Lifestyle Travel

Summer Break Recap

DCI

As the kids go back to school and summer break comes to an end the kids are always asked the same question. What did you do this summer? The more I’ve heard this question, the more I’ve realized we did A LOT this summer from beginning to end. Holy moly it was a fun packed summer! So I decided to write a little summer recap. Mainly because I love reliving those memories.

We kicked off our summer with a meditation retreat with our friends in Andersonville, TN. We spent the weekend on their farm learning how to deepen our meditation practice and how to work together to create a better community. The kids had a blast exploring on the farm and getting to know our sweet community of friends.

Shortly after our meditation retreat, we went on a camping trip to Anchor Down RV Resort in Dandridge, TN. You can read more about our “glamping” trip here. Long story short, we all had a blast!

Roan Mountain

For Father’s Day weekend we went on a camping trip to one of my husband’s all-time favorite place, Roan Mountain. We spent the weekend swimming, enjoying the rhododendron festival, hiking and eating yummy camping food. My husband and son took the long hike up all the way to the peak of Roan Mountain. They had a fantastic bonding experience during this hike, while my daughter and I bonded on a shorter hike closer to camp.

Isha Foundation

My husband and I took a day trip just the two of us to visit the Isha Foundation in McMinnville, TN for yoga day. Fun fact: Did you know that the largest meditation center in the Eastern hemisphere located in the middle of nowhere in McMinnville, TN? We spent the afternoon visiting this meditation center, learning more about their meditation and yoga philosophy and eating some amazing Indian food. If you have visited the Isha Foundation, you should check out one of their free yoga days.

cades cove

Our last camping trip of summer break was spent in Townsend at the Mountaineer Campground with my in-laws. This was a super fun camping trip! It’s always fun to camp with friends and family. We spent the weekend swimming, cooking out, making new friends, tubing and we even played a little bingo. The kids loved tubing for the first time. They enjoyed it so much that they wanted to tube down the Y. I’ll be writing another blog post soon on why this was a terrible idea. Don’t tube down the Y with your kids unless they are experienced tubers. And even then, please be careful.

fishing

One of the things the kids enjoyed the most this summer wasn’t going out of town, camping, or the beach. It was sticking close by to watch the DCI competition. We were lucky enough to have The Cadets practicing for the competition at the high school in our neighborhood. I took the kids to the high school to watch The Cadets practice before the competition. The kids were blown away by the hard work they were putting into the show. I told them to brace themselves for the performance.

DCI

Later that night we went as a family to watch all of the DCI bands compete. O.M.G. The band nerds inside me was full of joy. These bands were absolutely phenomenal. Some of them actually brought tears of joy to my eyes. I just couldn’t believe the things they were able to pull off through music, color guards, singing and their uniforms. They had every tiny detail so well plannned out. My mind was blown. Even after seeing how hard they worked to practice to put on this performance both kids are determined to just DCI when they are old enough. *happy dance*

panama city beach

We ended our summer break with a trip to Panama City Beach, FL. We left the camper behind for this trip and decided to check out some of the resorts on the beach. We fell in love with the first place we stayed. The condo was such and the amenities at the Shores of Panama were fantastic. There was a huge pool and hot tub to enjoy and the beach was only steps away. We had a blast at this place and I’ll be following up with another more depth blog post about this place soon.

panama city beach sunset

The next place we stayed in was just kind of meh. We were on the bottom floor just a few feet away from the beach. And the beach was far less crowded than the larger resort. But the condo itself was tiny and out of date. It had one bedroom and a sleeper sofa in the living room for the kids. The first night there I didn’t realize until I pulled out the sleeper sofa for the kids to go to bed that we weren’t given sheets for the sleeper sofa. I wasn’t too happy to realize that I had to go to Walmart at 9:30 to buy my own sheets before the kids could go to bed. But we didn’t let that ruin the rest of our vacation. We spent our days in the Gulf having a blast and unwinding. The kids said it was one of their favorite vacations.

So now here we are back to school and back to life as usual. Not that that’s a bad thing. We’ve got a pretty good life. : )

So how was your summer? Did you do anything fun?

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