Spring Break!!!

This is our first real Spring Break vacation!! We usually stay home because Ben doesn't get time off. The few times he has gotten time off we have gone to see family, which is great, but I figured that we need to start seeing this part of the country while we live here. For some reason I have been wanting to see the white sand beaches of the Gulf Coast. I had read that they were amazing and decided we needed to check them out. Ben was a little hard to convince. He was worried about wild Spring Breakers at the beach, so I made sure that no colleges had the same spring break as us ;) I also let him plan in a few stops along the way so we were all pretty excited about this road trip!

First stop was Nashville, TN! It was a really fun city, but not the most kid friendly. We decided to take a trolley tour that would take us to all of the top spots in Nashville. We were able to drive by some famous musician spots, and get off and see a few fun museums and buildings. It was a fun, and tiring, day!

 After our tour of Nashville we headed to Huntsville, AL! We got there just in time to catch a glow in the dark Easter Egg Hunt!! It was a new experience for us and pretty fun :)

 The kids loved all of the hotels we got to stay in along the way. Cole claimed he didn't like sharing a bed with his siblings but I think this picture proves otherwise ;)

 Our only full day in Huntsville we fueled up at the hotel breakfast and then headed off to make Ben and Cole's dreams come true...we visited the NASA Space and Rocket Center!! There were a lot of real rockets that were pretty amazing to look at, some fun simulators and rides, and A LOT for my nerdy boys to read and learn ;) It was a pretty tiring day for me to chase the littles around and make sure no one got lost, but it was pure bliss for my space loving boys (Ben and Cole)!

 The next day was Easter and the Sabbath, so we found a local ward and attended church. Then we drove the last leg of our road trip to Gulf Shores, AL!! I couldn't wait to hit up the beach and soak in some rays! The sand was super fine and soft and we had a blast playing in the ocean and building sand castles! Luckily we had a little tent for Brynlee and her baby skin, because the rest of us got fried :( I guess we were too busy playing to remember to reapply sunscreen. But the day was amazing and we enjoyed our beach day!

 Since we all got sunburned the first day at the Shores we decided that instead of heading back to the beach again we would explore the city. So we found a popular restaurant and then an arcade where we played lots of games and drove karts...safely out of the suns rays ;)

 We headed back to the beach for sunset, because what's better than a sunset at the beach?!

 We ended our night shopping for souvenirs at this funny store where we walked through a shark mouth to get inside :)

 Our last day we headed over to Pensacola, FL to visit the Naval Museum there. It was fun to see all of the naval jets and let the kids (and Ben, haha) explore. I would have loved to spend another day at the beach, but this was part of our compromise. After all, it was a family trip...not mommy's vacation ;)

 We had an amazing, fun filled, and exhausting road trip exploring the great south! It was a super awesome Spring Break, full of fun memories I hope. I'm so glad that we decided to be adventurous and explore this part of the country that we haven't seen before. I'm ready to explore somewhere new now!! ;)