As usual, it was soooooo nice. Thanks to Meme and Rayray, the entire family (all 11 of us!) stayed together comfortably in a beautiful house right off the beach.
Of course, when you take a beach trip with young kids, your schedule is a bit different from when you went as teenagers of young adults with nothing else to do but sit on the beach in the sun and read. Gone are the days when my sole concerns were getting burned and having enough reading material. Now, it takes about 40 minutes to get everyone ready to go down to the beach. Putting sunscreen on a 3 year old and a 10 month old could qualify as a punishment experienced in one of the lower circles of Hades. So far, the most effective trick I've found is to call the sunscreen "invisible cream," and pretend that once I smear it completely on Bird's skin, no one can see him. It was exciting for a few times until he started doing things like jumping on the bed and throwing things while chanting, "you can't see me! You can't see me!" But sun-screening aside, hitting the beach with my 2 littles was a whole new kind of fun!!
Jackson stayed busy every minute - digging, playing in the water, and running around. And he definitely enjoyed having his cousin Tensley around to play with (or boss around, depending on who you ask).
Levi wasn't a big fan of the beach scene at first. The first day, he just wanted to snuggle. No sand or water, thank you. As the week unfolded, though, he gradually developed a ravenous appetite for sand and an appreciation for warm tide pools. We even discovered that he would play and nap in the pack&play if we brought it down. Yes, it was like moving out of our house to transport all our gear down to the beach, but having a happy baby was worth the hassle!
While we were there, Jacin and I celebrated our 6th anniversary! Meme & Rayray kept the boys while we went out for dinner by ourselves at a Japanese steakhouse. It was AMAZING (for lots of reasons. I think I actually communicated several complete trains of thought and engaged in a meaningful conversation over dinner with my hubster without being interrupted!).
It was such a great week, and I'm so grateful to have time with my family! Love you guys!
Six years! Where has the time gone??? Also, tell Jacin I almost didn't recognize him in the picture without a hat.
ReplyDeleteFantastic time. It was truly a gift for MeMe and Ray Ray!!
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