Beach vacation : Part 1

July 4th in this family means the beach, now that we're back in the states! This year the 4th fell in the middle of the week, which made things a little trickier but we made it work. We left at around 4am on July 4th to avoid the traffic on the 3rd, and the kids slept the whole way. Leaving in the middle of the night has its advantages, other than traffic and sleeping kids...our a/c was out in the car, so it was a much cooler ride! We got to the condo, unpacked and settled in and decided to spend the day relaxing. We knew this year was going to be a lot different, having an infant, so we decided to let the kids' schedules dictate what we did and how we did it. It was very refreshing, to be completely on our own time and at the same time, meeting the needs and wants of the kids.

Lila, by nature, is a good night sleeper but not a great napper. She decided at 2 months old that her bedtime was 7pm so we were not sure at all how the beach was going to affect that. It turned out to work perfectly! We were busy bees during the day, and she took great naps! A two hour nap in the middle of the day paired with a late nap meant that she was still ready to go for our night activities. We walked down to the beach around 9pm on the 4th to watch the fireworks and the kids had a blast. Hayden asked every night for the rest of the trip to see more fireworks. He loved the lights and the noise of it all, and Lila didn't seem to mind the chaos. What a different baby she is from Hayden!

We ended up only making it down to the beach for about a half a day of our trip, which suits me just fine! I don't care for the sand and the waves, but our beach tent kept Lila cool and out of the sun, and gave me a place to stretch out without the sand. Hayden did much better this year than last year! He was terrified of everything last year. This year he walked down to the water himself, even getting to his knees without holding a hand. And he let Jay take him way out and play in the water. Our big boy is growing up!

We made a stop at one of our favorite restaurants, Hamburger Joe's, on the way to Barefoot Landing. Lila had her first taste of lemon and Hayden ate half an order of onion rings with his hot dog. Success all around! We got there just at the right time to beat the crowd, and enjoyed some shopping after our bellies were full. We had a great time, and Hayden found a few things to keep him busy as well...