vacation recap - Ashley Zin

So guys, I dropped the ball last week and forgot to take a bump shot for our bumpdate. So I decided to just skip this week and combine weeks 23 and 24 together next week. Today I want to share with you about our babymoon we went on about a month ago. It was really such a great vacation!

We went to Wildwood, New Jersey this summer for vacation because both Tommy and I love the beach. We decided to consider this our “babymoon” because it’ll be our last vacation before baby arrives! We went from August 10th through the 15th. It was a pretty low-key vacation, considering I was 19 weeks pregnant but it was honestly so much fun. I am honestly terrible about taking pictures while on vacation so there aren’t many but I will do my best to recap what we did.

Day 1: August 10th

We left early on this day to get down to Wildwood early enough to enjoy the day. We probably left around 7 or 8 am and got down there before noon. The drive is about 2 1/2 hours without traffic and since it was the middle of the week, we didn’t hit any! The first day we went food shopping and unpacked in our room. We spent a little bit of time at the beach and relaxed.

Day 2: August 11th

The next day we woke up early, had some breakfast then headed to the beach! (As you’ll see we did every morning. 😉) We ended up having really nice weather. It wasn’t too hot, but also not too chilly either and most days we had a decent amount of sun. Around lunch time we would head back to the room and eat and then relax for a while.

As you can see in the picture, the beach in Wildwood is super long and pretty far away from the hotel. Being pregnant and having to pee a lot meant having to walk back to the hotel at least once before lunch. We clocked it once and it was about a mile walk from the hotel to the beach and back so if I went back just twice during the day, I was walking 3 miles. This made this pregnant lady quite tired after lunch so I usually took a nap every day haha.

Day 3: August 12th

On the third day we started out the day the same as every other day: we woke up, ate breakfast, and spent some time at the beach. On this day we got to go on a nice little date night! It was such a nice time we got to spend together.

We went to Wildwood last year and went to this amazing Italian restaurant and loved it so much that we decided to go back this year. So that’s where we went for dinner and it was such a nice night.

Day 4: August 13th

I believe this is the day that it rained all morning. I do believe that it cleared up by the afternoon and we were able to spend a little time on the beach still. We didn’t mind the rain too much either because it happened to be Harry Potter weekend this weekend! Since Tommy and I don’t have cable at home and love the Harry Potter movies, we were super excited to have discovered this. We spent a lot of time watching the movies on the rainy day, plus each night before bed too.

Also, on days we spent at the beach we did a little bit of reading as well. It’s one of my favorite things to do at the beach!

Day 5: August 14th

After lunch on this day we rented beach bikes and rode around for a while! This was honestly super fun and now we talk about buying bikes together so we can do this more often (plus baby next year!). Beach bikes are just so much more fun than regular bikes too.

Day 6: August 15th

We had to check out by 10 am this day and it happened to be raining again so we decided to head home a bit early. We had a really nice drive home and were so excited to be reunited with our little puppy! This was the first time she had been away from us since we moved her in and she went a bit crazy while we were gone. I had my cousin watching her and while my cousin left for a few hours, Noelle panicked a bit and scratched up a few things in the house. It wasn’t too bad though and we were super happy to see her again when we got home.

I included my bump shot from this week as well. It’s crazy to see how much has changed already since then! My belly is so much bigger now!

Our babymoon was such an awesome trip and we both can’t wait to bring Baby Zin to the beach next year!

I’m so excited to be back and recapping my vacation with you guys! I had such a great time, and can’t wait to share all about it. If you don’t regularly read my blog or you just don’t know, last week my family and I took a trip down to Florida. We drove down from New Jersey, which was about an 18-20 hour drive. Today I’m going to be recapping each day and what we did while we were down there.

Saturday

We left Friday, April 7th around 3 pm and didn’t get to my grandparents house (where we were staying for the week) until 12 noon on Saturday. We drove through the night and didn’t get much sleep at all so we didn’t do much of anything on Saturday. We just caught up and spent time with my grandparents.

Sunday

On Sunday we were ready to start exploring and my brother heard about a place called Blue Springs where you can see manatees and it happened to be just 10 mins from my grandparents house. So on Sunday we all went to the Blue Springs State Park and got to actually go boating with the manatees, which was crazy when you think about it because these animals are known as Sea Cows because of how big they are. Since they are also known as the Gentle Giant, it was safe to be near them as well, which was so cool.

It was so cool how close you could get to them.

It was so beautiful there. The landscape was so different from what we were used to seeing.

This was most of our’s favorite day. It was really unexpected too because we didn’t plan this day until we got down there and didn’t know we could boat with the manatees either. It was super fun.

Monday

On Monday we went to New Smyrna Beach. It wasn’t quite as warm as I hoped that it was going to be because once we got down by the ocean it was about 10 degrees colder (around 70) than back at my grandparent’s house. It still was fun though. We got to sunbathe and just see how different the Florida beaches were from New Jersey beaches. My favorite part is the palm trees. It just gives the area such a different feel to it.

My camera was dead this day so I didn’t pictures. I took this one from my iPhone.

Tuesday

On Tuesday we went to the Central Florida Zoo that was about 15 mins from my grandparents house. Tommy loves animals and I was so excited to go with him because he makes it so much more fun. We got so many good animal shots.

Funny picture Tommy snapped of my brother, mom, and cousin

American Alligator (one of my favorite animals to see)

Black Panther sleeping on it’s back like a dog haha!

Wednesday

On Wednesday we went to another spring named DeLeon Springs about 45 mins from my grandparents house. There was a pancake house that had a griddle in the middle of each table where you got to cook your own pancakes. The place was just awesome looking and so historic. We got to swim in the spring and also go boating again!

It used to be an Old Sugar Mill, inside is where you make the pancakes.

More Willow Trees (They were everywhere at this spring.)

After we came back from this we at dinner together, like we did every night (which was really special). Then my grandma showed me how to make the cookies that she made all my life. It was really cool because Tommy and his grandma also made them as he was growing up too. They’re called Pizzelles and are so delish.

It was really special to me to learn how to make these from my grandma.

Thursday

On Thursday we traveled to Orlando (about an hour from my grandparents) and visited an aquarium! We wanted to go to Disney but since it was so many other’s Spring Break too the prices were a bit steep so we decided to wait on that. It would have cost us $150 per person just for the tickets for one day! So we settled on an aquarium instead and it was really fun too. It was really hard to get pictures of the animals here since they were swimming the whole time, haha.

They had these little pop-up bubbles which were really fun.

Tommy was messing around and got this semi-candid shot of my mom, brother, and me.

After the aquarium we headed back to my grandparents and took them out to eat for dinner for their 57th Anniversary!

Friday

On Friday we woke up at 4 am and drove all the way back to New Jersey (1100 miles!) and got home around 11 pm. It was rough but totally worth it for such a great trip. I can’t wait to go back already!

Wildwood Babymoon Recap