This year we decided to do a few things close to home for spring break. With a 5 year old and a 2 year old traveling can be quite an adventure of its own. We didn’t want to go anywhere that would be notoriously over crowded so we opted for a few adventures in our comfort zone.
We started the week by driving up to my husband’s grandmother’s lake property on Lake Fork. The area itself is pretty quaint, which was the vibe we were going for. We just wanted to relax by the lake, do a little fishing, enjoy the outdoors and of course make s’mores. It was just what we needed to start off spring break. Bonus: we found an awesome little park in Quitman, TX that was built by the Sabine River Authority. It was perfect, I highly suggest you check it out if ever on the area!
Next on the agenda our favorite, Huntsville State Park. All the camping spots were booked of course, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying the numerous trails and beautiful spring weather. (One of these days we will take the boys camping!)
We really wanted to do something new so we decided on the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin, TX. I knew ahead of time that this was a much smaller zoo, however we heard great things.
It was definitely small, and honestly, a little underwhelming. A lot of the bigger animals were hiding and there were quite a few exhibits under construction. Overall it was a pretty little zoo, and we did enjoyed our visit (especially seeing all the peacocks that freely roam the grounds).
And that’s a wrap for Spring Break 2025…we’ve got plenty more adventure on the agenda for this year 🙃
We knew we’d be laying my grandma to rest this summer in Saint Louis, MO, and in order to get there, we had to plan.
To get to St. Louis from our home in Texas we were looking at an 11 1/2 hour drive one way. With a 2 year old and a 4 year old that task seemed almost impossible so we decided to break it up in to multiple days.
Our first day of driving was supposed to be about 5 hours but of course took much longer;we knew it would. We took into consideration potty breaks, bathroom breaks, and honestly the occasional snuggle breaks for our sweet toddler.
We stayed in McAlester, OK the first night and it was just okay. The hotel was decent, the area was fine, the biggest letdown was the dirty pool. I intentionally booked every hotel along the way with the pool in mind and unfortunately that didn’t work out as planned. But we made the best of the situation and had dinner and ice cream at the Braum’s next to the hotel.
Day two we planned to see my little brother and family in the Kansas City area. We really had such a great time. Nothing makes my heart happier than seeing our sweet boys enjoy their family, especially their cousins. We stayed in Lenexa, KS the second night and in hindsight we definitely would have stayed with family. I did not pick a good hotel, it was a tad sketchy and the bearded one got stuck in the elevator! (Which of course we can laugh about now).
Another 5+ hours in the car on day 3 and we finally arrived in St. Louis. I picked my favorite hotel for our 3 night stay, Hilton Home2Suites. If you’ve never stayed, I highly suggest it. The rooms are huge and have plenty of space for the littles to run around. They have a large kitchen area, pool, breakfast everyday, and so much more. It’s our go-to hotel on long vacations. The first night there we picked up some groceries and used the hotel grills for our dinner.
While in STL we attended my grandmother memorial at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. It was definitely difficult, but I was happy to be around my loved ones.
After the service we all went to a pretty good restaurant, Three Kings Public House. Once again our boys got to see more of their family.
We didn’t want to rush back home to Texas so we decided to do some sightseeing and explore STL a bit. First we picked up my older brother and went to see our old house, my grandmother’s house, and hit up a few favorites like Ted Drew’s and Imo’s (you can’t go wrong with frozen custard and pizza).
The next day we wanted to check out the science center but it’s closed on Tuesday and Wednesdays so we went to the zoo instead.
Fun fact: The STL Zoo is free! My brother and I have so many great memories of the zoo and it was the perfect place to take the boys. We stayed all day, saw all the animals, and road the train a couple of times. It was the perfect ending to our whirl wind road trip.
After we left STL we traveled home a different way, which took us through Arkansas. We stayed in North Little Rock in a hotel downtown. The hotel was good but once again the pool was closed. We did however find a cute little park on the river and let the boys run off some of that energy from the long hours in the car.
Our last day in the car was the longest at just over six hours (before all the stops). But at last, we made it home safe and sound. After 4 different hotels, 6 days on the road, and ridiculous amount of hours in the car, we finally made it home.
My biggest takeaways from this road trip would have to be
Go with the flow, stop often, don’t get stuck on the minute to minute plans, you will eventually get to you destination
Pack snacks, lots and lots of snacks, our boys have their own snack boxes
Keep them entertained, we bought dual DVD players which we used a lot
Having a baby has been the biggest adventure of our lives and I have loved every single minute of parenthood. But, traveling isn’t quite what it use to be. The Bearded One and I use to spontaneously book an Air B&B, pack an overnight bag, and hop in the car, which is an absolutely impossible task these days.
Don’t get me wrong, we still love to travel, and we plan to take Baby O on endless adventures, but it can get a little tricky these days.
First of all we have to plan our adventures a little better, and account for any little bump in the road. Will he be fussy? When will we need to stop to change a diaper? Can we stop by a restaurant or should we eat in the car? So many questions with a plethora of possible scenarios!
All of those little details can be worked out, we are quite flexible when it comes to travel and preparation. The biggest question is, where can we take a toddler?!
Not all of our old favorite stomping grounds are necessarily toddler friendly. While I’d love to take him to a local brewery, or outdoor concert, it just isn’t possible to expect him to sit still for a lengthy amount of time. Baby O is a wild one and he definitely needs to be entertained at all times. He needs to run and climb and explore his surrounds…which begs the question, where do we take him?!
We do have a few vacations already in the works but we would LOVE some realistic suggestions! (too tiny for theme parks, Disney is out of the question!)
We are for sure going to Mexico on our big Anniversary trip with family and friends, and we are excited and nervous about that one (first plane ride for Baby O)!
We’re also taking him to The Preserve, an elephant sanctuary only a few hours from home. I am super excited about this one and I hope he loves it! (Here’s the link if you’d like to check it out https://g.co/kgs/DhrhAp ).
If you have any suggestions, ideas, personal experiences or advice on fun toddler trips for this summer, please share! We want to make the most out of every moment with our littlest adventurer.
“Let’s drive 14 + hours with a 5 month old. It will be fun!”….said no sane person ever. But, that’s exactly what we did.
After packing up the entire house (mostly baby stuff) we loaded up the car and headed to Colorado for baby O’s first big adventure.
We had no idea what to expect. Would he sleep? Would he scream? How many times would we have to stop? Just like every other first time parent challenge, we jumped in head first and winged it.
I’m not going to lie, there were times in the car he was inconsolably upset, but those were few and far in between. Overall, he did pretty well, especially when I crawled in the backseat and kept him entertained.
Baby O’s loooonnnggg car ride
Other then the minimal stress of the car ride, Colorado was stunning as always.
The first few days we were there we had crazy weather. It snowed…in June. This was not just Texas slushy snow either. This was beautiful, huge snowflakes that actually stuck to the ground for a bit. We of course had to take all the mandatory snow pictures and let baby O experience his first snowfall!
Snow in June
Once the snow cleared up we were able to do what we do best, hike and enjoy the outdoors. In previous years we never really contemplated our hikes, we just lightly packed and headed to the mountain. Not this time. We thoughtfully and throughly packed for all of babies needs. We even bought a pretty neat hiking backpack for O….he lasted an hour in it…. Although we didn’t make it to the top of Hoosier Pass, we still enjoyed our time together and being able to witness baby O’s fascination with the great outdoors.
Baby’s first big vacation was a success and I can’t wait to travel the world with our little adventurer. First stop, Colorado, next stop….
NOLA lived up to all the hype, even for a Monday night. We stayed on Bourbon St. and Toulouse and never had a dull moment. Drinks and food, music and street performers, we experienced it all in less than 24 hours.
Of course we did all the touristy things like walk around Jackson Square, grab a couple hand grenadines, and indulge on some delicious beignets.
We enjoyed an array of oysters at several different locations, the food overall was phenomenal and we’d return for that alone! (I’d recommend specific restaurants but we went to so many places to share apps and drinks I lost track! )
Overall, a successful first stop on our 2019 road trip; next up Pensacola.
So folks, we’ve been in California for the past five days and we’re pretty much in love. The ocean, the beautiful weather, the endless exploration …what’s not to love? (Okay well maybe the traffic sucks but that’s an entirely different blog)
We started our trip off in San Diego. I found the perfect little Air B&B guest house in the South Park neighborhood and we settled down there for 3 days.
While in San Diego we checked out the zoo, the beaches, and Old Town. I’m not a huge zoo fan but the San Diego Zoo lives up to its reputation, it was beautiful. There was so much too see and it was prestigiously clean and well taken care of. We cover the majority of the park in about 4 hours.
After our zoo adventure we drove down to the beaches to decide where we wanted to spend the next day. We started with Imperial Beach which was gorgeous. I really enjoyed the small beach town as well but it was packed. The whole town was preparing for the annual Surf and Sun Festival the following day. We were able to see the beginning of the sand castle competition and walk along the pier.
Although Imperial Beach and Pier was awesome, we decided it would be too packed the following day. Our beach day was spent at Silver Strand Beach and it was perfect. We arrived pretty early, way before the crowds and spent about 3 hours enjoying the sun, sand, and ocean breeze.
Old Town was our last stop in San Diego. After doing a little research we learned all about the history of Old Town. It was the very first settlement in SD. You can walk around the historic park, enjoy the old buildings with their individual stories to tell, and learn about the history of Old Town with the many costumed employees.
Fun fact: Old Town is also the home of The Whaley House, which is known as one of the most haunted places in the US.
We had a spectacular time in San Diego and would definitely return. Three days went nearly enough time to visit everything the city had to offer!
*After leaving SD we drove up the coast and stopped at several beaches along the way. Beaches photo blog coming up next!
Well ladies and gentlemen, we’ve covered quite some ground in the last 24 hours. We’ve seen the white sands in New Mexico, the organ pipe cacti in Arizona and we will arrive on the pacific coast of California this evening. We have been pleasantly overwhelmed by the beauty of nature on this trip and we’ve used every opportunity to stop and explore. An hour detour here, 30 minutes there, every extra minutes and mile was well worth it.
White Sands National Monument
We knew a little ahead of time we wanted to see the white sands in New Mexico and we couldn’t have picked a better day. When we arrived it was about 68 degrees and the views were stunning. While we explore all these places we always take the time to learn a little about the history. The white sands aren’t technically sand, they are white gypsum and they’ve been around for over 8,000 years. There are over 275 square miles of white gypsum dunes and a large portion of them are enjoyed by visitors from all over. I visited here as a child but I really didn’t remember much of it. As an adult, it’s completely mesmerizing and I’m still impressed by the park overall.
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
Our next stop was Tucson Arizona. We didn’t really do much in Tucson, except eat some bomb-ass pizza at a little place called Dry River Pizza and Beer. After that we spent the evening researching things to do in AZ. The Bearded One found Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and was determined to see these cacti. It was slightly out of the way but well worth it. The desert terrain is nothing like we’d imagined it would be. It’s full of unique vegetation, most of which we’ve never really seen before.
We’ve already seen quite a lot and can’t wait to explore California next. We will be in San Diego for the next few days and then up the coast from there!
Well folks, it happened, my biggest travel dilemma. I, who plans, researches, checks and double checks everything booked a RANDOM hotel and it’s a little sketchy….well maybe sketchy isn’t the correct adjective but it is definitely out of my comfort zone. I told he Bearded One “let’s try something different” and I got exactly what I asked for. So let me explain. It’s a name brand hotel, nothing too off the wall, it’s just designed whacky. The lobby is dead center in the middle of the building and all be rooms are interior doors that look down into the lobby, restaurant, pools and shops. But check this out, the doors to the rooms are all glass French doors (super odd). Pretty awkward hotel room to say the least.
Our door on the left our view on he right
Enough about the hotel, day two on the road was eventful. We pretty much stopped at random scenic lookouts the whole way. We also visited the Fort Lancaster museum, in the middle of nowhere. After our rainy driving adventures we stopped in Las Cruces for the night. We gorged on some New Mexican food (I’ll stick with Tex-Mex) and then took a drive around the Organ Mountain Range to try to catch the sunset. We took lots of beautiful pictures and spend the night looking up the history of the surround areas in New Mexico.
Our first overnight stop was yesterday in Fredericksburg and we had a pretty great time. If you’ve never been, Fredericksburg is a smaller hill country town known for its wineries, distilleries and German heritage. There are lots of historical sites and museums spread throughout the town, especially on Main Street.
We’ve only been to Fredericksburg one other time so we thought this would be be perfect little overnighter to kick off our trip. Once again I used Air B&B and actually found the perfect little inn (Fredericksburg Inn & Suites). The inn is located just a few blocks from Main Street and had ample amenities. We really enjoyed the pool and of course my Texas shaped waffle this morning.
Main Street is where all the ‘action’ takes place in Fredericksburg. It’s filled with little shops, wine tasting rooms, restaurants and historical sites. We kicked off our trip with a couple tastings from Texas wineries such as Becker Vineyards, Fiesta Winery, and Fat Ass Ranch and Winery. The Bearded One was not impressed with our fruity selections (coconut lime wine, watermelon, peaches) but it was an in good fun. One downside To Fredericksburg is that every thing pretty much closes early, like 5:00-5:30. We didn’t get to explore too many shops due the early closures but we were able to enjoy a couple of drinks, appetizers and live music at Silver Creek Beer Garden and Grill.
The Texas hill country is also known for Enchanted Rock (we’ve hiked it) and other outdoor activities that are just too hot to explore during July. We will have to come back during cooler weather to take full advantage of this beautiful area
Overall, we had a pretty successful first day on our road trip. Today we are headed out to…El Paso? Las Cruces? …..we will see!
The Adventures of Messy Bun and The Bearded One 