From FL to NC

We made it home! After a little more than two weeks in Florida, we are back in North Carolina. We are missing our family, the sand and the surf but I’m grateful that our life in Charlotte is one we love so returning back to everyday life also feels good. I’m craving some routine, solid naptimes for our younger boys, more time for work, earlier bedtimes for the kids and playdates with friends.

Our final day with my sister and her family was actually last Thursday since they had plans to head south to visit her in-law’s for some family birthdays on Friday, so we made the most of our time together and took the kids to the beach and the pool. We also wrangled all of the little ones into the puffy paint t-shirts they decorated earlier in the week for a picture with their grandparents.

The puffy paint t-shirt project was SO fun! Each kid picked their own design and we used these glow-in-the-dark fabric puffy paints to decorate their shirts. Since our boys are still 100 percent obsessed with the tie-dye shirts we made last year and again this spring, we had a feeling they’d enjoy another t-shirt-centered craft project and they were all about it.

We’ve already washed their shirts twice and the puffy paint designs are holding up well!

Friday

On Friday night, Ryan and I took advantage of my parents’ kind offer to handle our boys’ bedtimes and made our way to St. Augustine for dinner. (Fun fact: My sister and brother-in-law got married in St. Augustine!)

(Outfit details: Two-piece set / Rattan circle purse / Tkees sandals) 

We had plans to meet up with Ryan’s cousin and best friend, Daniel, and his fiancé at Old City House for drinks and dinner. It had been waaay too long since we last saw Daniel and it was so wonderful to hug him and catch up after so much time apart.

Ryan and Daniel were roommates all through college and since Ryan and I met my freshman year of college, Daniel became one of my close friends, too. Daniel was also Ryan’s best man in our wedding and his best man speech was next-level amazing. I will never forget laughing so hard and simultaneously tearing up multiple times because it was equal parts hilarious and heartfelt.

While we were thrilled to be reunited with Daniel, we were also incredibly excited to meet Katie, Daniel’s fiancé! Daniel and Katie met last fall and got engaged this past spring. Ryan and I were dying to meet her after hearing such wonderful things. It was so wonderful to see Daniel so in love and Katie truly seems like his perfect match. We cannot wait to celebrate them at their wedding in November! Daniel actually asked Ryan to be the best man in their wedding at the end of dinner which meant a lot to Ryan. I maaay have had a little hit from Daniel ahead of time and known that question was coming but seeing Ryan light up when Daniel asked him was the highlight of the evening for me!

After dinner our little foursome clearly didn’t want the night to end, so we wandered next door to grab another drink before calling it a night. We didn’t arrive home until close to 2 a.m. so we were dragging a bit on Saturday but it was more than worth it for such a fun evening!

Saturday + Sunday

On Saturday we took a different strategy going into our day of travel. Since our 5 a.m. departure ended up being a big fat fail on our drive to Florida, we switched things up and opted to try our best to tire our kids out with a few hours at the beach and pool on Saturday before hitting the road.

After hugging my parents goodbye and thanking them a million times over for hosting our crazy crew, we piled into the car and were met with almost instantaneous sleep from Rhett and Ryder… for 20 minutes. Womp, womp. After their catnaps no one slept for the remainder of our 7+ hour drive but thankfully everyone was in mostly good humor.

We arrived home a little before 9 p.m. and let the kids all run around a bit before tucking everyone into bed. Rhett is on a bit of a nursing strike at the moment (I’ll share more about this soon), so I pumped and then read until my eyes could no longer stay open before falling asleep.

On Sunday, we spent the beginning of our day getting our lives back in order. We unpacked our bags, did some laundry, ordered groceries and spent a little time in the yard until rain made us head back inside. During Rhett’s morning nap, Ryan took the big kids on a bike ride so I could get some work done. Oooh how I missed my big ol’ desktop monitor!

We wrapped up our day with an hour at Urban Air, a local trampoline park, and then dug into some homemade ice cream and got all the boys in bed niiice and early.

As for the week ahead, I’m looking forward to a some playdates we have on the agenda with friends and then my mother-in-law arrives in town again on Thursday! I am planning to get back into my usual groove of blogging this week and hope to see ya around here again soon. Have a great Monday!