First Beach Trip!

Adam had a couple of extra vacation days so we decided to take the girls on their first beach trip! I headed down to Dothan with two dogs and two babies on Saturday. It was a fully loaded Pilot! I should have taken pictures of the pile before it was all loaded. There was some serious conversation about trading in for a van. :)



Do you see the white container with the blue lid? That is our Dr. Brown's bottle steam sterlizer...he is my best friend. We do not travel anywhere without him! 



I know Bosco and Bella look sad but it's the only way we can travel these days... :) Notice how Adam bungie corded the stroller to the top!



    

                                                                         

 We got to see many friends and hung out with our Great Aunt and Uncle while we were there.

Then, Adam drove down to meet my parents and myself at PCB Wednesday night.


Dropped off the dogs and headed to the beach...please note that the stroller frame is still bungied in, but to the sides. What are we going to do when they move to the full size double stroller?

 Why has it taken me until my late twenties to discover the beach in the fall? This is the 2^nd year in a row we have been in October, and the weather (for the most part) has been fabulous. Perfect temperature, cool breeze, and the water is still somewhat warm.

Thursday morning Adam and I fed the girls and headed to Wal-Mart to purchase a pop-up tailgating type tent so we would have some shade on the beach for the girls. We originally went to buy an umbrella but decided that we would use the tent more and would probably be purchasing one next summer anyway so the girls could play under it. The size tent we purchased did not cost much more than an umbrella so it seemed like a good idea. We headed back so Adam could set it up while I fed the girls again. The day was wonderful, and the weather was perfect. We asked ourselves why we had not bought one of these 10 years ago for the beach?



My two little chunkers. Thank you Liz for our onsies!

We lowered it before heading in for the day but left the top on figuring it would be fine. Friday morning we woke up to discover that in the middle of the night, wind had taken it out into the ocean never to be seen again. Well…no use crying over spilt milk tents…so we headed back to Wal-Mart to purchase another one (which cost twice as much as the first one but better quality). This time to set it up we double staked it into the sand with tie-downs. Yet again God had given us another fabulous beach day. My dad put up 60 lbs. of peanuts this year. So, we had some boiled peanuts on the beach....does it get any better than that? (Aaryn--are you reading this?!)




Obviously, when we bought this thing we thought they'd be much smaller than they were.



 

Before leaving this day, we made sure to take the top off so the wind would not take it again. Saturday morning we woke up and our tent was still there…whew. Adam headed down to the beach to put the top on while I started feeding the girls. He was back up to the condo helping me finish feeding the girls. After no more than 20 minutes, Camryn finished her bottle so I walked out on the balcony with her, I looked out on the beach and then turned to Adam with horror…”Did you move our tent? Adam, did you move our tent??! “No, why? What is it?” “It’s gone again!” …Adam was down those 3 flights of stairs and onto the beach so fast. Turns out the wind had flipped it again and the very nice people next to us fished it out of the ocean for us. It had a bent frame in several places and was nothing more than scrap metal. At this point we were just mad and Adam and my Dad returned it to Wal-Mart. When they got back there wasn’t much left of the day since I was determined to get family pictures at sunset, and we would have to head in about 4 p.m. in order to have everyone fed and ready by 6 p.m.

My parents volunteered to watch the girls for us so that we could just at least sit out on the beach for a little while.  Sitting on the beach and super frustrated I looked at Adam and said, “Let’s not give the devil a foothold.” (after this emotional eater ate a whole sleeve of Oreos waiting on them to get back) He said, “I know—he almost got me.”

We did get some great pictures that afternoon. I’ll admit though, they became an idol to me. I was so focused on getting good pictures that I raised my voice at my mom to get in place because of the slow shutter speed on the camera, the wind started blowing hard, and the sun went down before the girls quit fussing. Maybe I’ve learned my lesson this time that pictures are just going to turn out how they turn out.


Check out the angry little bird I'm holding.



We also found time to eat some mighty fine seafood. We tried to meet Raleigh, Christen, and their girls for dinner but it just didn't work out. We ended up going to Billy's for some steamed shrimp and crab claws...Yum!

All in all, we had a wonderful trip. Next summer if you see us at the beach we will definitely have our tent tied down with all kinds of sand filled milk jugs and grocery sacks! Lesson learned even if it’s not that windy…

Pass the salt,
Ash