Life as of late (the most amazing vacation ever).

With the preliminary results of my 2015 reader survey starting to trickle in, I was surprised/shocked to see that one of the more popular topics that I cover on my blog is my life and things going on with me.

I will take that little morsel of advice and run with it! These are, after all, the easiest posts to write. No trips to the store for supplies, no pressure of extra social media post requirements, no stringent post writing guidelines, I can literally write whatever I want. What a breath of fresh air. I should do this more often!

We went on a pretty epic family vacation at the start of 2015 and took some pretty epic photos. I can’t believe it, but, I haven’t posted them yet or talked about our vacation on this here blog. Well, besides my post about flying with a toddler and getting turned away when we tried to go to the Magic Kingdom (#scarredforlife). I’m overdue for a personal post. I had a ridiculous amount of fun taking these photos (most taken by myself, unless noted). Hope you enjoy:

We had the incredible luxury of staying in a townhouse that was practically on the beach in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, otherwise known as my new favorite place on Earth.

That’s my Dad (otherwise now known as Grandpa) leisurely reading a book while my husband and I help Bean “surf” on a boogie board. My sister captured this memory that shows just how lucky we were to have the majority of the beach to ourselves practically every day.

I could not stop taking photos of Bean enjoying the beach. She adored the soft beach sand, and I adored how cute she looked! The gorgeous scenery didn’t hurt, either 😉

The townhouse had a few skimboards for us to try out (we ended up purchasing one of our own so we could really “go pro”). My knees will forever show just how much fun we had. It wasn’t enough for me to have an epic fall once, my stubborn self wouldn’t give up until I had ruined both of my knees. My scars are still pretty fresh even 2 months later, beach sand is surprisingly painful to fall on. I have never felt more old and rusty as I have after spending a day skimboarding.

Auntie Katie had fun making sand castles, Bean had fun destroying them. This photo best describes the theme of the week more than words ever could. I snapped this literally moments before this sand “pyramid” was destroyed.

Bean definitely had her moments on this trip, don’t get me wrong (she is far from a mild mannered child). I captured her pouting after I or my husband, probably, just got done reprimanding her for not listening.

There was a crazy amount of moisture in the air for the majority of the evenings which, to my liking, made for some unique lighting situations for the photos. It gave a really soft, hazy light to the photos. Has anyone in FL or someone who has visited FL experienced this before? I was quite perplexed.

You may have heard about our fiasco in getting turned away from the Magic Kingdom. We found solace in Universal’s Islands of Adventure. We really liked it the last time we all went, which was about 5 or 6 years prior. It was raining when we got there, so we decided to escape the drizzle on the Caro-Seuss-el as a family. Needless to say, we experienced different rides this time around with a toddler. Although, thanks to my parents, we were able to escape long enough to go on the big kid roller coasters.

Bean had a fun time bonding with her Uncle Andy that lives in Houston. It’s too bad he doesn’t live closer, those two are like peas in a pod!

The coolest addition to the Islands of Adventure since we had been there: the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I’m not even a Harry Potter fan and this place made me want to be! It was so magical and well done.

These are the faces of a family that, after getting up at 5:30 AM and driving for an hour and a half, made it in to the Magic Kingdom on New Year’s Day. We weren’t taking any chances the second time around. Our sacrifice of sleep really paid off!

It was adorable how much Bean loved the Magic Kingdom, even at the age of 3. I honestly thought she wouldn’t quite get what was going on, but she was truly star-struck by the characters.

The last time we took this photo, my husband and I weren’t even engaged. 7 year later and now we are married with a 3 year old Bean. How time flies!

I’ve been to FL 4 times now, and the latest was by far my most favorite trip. I truly fell in love with New Smyrna Beach. I am totally spoiled now, I don’t think I could ever stay in FL again if I wasn’t staying somewhere on the beach that was relatively private. We basically had the beach to ourselves every day, it was magical. I can’t wait to go again. It had been about 8 years since we had taken a trip like this, I’m thinking now that it should be a yearly thing.