Beachin’ Begins…

This last weekend was an exciting one at our house. Beach season officially began for our little crew. AB was so excited all week that we were headed to the condo (which she calls, “Pappy’s Beach”) on Friday.

We were excited to introduce our tiniest sweetheart to the sun, surf & sand.

My in-laws’ condo is special for a lot of reasons. For one, it’s the home of many great memories for our family and friends, and it’s one of the places we love to go to just take a deep breath and relax. For me it’s particularly special because after this weekend, I can now say that all three of my babies’ first beach trips were there. Things that tie all of my children together are beyond special to me.

We were packed and ready to go as soon as Pappy & DW got off work on Friday afternoon. (Nie-Nie & Kelsey were on a mother-daughter cruise.) It’s always nice to go off with either sets of our parents because of all the extra help! :)

As soon as we got there, AB was ready to play Barbies! We set up a tiny version of what my cousins and I would call, “Barbie Town” and played for a while. AB assigned me and Mamie our own dolls.

I love the doll she picked for Mamie-girl

I worked at the clothes store:

and she was Ms. Aubrey at the hair salon.

After playing for a while, DW came in to see what we were up to, so he got assigned a doll, too…AB was excited we had someone to be a boy! DW, who is the sweetest Daddy ever, told her he “didn’t know much about playing Barbies, but he’d try.” I broke the news gently, that in another couple of years he will know more than he ever wanted to about Barbie dolls. :)

AB LOVES to sleep in the closet when we’re at the beach. She thinks its “her room” – and she loves sleeping on a pallet. However, the excitement didn’t help in actually getting her to go to sleep. Sister stayed up until 11:30 that night! FINALLY we convinced her to go to sleep.

Once she did, she slept great, and so did Mamie.

Saturday morning we woke up to, “It’s wake up time 'erbody! Let’s get ours beach clothes on!”

We walked down to the pier and had breakfast over the water. AB LOVED it. She sat and looked out the window for most of the time we were there. I was a big girl that morning and tried a bite of DW’s omelet. Even the thought of eggs makes me gag, so this was huge for me. It was a tiny bite, and was mainly cheese and bacon, but it still counts.

The weather was overcast pretty much the whole weekend, but I always think that’s good with kids. We got to enjoy a few hours outside on Saturday morning.

AB is so into it this year- it’s going to be such a fun summer with and for her! She loved building sandcastles (well, actually her Daddy would build them and she would knock them over…I’m not sure if I should be nervous about that or not).

She’s such a girl and expected her Daddy & Pappy to go fill her buckets with water.

She’s been a bird chaser since she was old enough to walk…

She also loved playing in the waves. On the way down on Friday night, she yelled from the very back of the car, up front to her Pappy and asked if he had a surf board for her. She didn’t forget about it either, because Saturday morning, her Daddy had to go up to the room and get her one (a boogie board) when she remembered. She was adorable on it. She started out on her knees and then wanted to stand. It was so stinking cute and I think she’s got some pretty good balance!

When she was done with that, she and Daddy swam in the pool for a while.

Maybree spent her time watching the waves and then sleeping the morning away.

It started to rain a little after lunch so we called it a day and got showers and naps.

We went to dinner and then walked back down to the beach for a little bit.

Pretty girls ready for dinner…

Of course we had to play some more Barbies before bed that night.

Sunday morning, Nie-Nie & Kels got off their ship in Port Canaveral and then drove over to the condo, so we got to play on the beach a little while with them.

AB “spider walking” around the pool 

It got rainy again, so we packed up. We had lunch at Red Robin before heading back home. I’d been dreaming about their jalapeno coins since last year.

We came home feeling rested, relaxed and ready to face the real world again. :) It was a great start to the beach season. I hope there’s lots more sun and jalapeno coins in our summer forecast.

~amw~