Our Staycation Spring Break {in Instagram photos}

Between our Seaside/Rosemary Beach weekend, an upcoming anniversary trip to Reynold's Plantation in April and a gifted Christmas trip to the TPC at Sawgrass in May, we decided to "staycation" for Spring Break this year. The kids and I busied ourselves with local attractions and enjoying the beautiful weather outdoors.

Monday, we ventured to the Tallahassee Museum to check out the animals and the playground. The animals were out to perform for the crowds. This turkey strutted his stuff for his female counterpart. 

This deer wanted a closer look at us, and actually stood on his hindlegs to sniff us.

We saw all other sorts of animals, including snakes, emu, horses, a cow, a fox, an otter, a bear, an alligator and some Florida panthers. We stopped for play time at their park and lunch at the cafe.

Next we checked out the pioneer settlement {farm and buildings}. Sitting on some kids' buck skin chairs on the porch of one of the houses.

Trying out the out house.

Looking very brotherly and sisterly on the steps of the stable.

Then we headed to play on the red caboose.

Monday was also my birthday, so we celebrated with a grouper dinner and cupcakes al fresco at my parent's house.

My birthday gift was this cute luggage from Vera Bradley. A nice surprise for this southern girl that's never {in her 33 years} owned a piece of Vera Bradley luggage.

Tuesday we ventured downtown and checked out the capitol.

Jack loved the ride up the elevator and the view from the observation deck!

Next we had a little scavenger hunt at the old capitol building, preserved now as a history museum.

Paige just colored her scavenger hunt. Did I mention that this girl loves to color?

Jack posed in the vintage Tallahasseean cut outs.

We stopped for a quick refueling {lunch} at a Downtown eatery, then hopped over the public library to view the area elementary schools art display. Jack's tree painting was chosen as one of about 10 works of art to represent Conley Elementary. I think it is quite a nice piece of abstract art!

Wednesday we met a friend at the park and played for a few hours, then went to the grocery store and got some laundry done at home.

Thursday I gave the kids a break and they relaxed at home for most of the day while I got some cleaning done. Then we went to Nana and Poppy's house to play for a bit.

Friday, we went for a bike ride and a trip to the kid zone at the gym, while momma got some much needed "me" time on the treadmill.

Then we enjoyed a picnic lunch on the back porch.

And ate watermelon. And pretended like it was summer.

I did a little shopping with Nana while Poppy babysat for about an hour. Then the kids got to hang out with Cherelle. It's so rare that we need a babysitter and we are actually fortunate enough to usually not need one, thanks to the grandparents. But when a co-worker from Ben's office offered, we decided to take her up for the night. Ben and I had a date night and went to see the Hunger Games and ate dinner out. It was much-needed and we'll have to make it a point to do more often.

Saturday was pretty ho-hum, so let's skip the rest of the boring details about that day.

Sunday, we day-tripped to the state park at St. George Island and enjoyed a day at the beach. We swam, played in the sand, paddle boarded and saw dolphins jumping out of the water to catch their bait fish supper.

It was a gorgeous day with just a few white, fluffy clouds. Lots of sunshine. Temps in the low 80s. Miss Priss thought the water was a bit cold though, so she mostly watched her brother swim from the shoreline.

But loved playing in the sand, building castles and collecting shells.

Momma soaked up every bit of the gorgeous day. And was totally oblivious to the amount of sun her chest was soaking up. Seems like this is always the time of year for my annual burn. When my lily-white skin is seeing the light of day again and before I realize how powerful the suns rays are and fail to apply enough sunscreen. Now I'll have tan lines from hell for the rest of the summer.

Jack and Paige busied themselves with chasing the seagulls while we packed up. See that one on the far left? Right after this photo was taken, he swooped down and stole Paige's Dorito right out of her hand. The look on her face was priceless.

After a full day of sun exposure, we drove over to Apalchicola for some of the world famous oysters at Boss Oyster.

We watched pelicans from our dockside table and observed how some had yellow heads and some blue heads with mohawks. I never knew that pelicans were so colorful.

We ate lots of raw and gourmet cooked oysters, along with other seafoodie dishes. Boss' is the best if you ever head over to small-town Apalch!

Yep, that's my husband trying to devour the monstrosity above in one bite. It was quite humorous.

We got back into Tallahassee around dark and at stopped in at a Mickey D's for a few hot fudge sundaes and an Oreo McFlurry. What a perfect ending to a perfect day.

Today was teacher planning day {and the last day of vacation}. We hung close to home and got ready for the week ahead. We had one more bike ride and picnic lunch at the park with Daddy. Then ice cream again tonight from DQ before wrapping up this most perfect little staycation spring break. It was a great week and I'm really looking forward to more laid-back mornings and lazy afternoons this summer.