First Family Vacation | Morning at Burkes Beach

We decided to try the beach in the morning with our little beach babe. The less hot the better (and the less people to watch our three ring circus of carrying the million and one essentials required to taking a baby to the beach + carrying the actual baby - who may or may not have a complete meltdown at any moment). :)

Anyway. Harper, of course, loved - loved - loved the ocean again that morning. She's a complete water baby and was pretty darn precious splashing around in the water with her baby shades. Can we please take notice of her little hairs blowing in the wind? I mean, really.

To our surprise, little girl ended up taking a nap right there under our tent - which was pretty amazing, considering my baby doesn't take naps, much less sweaty, sandy, sticky naps. But she did. So for a split second, mommy and daddy actually had a tiny bit of time to actually take a deep breath and relax just the two of us.

We let her play in the sand - which she tried to eat, of course - and took one last dip in the ocean before packing up and heading home for lunch...and naps.

previous 'first family vacation' posts...
Botany Bay Plantation Downtown Savannah Burkes Beach - Part One

Tacos + Donuts

I'm really just testing out a blog post right now... but while you're here...
This weekend we ate tacos and donuts, and they were nothing short of amazing. Is it acceptable for 'tacos + donuts' to be a birthday party theme for a one year old? I'm seriously debating. It just doesn't get much better than tacos and donuts.

I Decided to Be Confident + Happy + Healthy

We've all heard it before... "It took nine months to make the baby, it takes nine months to lose the baby weight." BALONEY!
That's right, I'm saying it. That's a bunch of crap. That's the last thing a women wants to hear with all her postpartum hormones rushing through her body. You just are going to be fat for the next nine months, so deal with it.  That's what it sounds like to me. Heck, by the time I got to six months postpartum (when I couldn't really use the excuse of postpartum hormones), it still upset me to hear that. Although there may be some truth behind it, it's not something you want to hear when your baby is eight months old, and you still got 13 pounds to go to reach pre-baby weight (which wasn't even an ideal weight to begin with I might add!). What happens when your baby is nine months old, ten months, eleven months old, A YEAR OLD, and the "baby weight" is still holding onto those hips? (In my case,thighs, arms, belly, hips, face, etc.) What do people say then? The excuse of "you just had a baby" couldn't be used anymore, and I started to feel really defeated. Before, I dig into this a little more, let me just preface this by saying... My baby has brought more happiness and joy to my life than I ever dreamed possible. She has been difficult, she has been tough, but she has made all of the hardships completely worth the loss of sleep and stress of having a wee one. My body image wasn't important for awhile. After all, my body did grow this little miracle. I honestly still can't believe it to this day. But. There comes a time, when you finally feel like you're getting back to your old self, you feel comfortable with this parenting business, and you decide to put on jeans instead of yoga pants. The only problem with that for me was...my jeans still didn't fit. I was still wearing maternity clothes, and I had a hard time investing in new clothes that were double the size of what I used to buy.  I kinda was in denial. By the summer, I knew I had time to take my health a little more serious. I began exercising again, 4-5 times a week and eating "healthy" so I thought. (Lets face it - eating healthy Monday-Friday afternoon. Eating whatever I wanted Friday night - Sunday, because you know, that's what I could do pre-baby and it was all fine)  It got to the point, where I was starting to feel defeated and unhappy with my lack of progress. Bathing suit shopping for our vacation really put things into perspective for me. What I thought I looked like, was a lot different than reality. Part of me was complacent with how I looked, but the majority of me was really disappointed that the weight hadn't just started falling off like everyone told me it would.  I was working out, eating healthy majority of the week, and I was getting no where. I would look at Harper, and hope that she didn't face these same poor body image issues that I have the majority of my life. I promised myself that as soon as she got here, I would always be positive about my body, so she had a positive role model to look up to. But I was failing her, and I was failing myself. I wasn't being positive. I wasn't treating my body with respect, I wasn't taking care of myself. She deserves a mom that is healthy, energized, and happy. And I deserve that for myself. After being motivated by my sweet neighbor Lindsay-Ann, I took a leap of faith into the program that seemed entirely too complicated and entirely too difficult. I was desperate by the end of the summer, but I was ready to try anything. Enter - 21 Day Fix. *angels begin singing*
I watched Lindsay-Ann make so much amazing progress over the last few months, and she wasn't even doing anything that crazy! Working out 30 minutes a day, eating delicious food, and drinking some delicious chocolate milkshakes (now I refer to her delicious milkshakes properly... Shakeology). It was definitely something I could do. After talking with my husband, he supported me 100%. He even said he wondered why I hadn't tried it sooner, since he knew I was trying so hard over the summer. After one round of 21 Day Fix, I can honestly say I've never felt healthier, never felt more proud of myself, and never felt happier. I didn't lose a miraculous amount of weight my first round, but I more importantly, I found a program that I can stick to, that won't make me feel like I'm missing out. This program has opened my eyes to the possibilities. Instead of feeling unhappy, insecure, and unhealthy. I'm choosing to be confident, happy, and healthy.

First Family Vacation | Burkes Beach

After our short lived trip to Savannah, we went back to our cute cottage to grab some lunch, and let Harper take a much-needed nap. We thought it would be fun to take her to the beach that evening after some rest. It wouldn't be too hot, and probably not as many people either.  She had dipped her toes in the ocean when we went to Botany Bay Plantation, but she hadn't received the full beach experience quite yet. So, after what seemed to be an hour packing everything up and loading everything into the car (all that just for a short trip to the beach), we drove to the island and lucked up finding Burkes Beach. It wasn't nearly as busy as the other Hilton Head beaches, and the walk wasn't too bad either.  We decided just to take her straight to the ocean and let her play and test it out, because soon enough it was going to be bed time, and you don't want to be out in public with my child past 7pm. :) Seeing her sweet face light up and her look of amazement from the second she put a toe in the water, made all the trouble of packing and dragging our stuff to the beach well worth it. Vacation with a baby is probably the least relaxing vacation of your entire life. But their happiness makes it all worthwhile.

previous 'first family vacation' posts... Botany Bay Plantation Downtown Savannah

First Family Vacation | Downtown Savannah

"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get." You know what else is like a box of chocolates... Having a baby. And traveling with that baby. We didn't know what we were gonna get out of her, but we tried to get as much as we could from that girl on our trip.
We decided to go to Savannah our first full day on our trip because it was suppose to be the coolest of the days on our trip - 88 instead of 95 - and since we would probably be doing a lot of walking around with our especially hot natured baby, it was our best bet.
We decided to go in the morning and just see how it played out.  Savannah is one of the MOST beautiful cities I've ever seen, so we really wanted to just walk around and take it all in. Harper wasn't having the most amazing day, poor girl was still fighting a cold, so we did as much walking around as we could, and actually left before lunchtime. 
It was a short lived trip, but Cody and I both said we would love to come when it was just to us or when she's older to really get to explore the city a little bit more!

previous 'first family vacation' posts...

Botany Bay Plantation