Do you ever drive your husband crazy because one side of your personality says "Save! Pay off debt! Don't buy anything ever!" and then the other side says "We really need to go on a vacation! We work hard, we should enjoy ourselves every once in a while! I'd rather buy memories than things!"
No? Me neither.
Just kidding, guilty as charged. While I'm normally a great saver and debt-payer-offer, sometimes I set aside a little money in our
Hawaii vacation fund that
never happened and save up enough for a little getaway for the family. Partly it’s because I’m a super fun mom, but mostly it’s
because I go crazy if we have a week off from school and work and have nothing
planned.
So on this February vacation, we packed up
The Beast and
drove to Coco Key!
We had stayed at a
Coco Key Resort in New Jersey
last year because I got a wicked good deal on a
groupon.
This year, no luck with the
groupon, but when we were planning our day trip, I realized it would be hardly
any money more to stay overnight which meant we could go to Coco Key for an
afternoon/evening
and the next day.
Score!
(Disclaimer: all photos taken on my phone, so blurriness ahead!)
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| The city! |
Cari, does this bridge count as architecture? If so, then
I'm playing!
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| Boston Bridge |
We tried to check in at 4 but our room wasn’t ready yet, so
I asked the lady for our bracelets to go swimming in the meantime. We swam our little hearts out until around 7
pm when we finally went and checked into the room. Because we had waited so long, they didn’t
even charge us for two passes to the waterpark.
Four were included with the hotel room, and Xander was free, so score again!
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| My lovies in their swimmies. |
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| One part of the water park |
The hotel room was awesome, it was a family suite and had a
separate area with 2 twin beds and a tv, and then a big room with a king size
bed, fridge and microwave. The fridge
and microwave are essentials to us on a trip because I pack up food to save
moolah. See…thrifty!
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| Get out of here, Mom, we're watching the Disney Channel that you won't pay for at home. |
We had a roughish night because Xander didn’t want to sleep
very well in his pack and play (come on Graco, can you make a plusher version?), and against every ounce of my being, we finally
let him come sleep in the bed with us.
He still thrashed all around and beat us up pretty bad.
But alas, morning came and we raced out to make it to the 7
am Mass I had researched. We arrived at
7:04 which is pretty Martin standard, only to see the priest blowing out the
candles. Apparently Mass starts at 6:45
during Lent and is super-duper quick.
How about updating your websites, Catholic parishes??? A cute old lady saw us fly in only to turn
around and leave and said “Don’t worry, God knows your heart” and made us feel
almost as good as daily Mass would have.
We then went to breakfast at a restaurant where I had bought
a
restaurant.com certificate from (thrifty wins again!) and it was
delicious.
Eamon, who is our red velvet
fanatic (why? who knows?), was so psyched to see red velvet pancakes on the menu that he ordered
three, and the nice waitress sized up his puny frame and said that probably two
would do.
When he tasted how good they
were, he said “Next time I am definitely getting 3!”
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| Seriously, the pancakes are bigger than he is! |
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| Yes, they are all mine. Thank you, stranger, for asking me the most popular question of my life. |
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| Because I knows you needed a closeup of my ultimate omelet. |
After we had stuffed ourselves and answered a plethora
questions about our family size, and how we got around, we left to go back to
the hotel to change into water wear, pack up and check out. Then we went to the water park and played for
4 hours before heading home.
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| Ear plugs, courtesy of ear tubes. |
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| You mean I can splash and make messes without getting into trouble?? |
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| I do have four other children, but this is the one I had to watch like a hawk...through my phone camera lens, of course. |
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| See! There's my girl! |
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| My two babes. |
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| Surfer Boys |
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| For a bathing suit that is practically a dress, the upper crest could use a little more fabric. |
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| Come on guys, just look happy for a second. |
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| Ahh, Dad can relax because Xander is.... |
...wait for it...
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| Napping in the stroller!! |
My lazy river boys:
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| Andrew |
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| John-Paul |
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| Eamon |
See the big bucket at the top of the slides? And those happy people waiting in line below?
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| Dry |
They ain't so happy anymore!
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| Wet |
Of course, we can’t make a trip near Boston without finding
and stopping at a Trader Joe's to pick up our two buck chuck groceries. Oh Trader Joe’s why won’t you open a store
that’s less than an hour away from our home?
The car ride home was a leeeetle longer than I like, but I
watched
Minor Revisions on my phone and the kids played with their fantastic
car kits their Aunt Larisa made them.
We
stuffed the baby full of food and Veggie Tales songs, and all were content.
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| Look what one mini chocolate pretzel can do! |
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| Healthier fare |
Now that we are back home, the kids are already saying
“Remember when we went to Coco Key?” (um, yeah it was today) and trying to plan
out our next trip. Who says money can’t
buy happiness? Hehehehe! But really, family getaways are something I
love to spend on (frugally! And within reason! – sorry, my thrifty side was
getting anxious).
