Sunday, July 7, 2013

finally - the beach

on our fourth day in florida, we finally got to the beach!  i love the beach but really hate the sand.  well, the getting the sand off and getting back into the car part of going to the beach.  anyway, we stopped by big pop and grandma's house for a quick change of clothes while the kids napped/waited in the car.  and then off to the beach.  we usually go to sanibel for better shells but today we stuck with fort myers beach.

all of the kids were really excited to be at the beach, except manning.  he was not very excited about having a shorter nap and would not let me put him down or even change his clothes.  so everyone got our stuff set up and manning and i just sat under the umbrella for probably the first 45 minutes.


our first trip to the beach as a completed family!
the kids spent most of their time working on sand castles of different varieties and then kicking and stomping them to the ground.

and manning dosed on me 
madelyn and grandma's 'drip' castle or maybe it was just a castle wall?
when manning started to stir and sit up more, i decided that we would head down to the water.  it was his first time to the beach after all!  that and i was sweating bullets holding him against me.  he was happy to be awake and checking things out as long as i was holding him.  he was not happy about being put down and i don't think it was about being in the water or sand - he just didn't want to be put down anywhere.

the rest of the kids were having a blast!  big pop and grandma had all sorts of sand toys for them to try out.
grandma sat in the sand with manning and lined shells up his leg.  i wouldn't say he was thrilled but he calmed down and was sitting fairly contently.
and then a 'pirate ship' cruised on past!  maddux was really excited to see "bucky" (a la jake and the neverland pirates).
manning did start to enjoy himself after a little while.  he never moved too far but did play with the sand, splash in the waves and give himself a salty, sandy thumb suck - yuck!



and then he was done.
as i was posting this one of madelyn, i realized that all three bigs are in it!
we weren't there very long but everyone enjoyed their time.  we can check another item off our 'to-do' list for florida!  love.

1 comment:

Witenkling Mommy said...

Yay for a family first trip to the beach. Very momentous. I can't wait for the day all my kids are walking (well) and we can spend a whole day there as a family :)