Beach Vacation

Ahhh, what a way to end the summer, with a trip to the beach! We went to Watercolor for our 3rd straight year, and it was so much fun! Honey & Papa came with us and we stayed in the cutest beach house - maybe not as super cute as last year, but bigger; a little further away from the beach, but quiet, brand-new, and comfortable. Oh, the porches, I neeeed a porch with rocking chairs. Need. With at least 3 rocking chairs, because if Ben & Jack were awake, the rocking chairs were taken.

I stole some pics from online of Watercolor & Seaside, which are basically the same thing, they're so close. The Truman show was filmed in Seaside, it is all so picturesque! Our house had a Truman show poster and I've heard of several people who go every year and watch the movie every year too. Funny :)

Hey, look, I took one artsy photo!

Okay now for our week. The drive was not too bad, we stopped halfway in Jackson, which was nice, and drove home the whole way in one day. Our boys are just awesome, and Claire is such an easy baby, she rolled with it. Actually, I was dreading it, because Claire hates car rides! But she got used to it pretty quickly and she's MUCH better in the car now. I think it helped to go somewhere every day over the summer, so short car rides helped her to acclimate. We broke the law, though, and did some nursing on the way, just to save us from having to stop for long periods to feed her. It helped C to not be strapped down the entire drive, too. J&B had books, movies (with headphones!), ipads, and an assortment of coloring tools/art stuff to do on the way.

 

 

Our first day at the beach it rained just as we were arriving, so we hung out under the awning at the main pool until the storm passed. I love watching rain, and it was fun to watch it over the ocean. The boys played in the rain with their buckets and ate snacks that Honey wisely packed in her bag. They passed the time by throwing buckets of cold rain water on Daddy & Papa. Ha! At one point Jack broke a corner of his bucket, and brilliantly figured out how to keep water in it by tilting it and holding a towel over the hole.

J&B loved the beach, loved going deep in the ocean with Daddy & Papa, and liked digging in the sand. They loved the pool more, and had a blast showing off their new swimming skills from swim class (blowing bubbles and going under and kicking). Their favorite thing to do was to jump off the side of the pool, and they liked to ask for daddy/honey/papa/etc to tell a story, then jump in mid-sentence to "catch us unaware." They had water wings/floaties this year, which was so great and let them swim around mostly unassisted. Claire also loved the water, and we had fun swimming with her. My girl was NOT, however, a fan of the beach. She didn't like the sand, she didn't like sitting in the water, and she really didn't even care about being out in the sun. Personally, I think she was protesting the fact that she had neither a super-cute Beaufort Bonnet or matching mommy-and-me sun hats to wear. Next year, maybe :) I tried so hard to get a picture of her darling monogrammed swimsuit-ed self sitting in the sand, but since she's not sitting, that just kind of ended up with her falling over and wailing when sand got in her face. Poor baby! She napped by the pool most days - she is SO precious, regardless of whether or not she liked the beach.

We also tried kayaking this year, which was so awesome in the ocean! Jack & Ben liked it but it was a little hot in the life jackets, so they were ready to call it quits after a while. I loved it, it was especially fun to ride the waves back; for the first time I can see how someone would be into something like surfing. Papa and daddy also liked kayaking!

We did a couple of activities at the kids camp center, making mosaic stones and stepping stones with handprints. The boys had fun making their stones again and love seeing them outside. They are so arts & crafts-y. We also went to a go-cart/game place one day in Destin after missing a boat for dolphin-watching! The seaside play was rained out, but we did make it to Rosemary Beach for shopping, and shopped around Seaside too.

Dinners included Borago, 30A, Great Southern, George's, & Louis Louis. Breakfast & Lunch we ate mostly at the house, with 2 breakfasts out (Great Southern & Fish Out of Water), and a couple of lunches out at Seagrove Market & by the pool. J & I had a date night at Bud & Alleys, overlooking the ocean at night, it was so pretty! Pretty, but I wouldn't say yummy :) We tried to hit up Pizza by the Sea on our first day but it was such a long wait our first night we missed it. There's always next year! After dinner at George's on Alys Beach, we stopped by a park concert and let the boys dance, then let them run in the water sprinklers at night. They thought that was pretty cool.

We had such a great time at the house. I brought a few things for the boys to do, like sidewalk chalk & planes, and they picked out some trains for souvenirs, and they had art and movies for quiet time. Sleeping on the couch was a daily afternoon event. They got ice cream from the ice cream truck one day, and they loved sitting on the porch with us. They would play on their iPads while Honey and Mommy read books.

The boys had such an action-packed week, they ended up sleeping at not one, but two restaurant tables. It was pretty cute. The first one, Jack fell asleep sitting up at lunch, and the second, they both layed their heads on the table and went to sleep. Fellow patrons stopped to exclaim over them and take pictures, it was pretty funny. They were silly this year; they had a blast every single day, but they kept asking if they could go home to "Dallas, Texas." Silly boys! Every night they would lay on the bed and listen to stories with daddy, honey, & papa, while I was feeding Claire and putting her down. Then they would get into their twin beds and go to sleep! I have to confess that on day 3 we moved Claire into the closet in our room to sleep, but was for her own good!! It was a walk-in closet, first of all, and secondly, it blocked the light. Poor baby was waking up at 5:30, cranky, because our room was so light. The closet was perfect and let her sleep until 7:30, which was perfect!

What a great vacation week! It was so fun to spend so much time with Honey & Papa, too. Grandparents on vacation is the best :) Here's our last photo after breakfast, saying goodbye to the beach for this year!

And our family beach pics: