There wasn't any sleeping in while we were there. Well, for me at least. I enjoyed walking the beach every morning. The first morning Olivia and I looked for shells. She really enjoyed that and found quite a bit. The second day she didn't want to go so Dannie and I went and we found two sand dollars for her. I went Saturday and Sunday with my mama. We didn't find any shells, but saw some dolphins and saw where a turtle had came up on the beach the night before. That was pretty cool! Livi got brave while we were there and started swimming in the pool without her floaties again. Her and Peyton were having a blast pouring bottles of water on their g-pa in the pool. They did that for dayyysssssss.
One of our favorite things about the location of the cottages we stay at is that it's super close to the village area. There are tons of stores and restaurants you can walk to. The first night we got there we ended up ordering BBQ from Nancy's BBQ on on DoorDash, swam by the pool, walked the village, and watched the sunset. Sunsets there with my little family are my favorite too! On Thursday night we met everyone at Outback for dinner. Olivia had so much fun playing with her little cousin, Jackson. She also got in a lot of time with Peyton Rae since they shared dinner. Outback never disappoints when it comes to their food. I had the coconut shrimp and a grilled chicken salad. Friday night we ate at Island House Tap and Grill. Livi and I shared a burger and fries. Afterwards, we grabbed some ice cream and went and watched the sunset. Saturday morning we ate at The Village Cafe, which is our favorite place there. You get so much food and it's so yummy! Dannie and I just got eggs, bacon, home fries, and toast, but Olivia got a huge Belgian waffle. I also picked up a new coffee mug from there. I figure eventually I'll just have a collection of them. Saturday night we ordered food from The Hub Baja grill. It's always too busy there, so we order and eat our food by the pool. Last year, we ordered the Nacho's and the Hub Dip Sampler which were amazing. But, this year we chose the pork pineapple mango tacos. Once we were done eating, we showered and went to watch our last sunset with everyone and then walked around the village and shopped.
The weather was PERFECT the entire time we were there which is a little unbelievable because one of our past trips there it rained almost the whole time. It was so hot though. I think we only went to the beach for maybe an hour on Friday and Olivia didn't go at all. We were pretty toasty and red after all day there on Thursday. Olivia on the other hand doesn't even look like she went to the beach because we lathered her in sunblock every hour of every day. All of her medications say to limit sun exposure, so she wore rash guards, hats, lots of sunblock, sunglasses, and shoes when we were at the beach. One thing I recommend purchasing even as an adult if you are going to go to the beach is a rash guard for yourself! I think the older you get and especially if you have kids, the less you care about getting a good tan. I did NOT want to deal with burning, peeling, and just hurting. So, we lathered ourselves in sunscreen also. But, one of those days it didn't help and Dannie had a very red back and shoulders. So, he wore a shirt the rest of our beach days. We will for sure purchase rash guards next year for our trip. The water was so clear except for Thursday. There was so much seaweed to swim through.
Overall, it was a great vacay. As always! We really enjoyed time away from Ocala and our everyday routine and allll of the doctor visits. Not to mention LOTS of family time! Now that we're home those are all starting up again. Livi has an eye appointment tomorrow in Gainesville and we're looking forward to celebrating National Donut Day on Friday. Next week will be a little more mellow with one doctor visit in the middle of the week.
We made a summer bucket list and are excited to start that up. I'm also looking for a good Pre-K review book for Olivia. I found a few at Target, but need to go back and look at them and compare to others at Barnes and Noble. Let me know if you have any favorites that your children enjoyed.
Happy summer break! This is our last summer before Olivia starts school. <3
