommy I ever have. Well, you’re the only mommy I have but you can still be the bestest.” Big S
How was your Tuesday? Stop by Adventuroo to see other Week in My Life posts.
