It’s been awhile since I wrote a Life Lately post, but we’ve had a number of smaller adventures recently that deserve their time in the sun! April and May have been sweet months to soak up our last few weeks as a family of four, knowing that things will get more complicated (but even sweeter!) soon enough.
The weather has been perfect – mild (mid-70s) and sunny for the most part. We’ve had several trips to the strawberry patch as well as lots of picnics around the Triangle, like at Bond Park for kite flying, the Raleigh Rose Garden to see the flowers, and all sorts of playgrounds.
We planted our garden – kale, basil, jalapeno, and lots of tomatoes (Patio, Sun Gold, Super Sweet 100, Celebrity, Husky Cherry Red). Below are the three pots that we planted for the first time last year. They were a huge part of getting us to our 1000 tomato count in 2020, so I’m expecting big things from these three!
We took our family photos with Ally! It’s… a lot to get everyone ready for photos, but we were SO lucky to have the most picture-perfect (literally) weather, and I cannot WAIT to see what she returns! Feeling very grateful to have this season of life professionally captured the last time around. And gosh, Ally is just about the sweetest person on earth. John was like, “do you think all photographers make you feel this good?” Ha!
On Mother’s Day weekend we drove north to Charlottesville to meet up with John’s sister and our brother-in-law, a reunion 1.5 years in the making thanks to COVID. Funny story: we headed up the mountain for a hike on Saturday morning. It was about 65 at our Airbnb, but by the time we got to the Humpback Rocks parking lot, off the Blue Ridge Parkway, it had plummeted to 49 (!). June was in the worst shape with shorts and a short-sleeve shirt, so after rummaging in the diaper bag I tossed her Shep’s emergency pair of (2T) sweatpants to see if she could squeeze into them. She could, though they looked a bit like European joggers, ha! Shep rocked his nap blanket like a cape for warmth.
We survived to enjoy some other Charlottesville highlights, too: MarieBette Bakery (incredible – we went twice!), walking around the UVA grounds (Joe is a double alum), dinner at Selvedge Brewery at the Wool Factory (SUCH a cool space with massive glass walls!), playing at Riverview Park and scooting along the Rivanna Trail, Crozet Pizza, and takeout from the Dairy Market (Take It Away sandwiches and Chimm Street pho).
Durham Bulls games are one of our very favorite spring and summer activities in the Triangle, and we were grateful to squeeze in a trip (to only their second home game of the season!) before the weather got too hot. Some benefits thanks to COVID: there was no one sitting anywhere near us, and concessions could all be ordered from an app (and they’d text you when it was ready!).
Last but certainly not least, I took the day off work on Friday to redeem one of June’s Christmas presents: pedicures and afternoon tea at Fearrington Village!
We had the most beautiful weather and enjoyed our pedicures, our tea, visiting the shops, goats, and gardens, and many hours of conversation. She is just the best little friend to spend time with and I love her so.
Clearly, the day took it out of her, ha!
I hope y’all have been enjoying this spring weather, too! Planning to use part of our Memorial Day weekend to make a summer bucket list and keep the fun rolling :)
After scouring the lower half of the Eastern Seaboard, we landed on Jekyll Island, Georgia for our spring break this year. Another blogger’s post was actually what made me look at it in the first place, so I’m happy to return the favor today! Though the island was largely what we were expecting, there were some things that I didn’t fully understand until arriving, so I hope this post is helpful for anyone considering a trip to Jekyll. The short version: it was delightful!
Jekyll Island is a small barrier island in very far south Georgia. It’s actually a state park, which surprised me (I guess I didn’t expect that, since there are hotels, shops, and homes on the island!). This means you have to pay a daily fee before crossing over the bridge (when we visited, it was $8/day), but it surely helps maintain its vibe, which is natural, relaxed, and un-crowded. There was abundant natural beauty and enough activities to keep our young family busy for a 5-day trip, but no traffic and very few lines. A win all around in our book!
From the Triangle, Jekyll is about a six-hour drive, which we decided to break up with an overnight stop in Beaufort, SC (one of our favorite small Southern towns!). We stayed once again at City Loft Hotel, which is perfectly COVID-friendly – it’s a restored roadside motel, so every room opens to the breezeway. The affordable suite we booked allowed our kids to have a separate room with a shared queen bed, which was a little wild settling in the first night, but actually totally fine after that.
Our brief Beaufort stay included a horse-drawn carriage ride, a pizza dinner at Hearth (we ate outside but the interior looks very cool!), ice cream on the riverfront swings, breakfast at Lowcountry Produce (right across the road from City Loft!), a leisurely stroll around the Point historic district (right behind City Loft, and my favorite part), and time at the riverfront playground. I will always advocate for a stop in Beaufort if it’s on your way!
On to Jekyll Island! We booked it for the beach immediately after arriving. Freedooooooom!
We stayed at the Jekyll Ocean Club, a sister property with the Jekyll Island Club. We considered both, but decided on the Ocean Club because we wanted to be close to the beach and the Ocean Club is made up entirely of suites. I think I drove John nuts in the lead-up to our trip because I could NOT for the life of me remember which one we were staying at, but in reality, they are very different properties.
The Ocean Club is modern and casual in feel (it opened in 2017). Like I mentioned, it’s all suites (great for traveling families!), and every room looks out at the ocean. The view we had is above!
The bottom floor is made up of a large lounge area and the resort restaurant, Eighty Ocean. Windowed, garage-style doors roll up to walk out to the pool, and then the beach is just a short walk over the boardwalk from there. The Ocean Club is set in the “hotel district,” so it shares a parking lot and is in close proximity to several other large hotels, like the Westin and a Home2 Suites by Hilton.
The Island Club, on the other hand, is a historic property. It was built in 1888, and reopened as a hotel in 1987. It looks like an elegant yellow castle (complete with turret!) set on sprawling grounds and surrounded by azaleas, historic homes, and huge live oaks draped with Spanish moss. The hotel is bordered on one side by the river and horse-drawn carriages roll by regularly :)
Though it’s elegant and historic (there’s a legit croquet course on the front lawn!), it also felt family-friendly to us – there were lots of multigenerational groups enjoying the pool and restaurants, and kids riding their balance bikes along the fern-lined porches. (Sea Island, another barrier island right above Jekyll, felt a bit more stuffy to us when we visited a few years ago.)
Dotted around the Island Club are a number of historic “cottages,” some of which are available to stay in, as well. I could be wrong, but I don’t *believe* there are any suites in the Island Club.
The nice thing is that because they’re sister properties, as a guest at either, you can access the amenities of both. This was especially helpful during our visit, because during COVID most of the property restaurants were only open to hotel guests. But, even if you visit Jekyll Island and don’t stay at either property, you can still walk the lovely grounds, which I would highly recommend doing! The Ocean Club and the Island Club are less than a five-minute drive apart.
We visited in late March, and the weather ranged from a high of 55 one day (!) to a high of 80. We lucked out with sunshine and blue skies most days, but because it’s on the coast, definitely remember to pack your sweatshirt no matter what time of year you visit!
Here are a few of the activities we enjoyed during our stay:
The beach! The beach at Jekyll is expansive in all directions, and never felt even a bit crowded. We didn’t go in the water much, but our kids had a great time building sandcastles and just generally digging :) Hotel guests can request beach chairs, towels, and umbrellas be set up without an extra fee, and between not having to pile everything into the car or lug heavy equipment to and fro, beach trips were SO easy. We could pop down for even just a half hour without it feeling like a burden!
One cool thing: we were able to walk out to a crazy sandbar one afternoon! John and June are at least a football field away from the shore in this photo.
The pool! This was most definitely the highlight of the trip for June. We stuck to the pool at the Ocean Club, which was family-centric but not wild. She took a dip almost every day, even the 55 degree one :) There are fire pits at both pools, too, where we had s’mores one night. Pro tip: though they have s’mores supplies for purchase, it would be easy and MUCH less cost-prohibitive to bring your own if you knew you’d want to make them on multiple nights.
One morning we visited the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, which is basically on the property of the Island Club. We waited about 45 minutes to get inside, likely because of a triple-threat combo of gray weather, it being spring break, and limited capacity due to COVID. This would not have been a huge issue, but the no-see-ums were out in FORCE, which was a bit challenging – though the only time we were bothered by bugs!
Once inside, our kids enjoyed peeking into the treatment room, where you can watch vets and volunteers care for injured and sick turtles; looking at the kid-friendly info displays; and visiting the hospital pavilion behind the center, where you can stand on an elevated platform and see into tanks holding rehabilitating turtles (volunteers share stories and infos with you there, too!).
We were conflicted on how many days we should rent bikes, but in the end, we went with just one day, which ended up being perfect for our family (currently, a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old). We opted to bring June’s bike with us, because it was easier to pack and already perfectly sized for her, and rented bikes for both John and me. Shep rode in a bike seat on John’s bike, which we also rented. (All from Jekyll Wheels, also on the Island Club property.)
We ended up taking a mammoth 10.5 mile bike ride on the day we rented, in a big loop from the Island Club out to Driftwood Beach and back. This was June’s first time ever riding a bike alongside us, as opposed to us on foot, and I’m as surprised as you she made it that far! This was only possible because Jekyll Island appears to be 100% flat, so it makes for very easy riding. Driftwood Beach was totally worth visiting – and easy to park at if you don’t want to bike there! :)
Our other big adventure was an afternoon trip to Cumberland Island. It’s another barrier island about 45 minutes south of Jekyll, and verrrrrrrrrry longtime readers might remember that John and I took a spring break trip there in college! It was fun to return after 12 years with our two (and counting) kiddos, and both enjoyed the ferry ride and the abundant wild horses. (We saw around 30 in just a quick loop, so if you’re going for the horses, you probably won’t be disappointed!)
We opted to go out on the 11:45 ferry and come back on the 2:45. We were worried it would be too short, but it ended up being great for the short legs we were traveling with :)
A quick rundown of the dining options we tried:
Eighty Ocean: This is the on-site restaurant of the Ocean Club. We had breakfast here about half of our days, and it was delicious! Very yummy pancakes :) We also ate dinner here three nights, and while it is upscale, there were always lots of kids. It’s also easy to burn off a little energy on the pool patio or rooftop deck nearby (above) while waiting for your meal, if needed :) For COVID-consciousness, we were able to be seated on the screened porch area for all of our meals.
The Pantry: This is a grab-and-go market with a menu of sandwiches, flatbread pizzas, and salads on the property of the Island Club. We had breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert here during our stay. The expansive covered porch just outside, above, is a lovely place to eat your meal!
The Wharf: This is a pier stretching into the river, also on the Island Club property. They have indoor and outdoor options, though we only experienced the outdoor. Live music some nights!
The Pool House: As the name suggests, this is an open-air restaurant at the Island Club pool. We ate lunch here twice and it’s a lovely spot!
The Grand Dining Room: I reeeeeeeally wanted to have afternoon tea on the porch of the Island Club, but sadly it was not being offered due to COVID when we visited. Instead, we opted to have breakfast in the Grand Dining Room on our last morning, and though it was fun to see the elegant space, I honestly don’t think it was worth the money for the quality of food. And a little stressful with a wiggly two-year-old :) I would totally do tea if we go back in the future, though!
All in all, Jekyll Island was the perfect spring break respite for our family, and we are SO grateful to have gotten the chance to visit! I would highly recommend it for families of all ages, and particularly for multigenerational family trips. If you have any questions about our visit, I’d be happy to answer!
My blue tiered dress is from Old Navy and my pink cover-up is from Boden! Affiliate links are used in this post!
With so many of us planning road trips these days, and spring break coming up, I thought it might be helpful to share some of our family’s tips and tricks!
John and I love a good asphalt adventure, and once our kids joined the party, we kept right on rolling. June clocked six significant road trips in her first six months of life, we’ve been known to make multiple 10+ hour road trips in a summer, and I kid you not, when we asked June what she was most looking forward to about our upcoming trip to Jekyll Island, she said, “the car ride and the pool.” In that order. So those are our credentials, ha!
One thing to note up front: our kids (currently 5 and 2) do not have or use personal devices (iPads, etc.). A few further things to note:
— If your kids use devices while traveling and you’re happy with the situation, great! You do you. This is not a moral failing and you do not need to explain yourself to me or anyone else, ha!
— If your kids use devices while traveling and you’d rather they didn’t or you’re considering going screen-free, I’ll be the first to encourage you that YOU CAN DO IT! Yes, there might be a rough transition period. Yes, it requires a little more prep and parental engagement. And yes, even once you’re well into it, it’s not always going to be pretty (best to keep your expectations in check!).
For us, though, the benefits outweigh the negatives — benefits like increasing our kids’ patience, attention spans, resilience, and capacity for wonder. We also think it helps them learn to accept uncomfortable situations with good humor and to make friends with boredom, and can strengthen our family bond. (You might find other ways to accomplish these things, if they’re important to you!)
— If you’re traveling solo with kids, all bets are off (almost!). A short (2-3 hour) trip? Sure. Experienced screen-free kids? Sure. Older, more self-sufficient kids? Yes. But the mechanics of parental involvement just become much more complicated when you’re trying to drive at the same time as facilitate.
— I can see a future scenario where we might play a movie on my laptop for both kids to watch for a portion of the trip. Again, you do you!
— This post is specifically about car trips. We have no problem with our kids watching something on a phone, laptop, or back-of-the-seat screen on an airplane because we travel by air MUCH less frequently (so it’s a fun treat) and in an airplane, our neighbors don’t have a choice about sitting near us, so we want to be extra courteous and quiet :)
In short: going screen-free while traveling by car might be harder at first, but it gets easier – and you’ll hopefully find the foundational skills you’re building will pay off in a BIG way down the road.
Now, on to some of the practical tips we’ve found helpful for keeping our preschoolers happy and busy while cruising the highways and byways!
1. Pack great snacks. I am not overly concerned with health or redeeming qualities in road trip snacks, though a variety is helpful to keep things exciting! Goldfish, gummy bears, graham crackers, peanut butter crackers, apple chips, popcorn, blueberries, granola bars, and applesauce pouches are all popular with our crew. In the past, we’ve packed larger bags and brought snack cups to parcel them out, but for this trip I think the kids are old enough to handle individual snack boxes. I ordered these boxes and am going to add their names to the tops with washi tape! I think this will be VERY exciting and keep them busy for awhile.
[Updated to add: here are the boxes in action! They turned out to be a little excessive, ha. The 17 compartments were like snacks for a week for our kids!! Might try repurposing them and getting these for next time, which can be reconfigured.]
P.S. Don’t forget favorite snacks for the parents, too!
2. Pack fun activities. Each of the kids has a L.L. Bean tote bag that I pack with special activities – a mix of their favorites and brand-new surprises. (We have the open top Boat & Totes in size medium – I would size up to larges if I had a do-over!) The bags fit perfectly on the floor in front of a car seat and are easy to access with the open tops. This is helpful since at their current ages I am usually the one meting out the activities, though I’m sure that will change as they get older.
For this trip, June’s bag will include a few favorite books (including an I Spy one like this), a few ponies, coloring and activity books (Octonauts!), a paint-by-sticker book, her Paw Patrol coloring pad, her pouch of markers, printables, and the Guess Who travel game. (A new addition for this trip! The passenger will play with her – Shep isn’t ready to partner yet.)
Since one of you asked, here’s what the second row of our packed car looked like on a recent trip! Snack tote underneath June’s feet (she can rest her feet on it), Shep’s tote within my reach (on the floor), and June’s tote in between the car seats. Cooler on the floor in front of Shep!
3. Be ready to actively engage. Like I mentioned above, going screen-free (especially at this age) means you can’t just disengage and expect to have a distraction-free trip to indulge in your own book, listen to podcasts, or catch up on your magazines (all personal favorite road-trip activities pre-kids!). You might have small pockets of time to dip into these activities, but much of the passenger’s time is spent facilitating. Some activities that have been popular with our crew:
— Reading books from the front — Playing family DJ (taking turns picking songs in a rotation) — Singing songs — Playing I Spy or The Alphabet Game (where you choose a category (animals, foods) and name something in that category for every letter) — Listening to audio books of the kids’ choosing (Narwhal and Jelly was a hit last time).
4. Prep your car. I like to take my car to the car wash a few days before the trip and vacuum it out. This makes me happy (ha!) and is a good excuse to make sure any junk is cleaned out so we have a clean slate at the start. Otherwise, make sure you have your reacher grabber (here’s why), several small trash bags, and have stocked the backseat with lap desks.
5. Stop along the way. Build in time to stop for meals and running around. We always try to find a park, a playground, a nice rest area, or just a patch of grass where we can picnic and stretch our legs.
6. Remember that you set the tone. In the weeks and days before a trip, we talk enthusiastically about how much we’re looking forward to the road trip itself, how we love road trips, and how it’s going to be a great adventure. We compliment the kids along the way whenever they’re behaving well, try our best to keep positive attitudes ourselves, and remember we’re on the same team. And we try to make it fun! For example, when we were all packed and buckled but before we pulled out of the garage, we all put our hands in a pile and shouted, “1, 2, 3, GO TEAM THOMAS!” Cheesy, but preschoolers love cheese :)
I know most of these tips are very specific to the preschool set, but I hope they’re helpful if you have littles in that age range! If you’re traveling with an infant, this post is for you. I have many more road trip ideas for older kids, but we’ll save those for a future post! :)
I would LOVE to hear: what road trip tips and tricks, kid-related or not, have you found helpful for smooth travels? Any upcoming road trips you’re looking forward to?
Well, well, well, 2020. Let’s see what you had in store for the Thomas family.
We kicked off the year with June’s 4th birthday and an epic “day of fun” to celebrate (including her favorite, gem mining!). Sadly, we also experienced our first (though not last) ER visit this month, also for June. Work continued on the Cultivate office, and our Peloton arrived!
Valentine’s Day brought lots of fun celebrations, like the Lovebug Dance (complete with corsage) at our church for John and June and a tea at the Carolina Inn with friends for me. We unveiled the sand table on our front porch and my newly-painted desk, played in the snow, completed our second ER trip (this time with ambulance ride!), and celebrated my birthday with sweet deliveries from friends.
On March 2, we officially moved into Cultivate’s new offices. On March 5, we had a photoshoot. On March 8, we ate our last meal inside a restaurant – for the year. On March 11, the NBA canceled their season, we officially began working from home, and John said, “I think you’d better go to the grocery store” (which I did, two carts later, along with almost everyone else in our town). On March 16, our kids’ school closed indefinitely. Empty grocery shelves, a new juggle of work and childcare (with babysitters added into the mix toward the end of the month), fear and uncertainty… and also penguins roaming aquariums, days off spent with our kids, hikes and car picnics. Weirdly, I published a North Carolina bucket list on the blog this month, ha!
May was more of the same: more bike rides, more hikes and creeks, more strawberries, more porch deliveries, and so many snack trays. We punctuated our days with a backyard campout (!), a new porch gate, and the sweetest Mother’s Day celebrated with picnic and scoot in downtown Raleigh. My parents were also able to visit for 10 days or so, which was a huge blessing for everyone (especially when our car was broken into and wallets stolen…).
On the blog, I shared a pair of posts about meal planning: my recipe binder and my routines!
As you can see in June in June, we continued to make the most of our time together at home, with ice cream, hikes, another campout (this time with Mama!), Father’s Day celebrations, trips to the Eno, and a backyard kiddie pool. We also spent much time thinking, reflecting, and talking as the racial justice conversation exploded. The tomatoes continued to roll in.
July had a LOT of highlights: road trips to Maine (with a beloved stop in the Berkshires along the way) and Connecticut (with a celebration for Shep’s birthday), so much family after such a long drought, John’s birthday, and progress on the Advent calendar (finally!). We have SO many sweet memories from this month!
Thankful for cousin visits, bike rides, trips to the Museum, and a cozy Thanksgiving just the four of us in November. I shared what we planned to give our kids for Christmas, always a popular post.
We ended the year with a really wonderful December, complete with a miraculous Christmas shrub glow-up, a visit from my parents, and plenty of magic for our first-ever Christmas morning at home, just the four of us (a fitting end-cap for the year).
Friends, thank you for indulging me. No matter the year, these posts are such a treat for me to write, and always some of my favorites to look back on years later. They help me to notice the good things, do my best to facilitate more of them, and remember to thank God for every delight (and for being with us in the struggles) along the way.
I know I’ve said it before, but I am SO excited for what we’ll discuss here in 2021. Thank you for being here, and for sharing so generously with me! It’s one of the delights of my life. Wishing you a healthy, happy, and abundant new year. I’ll see you soon! :)
