The Beach

Six hours to the beach is perfect when you have kids.  Things that keep them entertained…

Snacks

Naps

Movies

And remembering that you are about to be at the beach for a week!  Reese wanted her and Sam to wear something “beachy” for our ride down so they wore these sweet little matching clothes my parents bought for them in Jamaica.

The condo that we have stayed in for the last three years is only a two bedroom so it is a tight squeeze (but totally worth it because we get it at a great discount ). My parents slept in the master and we slept in the room with twin beds.  I was a little concerned about the kids sleeping next to each other but it actually worked out perfectly! Having Reese next to Sam helped him be comfortable being in a new place.  They would play for a couple of minutes at naptime/bedtime and then fall to sleep with in minutes.  They played so hard during the day that they slept well.

It rained our entire drive down Saturday and then was raining when we woke up Sunday morning.  That didn’t stop us though. The kids woke up around 6:00 each morning since we were an hour behind.  Sunday morning we went straight out to the beach (in the rain) and played for a little while. 

Monday we woke up to temperatures in the 70’s and windy.  While Lance and my dad were playing golf we took the kids out but it was cold! Last year Reese refused to go in the ocean but we got her to go out this year and she had a blast!!  Sam, of course, loved every minute too.  He was so laid back all week. Every day someone would ask how old he was because he was so comfortable in the water.

Tuesday was Reese’s fourth birthday.  She was SO excited to be celebrating her birthday at the beach.  We decorated the condo with balloons, streamers, and presents.  When she came out that morning she was so happy to see all of it.

Reese wasn’t feeling 100% that day so it was a little rough going at times.  However, the weather was PERFECT!  We spent all morning in the ocean and in the pool.

After nap time we had birthday cake before we headed down to Baytowne Wharf.

We took a bunch of pictures with the birthday girl who was not too interested in taking pictures.

We ate at a seafood place but Reese wanted pizza so we brought her some pizza along.  Can’t deny the birthday girl the dinner she wants!!

After dinner we took a walk down a boardwalk that we had never seen before.  The sun was setting and it was beautiful!

We had to do pictures again so that we could try and capture the setting.

I had to promise Reese a ride on the merry-go-round to get this pictures.  She was still not feeling well and was just being a little bit of a stinker.

Finally a sweet smile!

Sam loves to play peek-a-boo when it is picture time.  He is so silly.

While waiting for the fireworks to start there is a DJ playing music and the kids get on stage to dance.  Reese remembered this from last year (when she wouldn’t go dancing).  This year she said she wanted to dance with all the kids so her and Sam got on stage and cracked us up.  Sam had some great moves and had some people around us giggling at him.

After some fun dancing on stage we watched the fireworks.  That was fun and a great way to end Reese’s birthday.

Reese finally started feeling a little better the next day and had a blast in the ocean.  She even played in the waves by herself for a little while.  We were so proud of her adventuring out a bit.

After the first few days the camera didn’t come out much anymore but the weather was perfectly beach like for the next two days. 

During down times Reese did a lot of coloring. 

On our last day there we had run out of bread and didn’t want to spend money on going to get more so we had Chick-fil-a for lunch on the balcony.

I was SO grateful to Lance who let me go lay out and relax during nap times while he hung back with the kids. It was so nice to get some reading done or napping done while laying in front of the rolling waves.

The view from the balcony.

We were so impressed with Sam this week!  He was so easy going and chill.  He just went with the flow, never complaining, and had a blast. He slept great and was a perfect travel companion.  Not that we didn’t know already but it made us certain that we have one cool little man on our hands!

More to come…