Friday, April 6, 2012

Toes In The Water


Well, we returned from vacation.  A little tired, a little sunburned and a little sandy.  But, with many happy memories.  We had three solid, consecutive "perfect days".  On these days, we were down to the pool around 8am, splashed around, then headed down the path to the beach.  Stay on the beach, then back to the pool to cool off, then back to the beach.  Repeat until it is time to get cleaned up for dinner!

Now that my twins are three years old, going to the beach is much, much easier.  No need to worry about naps, sandy diapers, kids eating sand or bottles/sippie cups dropping in the sand.  The twins will fall asleep wherever and whenever. (I attribute this that we never followed the rule to be quiet when the babies were sleeping - we ran the vacuum, had on TVs and most days the twins would sleep in the middle of the room with the circus going on around their little heads.)  I am also very fortunate that my kids all love the sun, sand and surf.  We have several friends who have children that are afraid of the ocean or don't like the sand - not my four.  Whenever they get to the beach for the first time of the season, they all drop down as soon as their little toes hit the sand and role around in it.  They have been doing this as long as I can remember.  You can see the joy on their little faces, sort of a homecoming.

This was the first beach trip that the kids all played really well together too.  Digging in the sand and coming up with little games to play.  They always dig their big giant hole - looking for pirate treasure and China!  The highlight this trip was finding a real live Hermit Crab, that my daughter called Hermie.  Hermie spent the morning with us on the beach.  The kids fixed up a little animal habitat for him (a bucket filled with water with some sand on the bottom and some sea grass!) and even did a little creature report Octonaut-style about him on the beach!

Our ride home was much easier than the ride down.  While in Hilton Head we got together with our good friends the "H" family.  They have a similar ride and we followed their "method" home:

-no more than one stop per hour
-if you don't use the bathroom when we stop, you wait
-no eating at places (take out only)
-stops should not take more than 15 minutes

We were successful with applying this method! The ride home took 9.5 hours and we only made three stops.  Three stops with four kids is a miracle!  We are already planning our trip for next year back to Hilton Head and I'm just as excited as the kids!


Wishing you and your family Easter Blessings!  Have a wonderful weekend.

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