For the long Labor Day weekend, we decided to pack up the kids and head to our beach house for a relaxing vacation before I head back to work. Wait, did I say relaxing? With two kids under two? No, that's not right. It was fun, yes, but definitely not relaxing!
We invited my parents along for the trip so that they could help with the two littles. Having the extra sets of hands made it worth it - I'm not sure we would've gone with just the four of us!
Matt and I made the genius decision to leave Thursday evening after dinner and baths. With the two kids in cozy pajamas, we drove the first 5 hours to Montgomery and it was so easy! After watching Frozen, both kids fell asleep. We had to stop once to feed Thomas but other than that, it was smooth sailing.
This was my first time in a hotel with the kids! It was Thomas's first hotel visit period. Katie Wynn had stayed in one with her daddy one night, but not with me. Since we only had one pack-n-play in our car, she got to sleep in the king-sized bed with us. She was glued to her daddy's side the whole night!
Both babies slept great at the hotel, especially considering we had to wake them up at midnight to bring them in. Katie Wynn loved the breakfast and having so many things to choose from! Thomas is just happy to eat any time we let him. :)
We hit the road again around 9:45 and both kids napped during the 3 hour ride. It really was the best way to travel to Florida!
We stopped shortly before arriving at our house for lunch at Whataburger. Do you ever have those moments when you look at your child and just get overwhelmed with how much you love them? I think Matt and I both had one of those moments at Whataburger. Katie Wynn was such a doll and just so sweet and cute. I could just eat her up! And it helped that she ate a really good lunch. I love it when she does that.
As soon as we arrived at our house, we wasted no time at all getting in the pool! In fact, we were in the pool when my parents finally arrived. Katie Wynn was hesitant to get in at first but after a few minutes was jumping in and even going under water! It makes me very proud and very nervous all at the same time. I don't want her to be scared of water but I also don't want her to be brave enough to think she can jump in when we're not around.
We ended the day with dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, La Cocina. Rain was in the forecast for the next day (Saturday) so we had decided it would be our shopping day. As luck would have it, it didn't rain a single drop! But we shopped til we dropped anyway. :)
When we got home that afternoon, the weather was perfect for sitting out by the pool.
We were enjoying our time out by the pool so much that we decided to have dinner out there. Who doesn't love an impromptu picnic?
By the time dinner wrapped up, Dad decided he wanted to go for a dip in the pool. And you know who has to get in the water any time someone else is in...Katie Wynn! There was no time to bother with swimsuits so Dad jumped in in his shorts and K-dub went skinny dipping. She thought it was extra fun since I turned on the light in the pool!
Katie Wynn has a bad habit of sticking out her tongue when she swims. She drinks a LOT of water when she's in the pool.
This girl's got a little bit of junk in her trunk. I just love that booty! And that she needed to check on her little brother...
We had cereal for breakfast the next morning and Katie Wynn got to pick out her own (enormous) bowl.
Thomas only got to have milk but he was ok with it.
Sunday morning the boys had a scheduled golf game so Mom and I decided we'd take the kids to the beach before it got too hot. We gathered up only the essential items since we weren't planning on being there long and knew we'd each have a kid in our arms during the walk. It ended up being a big flop! When we got to the top of the stairs that led down to the beach, we could see that the sun was out in full force and there was not a speck of shade for my fair-skinned baby boy. We were hoping to "borrow" one of the beach rental umbrellas for a few minutes but they weren't even finished putting them out yet! So Mom and Thomas sat up on a bench in the shade while I took Katie-bug down to the beach. Aaaaand...she still hates it. I sat her down so I could lay out our towel and she didn't move an inch. She wouldn't dare walk near the shore with me!
After carrying her down the steps and across the sand, I was already sweating my butt off. I decided it wasn't worth being out in the sun if she wasn't going to enjoy it, so we packed back up and headed to the enormous community pool instead. And, just like the first day at our little pool, she was nervous to get in at first. She is also a big-time people watcher and since there were other boys swimming nearby, I couldn't get her attention for anything!
Mimi and Thomas eventually joined us at the pool. KW swam with Mimi while I got to hang out with my favorite little guy.
My favorite little guy doesn't respect his Mama very much...
Crying at the beach plus swimming in the pool equaled a good afternoon nap for Katie Wynn. Mom and I were able to sneak out and do some window shopping (don't worry, the boys were back from golf and stayed with the kids). They met up with us later in Rosemary so we could have dinner at another one of our favorite places - Wild Olives.
Katie Wynn is still pretty obsessed with pockets.
She and I played chase while waiting for our food to come out.
When we got home that evening, we hung the baby swing up on the balcony. Turns out Thomas is a really big fan of the swing! He sat happily in it (and eventually fell asleep) for an hour, which is a really, really long time for him!
Matt, Katie Wynn, and I all went for an evening dip. It's so nice to have a pool in your yard - wish we had one at home! :)
Betcha didn't know I had legs that long, did ya?
Katie bug got to swim with her parents right before bed and then woke up and went swimming with her grandparents. Must be the life!
After we got cleaned up, I couldn't help but take pictures of Dad with the kids since they all matched. Katie Wynn was being difficult and wouldn't give up the paci.
At lunch, Katie Wynn used a celery stick as a spoon to eat her ranch dressing. I can't say I blame her, I've wanted to drink mine before! (Matt just threw up in his mouth reading that...)
Most afternoons, Thomas and Poppy could be found snoozing on the couch together.
After lunch, Katie Wynn took a pretty good fall and skinned up both of her knees. We patched them up with band-aids (and new love of hers! Can't take them off; they have to fall off...) and kisses (another new love - every tiny booboo gets a kiss) and she felt much better. Mimi felt bad for her though so she bought her a new puzzle as an afternoon happy.
While dinner was being cooked, Mom and I sat out by the pool with the kids. We tried so hard to get a picture of me with both of them. It may be years from now before we get a decent one.
That evening, we decided to try the beach one more time. I really wanted to try to get some pictures of the kids on it and thought with the guys' help, maybe we could survive it. Plus, waiting until the evening meant no harsh sun. I dressed the kids in their matching outfits and we loaded up in the car to drive closer to the beach steps.
Surprisingly, there were no tears when we got down there! Maybe because KW knew we wouldn't try to put her in the water if she didn't have on a swimsuit? Who knows. But then...the worst thing ever happened.
My camera fogged up.
This has happened numerous times before. I know taking my camera out from the air conditioning and into the heat will cause it to fog, and usually it clears up very quickly. But that was not the case this time. Instead of clearing up, it just kept getting worse and worse.
I just can't even tell you how broken hearted I was. I mean, look at how precious Katie Wynn looked! Here we were, down on a beautiful beach with the perfect lighting, both kids dressed in cute clothes and in good moods, and my darn camera wouldn't work! I broked all the rules, too, trying to fix it. I used my shirt to clean the lens. I even took the lens off and wiped down the inside of the camera with a very linty towel! But it didn't help. In fact, it got so bad that the camera just stopped taking pictures all together. I was certain I'd completely ruined it.
I was going to just take pictures with a phone but, as it turned out, NONE of us had brought one. Seriously?!? Between four adults, how could none of us have our phone??
It may have been a little over-dramatic, but I was near tears when we left. They don't stay this little forever, you know! Matt knew I was sad about it so we did the only the we could do to fix it - we extended our vacation another day so that we could have a do-over! Isn't the fleibility of maternity leave nice? I don't want it to end!
Since we had another day, it gave us another opportunity to try the beach with Katie Wynn again. This time we didn't even bother inviting Thomas - he stayed at the house with my parents - and Matt went with me so he could help hold her in the ocean.
We called the beach tram to give us a lift so we wouldn't have as much of a walk. K-dub loved riding on it and getting to tip the driver!
She still was not a fan of the sand AT ALL, but she somewhat tolerated being in the water. Mostly she thought it was hilarious when the waves crashed into me and nearly knocked me over.
Please note the bandaids on the knees!
When Katie Wynn woke up from her nap that afternoon, Mimi and Poppy had another surprise for her! Mom and I had admired this collapsible wagon at the community pool and they stumbled upon one at Dick's Sporting Goods and bought it right away. We love it already; it's so handy! We immediately took for it a spin around the neighborhood.
The wagon came in handy that night as it was much easier to pull all of our stuff to the beach than to have to carry it! This will be a required item to bring on future trips to Florida.
Can you guess who was not very excited about taking pictures?
But hey, at least my camera lens wasn't fogged up!!
Should I even be surprised that when Thomas finally looked up, Katie Wynn looked away?
I handed my camera off to Mom so that I could slip into the pictures too. The kids weren't into looking at the camera, though.
KW's attention was fixed on something so Mom shifted over to try to get her to look at the camera. Close, but not quite.
How 'bout these of me and my cutie?
And my other two cuties!
Mom and Dad took a turn in front of the camera too.
The picture below is probably the best one I took that night. ;)
These three people are my whole world!
Katie Wynn was a pretty good sport until she got put down in the sand. That wrapped up our photo shoot quickly!
I'll wrap up this post with a big cheesy grin. We ate dinner the last night at the Cowgirl Kitchen - so good! - and in typical KW fashion, she knocked out a whole bowl of cheese dip using just one chip. There was a mirror hanging behind our booth that she loved looking at her cheesy face in.
We left for home by 7:30 the next morning and oh man, it was a loooong ride home. Thomas, who usually loves being in the car, cried for about 60% of the trip. It was exhausting but we eventually made it home in time for dinner and bed time.
Even though it wasn't relaxing, I'm already ready to go back. Maybe the next trip will be the one where Katie Wynn likes the ocean. We'll see. :)