Beach Trip!

We just got back from our beach trip and the verdict is that we had a fabulous time! Vacations are certainly a lot different with toddlers/preschoolers, but it was really fun and awesome to watch the kids learn to enjoy new and exciting things. We didn't get any pictures at the beach (two kids, two adults on the beach leaves very little time for picture taking), but we got some on the ONE night we were able to make it out to dinner. Yep, we only made it out to eat (in the area of amazing seafood) one evening with the exception of our first night there when my mom thankfully watched the kids and Lance and I went to eat with my sister and her husband (chargrilled oysters at Acme - yum). The other two nights the kids fell asleep in the car in the short drive to the restaurants we were attempting to go to. We attempted to wake Tyler the first time and ended up holding him while sleeping and opted to get a pizza to go from the Italian restaurant. The next night when Tyler fell asleep again (5:30/6:00) we got take-out from Red Bar - which was still delicious even without the atmosphere. We did make it to Bud & Alley's on Saturday since the kids did nap after a fun morning visit with my dad and his kids and my sister and hers. We didn't, however, stay at Bud and Alley's. It was a bit expensive to try to risk it with children who were clearly exhausted so we ended up at the Shrimp Shack (awesome Lobster Roll and right on the beach) and even made it to the ice cream shop that had been promised the whole trip but that they couldn't stay awake for!

Katie proved to still be a complete Water Bug. She spent the majority of the time in the "big wave pool" - aka the ocean. Tyler wasn't too keen on waves, but really enjoyed building sandcastles and chasing birds and was convinced to get in a few times. Pool time at my mom's was still a big hit, and they enjoyed the condo pool too - Tyler is really getting the hang of swimming - kicking his legs and doing his arms even better than Katie! Tyler's biggest hang-up was that he was afraid the waves were going to wash away all of his sand toys so he was constantly moving them up farther away from the edge (which made it impossible to make a drip castle). He even stood on the balcony yelling "watch out for the waves peoples," just because he thought everyone needed a warning that they were coming. Katie was just getting used to all the fish "kissing" her feet, and had stopped screaming everytime she saw a patch of algae (or hair as Tyler liked to call it) when my dad's daughter got stung by a jellyfish near the end of our morning playing in the waves. We made them get out of the water and told them about jellyfish and Katie was completely enthralled. She talked constantly about jellyfish, and how they hurt people, and how we didn't want to go in there if there were jellyfish. More and more started coming in, so we went to the pool but Saturday night after ice cream we went down to the beach to see if we could see some crabs and Katie was pretty skittish and warning us that jellyfish were in there, and she was still talking about them this morning (in between crying and complaining that she didn't want to get to school). The trip certainly didn't help the adjustment to the new classroom - Katie was worse than ever this morning and Tyler wasn't much better - but it was worth it! On the way home once Katie realized we were almost home she said "I wanna go to the beach home, not the Nashbill house" and we promised her that we will go on another vacation next summer (although I guess it is too early to already start counting down the days)!

They got along pretty well the entire trip, maybe because Tyler was the sand/land lover and Katie wanted to be in the water at all times.

Tyler finally awake for dinner! Katie was excited to finally get some "pink" ice cream. She didn't fall asleep the second night when Tyler did and was disappointed that we didn't get to get ice cream as promised when she got out of the pool!
Tyler was telling us what a jellyfish does. Who knew that both lions and jellyfish roar! Katie the Tabasco salesgirl! Ice cream is good, but it sure is cold AND messy!