This was our third annual Spring Break trip to Topsail Hill in Santa Rosa Beach, FL and it just seems to get better every year! As usual, the weather was great, the campground was pristine, and the times were good. We eagerly look forward to heading back next year!
We took our time getting ready on Saturday and had most everything packed for the Sunday morning departure. Traffic was fine and we ended up pulling into spot #11 at 12:30. Once everything was set up, we headed down to the beach for our first taste of the perfectly calm ocean. The kids did their usual … Carter and Caroline ran from waves and Cora played endlessly in the sand. Kelly and I joined in on both and also found time to lay down and relax.
Monday was more of the same but with an earlier beach trip … and it also included a lift on the family favorite Topsail State Park shuttle! We came back and had some awesome sandwiches that Kelly made before Cora went down for nap. Side note: Kelly rocked the food for this trip. We only ate out once and had our fill of good meals the whole time we were there. It was pretty great.
Kelly's meals:
Breakfast: Quick meals- kids favorite chocolate donuts, bananas and yogurt and steel cut oats with berries and walnuts for us... on our cooking mornings we had pancakes, sausage and eggs
Dinners- making taco meat before was huge... we ate them the first night and had them throughout the week, also had chili hotdog night and bratwurst night.... sooo healthy!
Tuesday the kids pushed back on going to the beach. It was mainly because Carter got really sunburned on the back of his legs (mommy and daddy had a miscommunication on who was going to apply … ouch). Caroline was more interested in making a return trip to the pool, even though the water was too cold to get in. We went anyway and ended up sitting around the pool while the kids acted out different sea animals. It was pretty fun.
Caroline's crab stance, Kelly and Cora's bike ride, Kelly got her tabata workouts in, the kids played so well together with puzzles, coloring, a scavenger hunt, sitting by the fire, cleaning dishes, playing tag, uno, go fish, soooo much fun!
***It must be noted that the kids did the dishes this trip. Kelly, being the old Environmental Science teacher, likes to help our environment when we can... which unfortunately means more work. But now that the kids are cleaning the dishes rather than us throwing away paper plates, it worked out quite well! They have quite a system down made of three parts, one for each kid!
That evening we headed into Rosemary Beach for our annual trip to Pizza by the Sea. The kids always do so well there and we enjoy their variety of options. The night was cooler than we were expecting but it still worked out for us. After dinner we headed to Seaside to complete our other annual tradition: buying 75 cent sea animals from Sundog Books. We usually end up spending about 20 minutes deciding who should get which animal, how many they are allowed to get, etc. It’s all fun for the kids and they really look forward to this. Unfortunately, Caroline realized on the way home that she had left Moo-Moo (her stuffed animal cow) at Sundog. Kelly called the store, they found Moo-Moo, and I headed back the next morning with the girls so we could reunite the two. It was an adventure for sure.
Caroline's crab stance, Kelly and Cora's bike ride, Kelly got her tabata workouts in, the kids played so well together with puzzles, coloring, a scavenger hunt, sitting by the fire, cleaning dishes, playing tag, uno, go fish, soooo much fun!
***It must be noted that the kids did the dishes this trip. Kelly, being the old Environmental Science teacher, likes to help our environment when we can... which unfortunately means more work. But now that the kids are cleaning the dishes rather than us throwing away paper plates, it worked out quite well! They have quite a system down made of three parts, one for each kid!
That evening we headed into Rosemary Beach for our annual trip to Pizza by the Sea. The kids always do so well there and we enjoy their variety of options. The night was cooler than we were expecting but it still worked out for us. After dinner we headed to Seaside to complete our other annual tradition: buying 75 cent sea animals from Sundog Books. We usually end up spending about 20 minutes deciding who should get which animal, how many they are allowed to get, etc. It’s all fun for the kids and they really look forward to this. Unfortunately, Caroline realized on the way home that she had left Moo-Moo (her stuffed animal cow) at Sundog. Kelly called the store, they found Moo-Moo, and I headed back the next morning with the girls so we could reunite the two. It was an adventure for sure.
For our last full day, we went back to the back and soaked up even more time on the sand. Even though the water was cold we managed to all head out there for a bit. The water was calm all week but this particular day was incredible. Since it was so nice, we stayed a little longer than normal … long enough for Kelly to rock Cora to sleep on the beach!
We also went for some Ice Cream and Pecan Jacks! That is some good stuff!
Later that evening we went fishing for a bit. Our rods are not in the best shape and kept malfunctioning, but somehow Caroline’s new princess fishing rod she got for Christmas managed to reel in big one. Caroline had been telling us her line was moving but we really didn’t believe her because everyone else’s hook had been getting stuck on lily pads. Surprise surprise. Once we got some pictures, Carter took over. He said he knew how to hold the fish to get him off the hook, and he was right. It was a classic evening for sure.
The final morning was normal last day stuff, with the exception of the incredible breakfast we cooked! Pancakes, sausage, eggs, and avocados. Yummmmmmmmmy! It was pretty great! After eating, we started the cleanup process and managed to get it done decently quick. Since we had been there four nights there was a lot more to clean up this time.
All in all, it was another great trip to Topsail. We’ve been there three times for a total of about 10-12 days, and we have yet to experience a bad day. The weather is always incredible and the campground is always the best. We have some very fond memories from this place and we are looking forward to more in the future!
