When I started to think back and plan out our 2020 recap, I initially thought that we didn’t get much accomplished on the travel-front this year. However, as I looked through pictures, I realize we did a lot more than I thought we did. Our original plan was to start traveling with the kids, once our adoption was finalized in April. Then, obviously, COVID got in the way of things.
Table of Contents
Our 2020 Recap
January
In January, we headed down to Disney World to celebrate Smiley’s 6th birthday. We spent two days exploring the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom with the kids. They had an absolute blast getting up close and personal with Mickey, Minnie, and a handful of princesses. We even got lucky with the lines (and our FastPasses!) and got to squeeze in a TON of rides!
February
In February, we headed up to North Carolina to visit Ashley’s side of the family. While we were there, we rode an elevator to the top of Chimney Rock. We climbed even higher to reach the chimney at an elevation of 2280 feet! We spent some time exploring Lake Lure and the surrounding area.
March
At the beginning of March, we went into self-isolation. We spent the month playing in our backyard and going on walks around the neighborhood. We’d go and park nearby the airport and watch the airplanes take off and land, just to get out of the house.
April
April was our adoption month! On April 7th, we made our family of 5 official via Zoom. Since it was a Taco Tuesday, we celebrated with tacos, cake, and champagne.
May
In May, we were treated to a flyover by the Blue Angels. Our house just happens to be right under their flight path so we had front row seats to their air show! With the weather warming up, we started to spend a lot of our time out at the beach- where we were able to easily social distance. And, if we weren’t at Huguenot Beach, we were in the backyard zooming down the waterslide!
June
Come June, we started to get a little stir crazy. We started hitting some of the local parks to break up our beach days. The kids quickly fell in love with the Jacksonville Arboretum and Gardens, which had been a favorite of ours for quite some time.
We also headed north a couple of times to Fort Clinch in Fernandina Beach. Sometimes we’d explore the Civil War Era fort, but most of the time we’d just comb the beach for sharks teeth.
July
In July, our zoo opened back up for those who had zoo memberships. The Jacksonville Zoo & Gardens has an AMAZING splash park so we hit the zoo often to escape the hot hot heat. We also branched out and started checking out other local parks like Castaway Island Preserve, The El Faro Memorial, and Blackrock Beach.
We also headed south to St. Augustine and Palm Coast to visit the Washington Oaks and Gardens State Park, Marineland, and Castillo de San Marcos.
We rented a camper and spent a couple of days in Orange City, Florida. Our little family spent two days floating down the spring run at Blue Spring State Park. We even went on a boat tour to see the marsh up close and personal! Since we were so close to Orlando, we headed to Disney Springs where we had dinner at Rainforest Cafe and did a bit of shopping and playing.
The boys headed back to daycare so that they could begin adjusting to being back on a schedule. This gave Smiley and I a chance to explore some cool places like The Cummer Art Gallery & Gardens, Riverside Park, Memorial Park, and historic St. Augustine.
We also spent lots of time out on the paddle board and kayak.
August
We crammed as much as we could into the first couple of weeks of August- before school started back up. We visited the Museum of Science and History, the South Bank Riverwalk, and Catty Shack Ranch (a local favorite!)
With school back in session, we made sure to make the most of our weekends. We spent our Saturdays kayaking and paddleboarding at Huguenot Memorial Park. On Sundays we’d visit places like the local waterfalls or an ice cream shop.
September
The twins were sick quite a bit during the month of September so we spent a lot of time at home. When they were well, we managed to visit the playground, the Jacksonville Zoo, the beach, and Tree Hill Nature Center.
October
October was another slow month for us. We did manage to take a trip to Congaree & Penn, a local farm to visit their pumpkin patch.
November
COVID numbers started to rise again during the month of November so we continued to spend more and more time at home. We did manage to participate in 2 walks. The first one was a 5K around downtown Jacksonville that we did to raise awareness for suicide prevention. The second one was at our favorite local park, in honor of a friend of ours who has breast cancer.
We also visited with my parents, while they were camping at one of our favorite lakes, Kingsley Lake. It was great being able to spend the day floating on unicorn rafts, paddle boarding, and jumping off the dock.
December
During the month of December, Florida was seeing more than 10,000 new COVID cases each day. The twins have weakened immune systems so we continued to be cautious. We canceled a cabin on a lake that we rented for a post-Christmas vacation with our extended family. We also nixed our trip to Charleston and stayed close to home.
What will 2021 bring us?
As of right now, 2021 is a big question mark for us, as it probably is for most people. When the numbers go back down, we’ll most likely venture up to the mountains so the kids can see the other half of our family. We haven’t been able to see them since January and it’ll be good to be able to take in some of that fresh mountain air again.
Surely, we’ll spend most of our summer paddleboarding and kayaking at our two favorite lakes and the beach. It would be nice if we could squeeze in a few more trips to some more of Florida’s remarkable natural springs.
We have a cruise scheduled during the month of November, over the twin’s 4th birthday. We ended up having to cancel their birthday party this year because COVID numbers were on the rise. We’d like to make it up to them by taking them on their very first cruise. The cruise leaves out of Miami and will take us to Half Moon Cay, Nassau, and Grand Turk– three incredible ports in the Caribbean. We’re cautiously optimistic about being able to actually go.
2021 is the first year that we plan on gifting the kids a trip for Christmas. The twins will be 4 and Smiley will almost be 8 at, at the time, so we finally feel like they’re old enough to start gifting experiences. Right now, we’re planning on taking them to Margaritaville at Lanier Island, in Georgia, for their winter Snow Island experience. We’ll spend a couple of days snow tubing, skating, and tossing snowballs at each other. Our Florida babies have never seen snow!
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