A few firsts...

Written by 7 Comments

This week we had planned on taking a family vacation down to the beach. Some gracious friends are allowing us to stay at their condo for however long we want/need it. Since we are heading out to Arizona at the end of this month...Jason couldn't take a full week and so we had planned on leaving after work on Wednesday night. I had the brilliant idea that...since the condo was available...why not leave early with the kids and Jason just come on Wednesday. Okay...so the idea was flawed from inception...I am one person...with four kids...and a boatload of beach equipment...a tub of food...a bucket of sheets and towels...a pack-n-play. But I really didn't think about it too in-depth...just loaded up the kids and made the trek down to the beach. This was definitely a first for me...




First time at the beach!!!
Jackson had never experienced the beach before. He fed off of the excitement around him and asked about the beach for the last week or so. But nothing prepared him for the fun he had today!!

Throwing mud back into the water...it just would not stay put!


First sand castle at the beach!!


First friend at the beach!
Tyler made a new friend within MINUTES of unloading all our paraphernalia.
And what a friend...Flynn was Tyler's buddy for the rest of the day...and even taught him how to boogie board!




First nap at the beach...
This sweet little girl was SO good all day long!
She was so content to listen to the waves...watch the people passing by...and doze off every once and awhile.

Insert FIRST catastrophe of the day...after this nice little nap...I realized I had packed everything EXCEPT Hailey's bottle. What to do? We left all our stuff...and headed back to the condo to grab the bottle. Needless to say...the kids were not too excited about this interruption! Oh well...

First "sandy" snack at the beach...
Jackson didn't seem to mind the extra crunch covering his pretzels!


First lunch time at the beach...
This tent was such a lifesaver for the two little ones! It kept them out of the direct sun and a little bit cooler!

Insert SECOND catastrophe of the day...as we were packing up to leave the beach (amidst crying baby, whining toddler, sun burnt children) this tent became my ENEMY!!
For the life of me, I could NOT get it to fold up. No matter what I tried...it refused to cooperate and instead caused sand to fly in all my neighbors faces!
I finally had to give up...and my little hero, Tyler, had to carry it out to the car as best as possible. It was not easy!


It just got worse after that...

As we were walking out to the car...Tyler lost control of the tent and it hit some nearby beach combers! Oops! I ran to get it and the stroller tipped over with both babies in it! Double OOPS!!!
At this point, I was seriously doubting my capability of getting everyone safely to the car...and honestly...I was already looking up the tent on amazon.com in my brain...because it was getting LEFT AT THE BEACH!!!

Thankfully...we all got home safely and sandy! After getting everyone bathed and tucked into naps...I headed back outside to tackle the beast of the tent. It was not going to defeat me!!!
It took me forty-five minutes...but I FINALLY got it back into its little case! Yes!!! Victory!!!


Insert final and WORSE catastrophe of the day...
Refreshed after naps, we headed out to Target to pick up a few things.
Jackson had been fussy...but I chalked it up to him just being tired.
We had barely been in Target two minutes and Jackson threw up ALL over the floor!!!
I informed an employee and then rushed home.
Poor guy was super overheated. Once he cooled off and chugged down some juice he was back to hopping around like crazy!!! In fact, after recovering he was so hyper and crazy that the person staying in the condo below us came upstairs and complained about the noise...insert embarrassing moment of the day!!!


A few firsts at the beach...good and bad!
Thankfully, my wonderful, amazing, strong, capable, caring husband is joining me tomorrow!!!
And hopefully, I can sit back and relax once he gets here! ;-)

7 comments