The Beach :: It Was Freezing

Our vacation was fantastic - well, as fantastic as vacation gets with a four year old and a one year old.

It was not quite the days of lounging on the sand slathered in sunscreen, napping and reading...but, at this point, those days feel pretty far in the past, so it's not quite as shocking to us anymore when the chorus of 'When can we go to the pool?' or 'Can I go down the water slide again' or OR the ever present 'SNACK! SNACK!' starts up!

Hellllooo vacation.



It's nice to see you. Nate's first ocean experience was pretty fantastic - much jumping in the surf, running in the sand and general FREAKING OUT. Glorious.

My parents, who came with us and are CLEARLY veterans of this whole take-the-kids-on-vaca thing booked us all a hotel not only with heated pools and a small kitchen but also with (wait for it) an indoor water park - slides, lazy river, more heated pools. It was basically our vacation saving grace as the beach was spent more for walking and observing and the occasional sand castle.



Three story tall water slide? Not a problem for this kid. He will start at 9 a.m. and go until lunch. I think one day he climbed up it a solid 60 times. (Notably, the amount of food he ate on this vacation terrified me for his teenage years.) 

Thankfully, we didn't just do slides (though we met some very nice parents with the same vacation plans as us at the bottom of each slide). 

We will see your waterslides, children, and raise you some putt putt (which some people apparently call mini-golf but, now that I have typed it out and said it in my head putt putt seems like a ridiculous term for grown people to say.  Is there a difference AND WHY DO I CARE?)  

Nora Kate was a fan. And that's saying a lot because, my friends, she was not a fan of much this vacation. I think she might be our homebody baby. In her defense, it was quite cold and windy every time we hit the beach and even the heated pools weren't for the faint of heart so perhaps she's just more of a summertime and sunshine girl like myself? (She LOVES water but she clearly said 'COLD MOMMY! COLD!' every time she saw the ocean.)

We also brought Stachy to the beach - Stachy gets passed around my extended family every year at Christmas ala Flat Stanly style and this year she is staying with my parents.  Stachy has been photographed A LOT of places...now adding South Carolina to the list!

We made a VERY sad attempt at some beach photos - I had some sweet beach outfits for everyone and IT WAS ALL GOING TO BE PERFECT until everyone refused to go except Nora Kate (because she doesn't speak in sentences). I dragged her down to the water anyway.

 

This is the best shot I got. I think the wind is actually whipping her poor dress off her body. We both lasted about three minutes. FINE. THEY WERE RIGHT. It wasn't worth it. 

We did manage to take a few photos on our beach walk the next day - Karl broke my cardinal rule of family photos - NO SUNGLASSES.  (I ask you DOES IT LOOK SUNNY OUT THERE KARL!? NO!) and I am wearing a skull and crossbones t-shirt made up of small stick figures dying in various ways. We are really classy!


Natey was not a fan of posing and invented his own moves. Nora Kate thought they were pretty rad. Clearly.

That, friends, is us - keeping vacation REAL in 2013.

Let's go baaaaaaack.