I really didn’t take missing out on our usual beach house vacation with the Larson’s very well. So I decided that even if we couldn’t hang out with them, we could still take the kids to the beach. Renting a house seemed pretty low risk, so I just booked it before I could change my mind!
We got down to the house pretty late at night - which explains why dinner last night wasn’t anything more ambitious than nachos. ;)
But as soon as we ate breakfast the next morning, we walked down to the beach! It was a super short walk and the kids were so excited to run and put their feet in the ocean once again! :)
Of course, the boys are technically still in school, so we had to make sure not to miss their school lessons and still fit in some fun. Quick trips to the beach, followed by popsicles, then logging in to a zoom meeting! It was kinda a pain on my side to juggle everything, but they were having a blast!
Well I mean, there was a little bit of complaining about having to do their school work, but I swear apart from that - they were having a blast.
It was unfortunate that Thomas’ school area was facing this encouraging sign to go to beach!
One of my favorite things about beach house vacations is hanging out on the covered porches. And this house had a great one! It even had a locking gate at the top of the stairs so Natalie and I could hang out without me having to worry too much about her taking off.
As happy as she was to hang out with me, she was not happy when I put her down for a nap. She cried for awhile after I left her in the room after lunch, but soon decided that wasn’t going to work. So instead, she opened the door and tossed my shoes out in the hallway. Then decided that didn’t show her displeasure well enough and chunked my pajamas out there too.
Such attitude in such a tiny package!
I should really just call it quiet time because she definitely didn’t nap... But she got some time alone to chill out for a bit. She was ready to hit the beach, but I managed to delay her a bit with snacks. ;)
The best part of the trip though is that my mom and dad came down to join us! And even more exciting, they brought presents! Which was kinda ironic because it was actually my mom’s birthday weekend, but the boys loved that they got gifts too.
These ridiculous llama teeth might have been the best part ever though. Henry looked hysterical!
Nonni & Grandpa got down to the house really late last night, so they were also anxious to see how close the beach was to the house. The kids were more than happy to take them as soon as I would let them. So I did make them eat first, but let them go in pj’s. It’s their vacation too! ;)
Chilling on the porch with my youngest while she’s enjoying some jello. We’ve been eating a lot of it lately, so I bought some pre-made cups for the trips. The boys said it wasn’t as good as the usual stuff I make, but Natalie didn’t care.
Natalie was so excited that her Nonni was here that she kept running over to give her hugs. Nonni was always happy to oblige!
Not the best selfie I’ve taken, but it was the only one of the three ladies I managed to capture! :)
But look you guys! I even remembered to bring the fancy camera!
This girl loves the beach sooooo much! I think about half of the photos I got of her were of her running toward the water!
Luckily this year, I can feel a little bit safer about letting her run to the water and back again. It was a much more relaxing beach trip when I wasn’t stressing about letting her near the water, her trying to drink the water, etc. She was just running around like any kid her age. :)
The boys were also clearly excited about beach time!
And so, so, so excited about hanging out with Nonni and Grandpa! I loved having my parents there as well, but I did have to share my awesome beach umbrella.
Ugh.
I mean… Worth it? ;)
She saw her brothers using the boogie boards and decided that she wanted to go catch some waves too!
Luckily Matt intervened with something a little bit easier for her to hold on too - though she wasn’t quite as prepared for riding the waves as she thought she was…
But the girl loves excitement either way, she was up for some more fun in the surf!
The grandparents brought these cool construction trucks for the boys. Natalie was highly offended that there wasn’t one for her, so she just stole their whenever possible! ;)
Henry is being Henry…
This guy is just crazy and I love him for it.
Of course whatever Henry is doing, his little sister wants to be right there with him. Luckily he still loves playing with his sister. :)
Matt bought them some kites to play with at the beach and Henry was ready to hold on to his own! He was super focused on keeping it up in the air and I was getting photos of his seriousness. Then he was all “Mom, my arm is starting to hurt!!”
lol - I guess it was a bit windy for him.
We got a lot of building time in the sand since we had plenty of beach to ourselves. Well not ourselves, but everyone is keeping their distance these days. It might look like this volcano is Matt’s idea, but I started this trend! This is probably our 5th rebuild of the beach volcano. (It was quite popular).
You can see on this version, Natalie is helping add a trench around the base.
The trench is necessary because I keep building the volcanoes up just to pour water down them like lava. As many times as I did it, it never got old! :)
Though clearly the boys did lose interest…
I did help Henry make some traditional sand castle buckets of sand, but he then proceeded to destroy them all, so…
You’re on your own, bud!
I managed to use a towel and my soccer mom chair to give myself some shade since my umbrella tent was getting crowded.
And of course, I then lost my shade to my youngest… Such a hard life!
I managed to get a photo of the kids with Nonnie & Grandpa, though not one where everyone was smiling. Though dad was half in the sun, so I can’t really blame him. ;)
Look - there are even photos of me!
It’s so rare for someone else to grab my camera and take photos, but Matt got some of Nonni & I playing with the kids!
These were technically some pool toys that Nonni brought for the boys, but they were so much fun to toss around at each other. Even Natalie tried to get in on the action! Well done, Nonni!
And, unlike our ring frisbee, these toys actually float! We’ll miss you, drowned frisbee. :(
Well that’s a wrap on our beach house trip. It was the get-away that we all needed!