...It's so hard to say goodbye! At the time that this posts, I'm probably sitting in the front seat of our rented minivan boo hoo-ing as we drive towards our house that's not brand new, doesn't have a pool in the backyard, and isn't within walking distance of the beach. And, last I checked, it was raining cats and dogs at home so we'll likely be greeted by mud puddles and foot-high weeds. Sigh...why can't we just stay here forever? This week was the kids' spring break so we brought them (and Doc's parents too) to see the beach house for the first time. During building, we kept it a secret from them so they had no idea it even existed. I mean, they knew we were headed to the beach and that we were staying in a house, they just didn't know it was our house. As we pulled up, we told them we were all going to take a quick tour of the house and then we had to meet out on the patio for a family meeting. Doc used his serious voice thinking he'd make them nervous (especially since last week we'd had a family meeting and told them about the new brother or sister they'll be getting in September!) but I think they just thought he was going to go over the "vacation rules."
Before telling them the house belongs to us, we asked them what they thought about it so we'd get an unbiased opinion. They both thought it was really cool...they got their own rooms and it had a pool! I had my camera poised to snap a pic when Doc told them that the house belongs to us. I was ready to catch their excitement on film!
Um yea, not really the picture I was expecting. What we actually got was about a billion questions. "Wait...so this used to just be an empty lot?" "You've seen this house before?" "We can come here anytime?" "Other people can come here too?" I guess it was a lot to take in. We asked them if they remembered all the mattresses and couches that used to be in Mimi and Poppy's (my parents) garage. "Yea?" Then we told them those were the mattresses we'd be sleeping on the couches that were in the living room. Slowly but surely it all started to make sense to them.
Then they got excited! And also wanted to know why didn't build a third floor. We tried to point out the positives; tweens don't really get mortgages and things like that.
We also told them that noone had swam in the pool yet so the race was on to see who could get suited up first. Wyatt was first but we made him patiently wait for his sister so they could jump in together.
Finally she made it down and we counted them off. They made sure I had my camera ready so we'd know for sure exactly who went all the way under first.
Three, two...
...one! Looks like Anna's off the ground first.
But Wyatt's catching up.
Looks like Wyatt made it under first. The camera doesn't lie. Just don't tell Anna, ok?
It didn't take long after they jumped in for us to realize the pool heater wasn't turned on. Pool water on March 14th is COLD! Doc spent a while on the phone with the pool guy. Turns out the gas wasn't hooked up yet.
Wyatt became the pool boy and got to work cleaning out the leaves.
The rest of us pretty much just sat around and watched.
I spent about an hour out by the pool the first day. I was finishing up a book on my kindle and just had on shorts and a tank top since it really wasn't that hot. As it turns out, the sun was doing a job on me and it looked like I was wearing that tank top for the rest of the trip. That, or a bright red bib. Lemme tell you, it was awesome.
Before we got the heat turned on, Anna mastered the art of getting onto the raft without getting wet.
Poor Wyatt got soaked every time. Luckily, he didn't seem to mind.
The second full day of our vacation was my birthday! My sneaky little family turned into busy little bees while I was in the shower that afternoon, because I walked outside to a surprise party on the porch!
I wish I'd had my camera to show you things from my point of view. Doc told me to come outside and I saw the balloons but noone was there. And then Lala appeared from behind the bike shed, Anna and Papa rounded the corner of the house, and Wyatt pulled up the driveway on his bike. And they all had presents! (Anna's and Wyatt's were even wrapped in paper they'd decorated.)
Lala took lots of great pictures at the party but yea, I'd just stepped out of the shower so must of those will remain unposted. One of the presents I opened was a new pair of TOMS ballet flats. Super cute!
I also got a Built bag for my laptop. Really excited about finally having something to cart my computer around in!
Doc baked brownies for the party and Anna arranged my candles into a 2 and a 9 (last year in the twenties!). Unfortunately, there were no matches so I had to pretend to blow them out. That just means I got them all and my wish will come true!
Later that afternoon Doc took me out for a quick shopping trip and a birthday dinner. Of course I didn't take a picture of us actually showered and cleaned up, but it was a great date night! It was a really good birthday and I'm so glad I got to spend it at the beach with these guys!
As for the rest of the trip, we did as little as possible. We spent a day or two at the beach and lots of time lounging around the pool. I spotted three of these guys (or maybe they were all the same one?) hanging out by the pool with us. To be so afraid of snakes and other creepy crawly things, I actually think these little lizards are pretty cute.
We bought two more bikes while we were in town so now there's a total of four at the house. There were lots of bike rides while we were there.
As always, Doc was the head cook and whipped up some great seafood meals. Like the pool, we also broke in the dining room table and ate dinner at it a couple nights.
While I was in the back taking that picture of Doc grilling, I also snapped a couple of the back walkway since I left it off our tour (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four). This is the view from the back door looking towards the pool.
We've got an outdoor shower with both hot and cold water. Wyatt took a couple of ten minute "rinse offs" after swimming in the freezing cold pool; I think he liked it. Next to the shower is a rack for you to hang your towel.
So that was our quick spring break vacation! I'll leave you with this picture of Little Miss Sassy.
