Beach Bums

My dad invited us to join him at the beach for Labor Day weekend, to which we had to think about it for .5 seconds before we said YES! We wrapped up a busy week and were overly excited to head south and leave it all behind for a few days. I have no problem admitting that I'm a much better wife, mother, mediator, referee, business owner, dance teacher, etc. when I have a break every now and then. It was so nice just to get away!

Saturday morning we woke up to this little slice of heaven...

The first thing out of Cate's mouth?
"Mommy, they have a huge wave pool!"
That would be called an ocean, Buggy!
It didn't take long before the girls had everyone hopping. They couldn't wait to get their toes in the sand! We had first class transportation to cart us across the street to the beach...

If you know me, you know that I don't have much love for sand. I'm eating my words after this trip, though. I promised the kiddos I'd do whatever they wanted to do all weekend, and they taught me that I might just like the it after all. This is the first time they've been to the beach when they've both been old enough to really enjoy it. And enjoy it, we did! We were covered in blasted sand from head to toe. We rolled around in it, buried each other in it, built sand castles out of it, wrote in it, cartwheeled in it, and ended up with a beach bag full of it. And it was perfectly ok!

Towns discovered the fun in looking for sea shells. We came home with a pretty impressive sea shell collection thanks to spending hours combing the beach and the ocean for them...

Prissy britches didn't spend too much time in the ocean if she could help it. She was quick to decide that the taste of salt water wasn't her favorite...

Cate was more interested in playing than looking for shells...

We spent the morning at the beach, and after a quick lunch and wardrobe change, we headed to the pool. The kiddie pool had a butterfly slide that got lots of use...

Please notice the boy Cate's set her sights on. She couldn't quite take her eyes off of him and chatted him up for the longest time. The other kids in line were ready for them to get on with it, so they had a seat and went down together...

If they went down the slide one time, they went down it two hundred times (an hour)! And each time they had to try it a different way...

Cate didn't let her baby out of her sight the entire time we were there...

And blondie, well, she cartwheeled her little heart out. Using her feet to get somewhere is a thing of the past. If she's moving she's doing a flip of some sort! She did it to and from the elevator, all over the condo, in the water, on the sand...it didn't matter where she was!

That night we had dinner, watched a little football, and turned in early to get rested up for the beach the next morning.
One of my favorite things to do in the morning and at night at the beach is sit on the balcony and take it all in. The girls must have caught on because that's the first place they'd head as soon as their little eyes opened in the mornings.
In their jammies with Paw Paw...

I honestly think I could retire this very minute and do nothing but this all day...

That's what the little ones wanted to do when we got to the beach Sunday morning. Isn't that about as perfect as it gets?! They didn't sit still too very long, though...

What better way to start the morning off than a dance party on the beach...

Then it was time to build a princess sand castle...

We had to divert their attention to something else when the little girl that had been eying their castle came and stomped all over it. They nearly lost it! We tried to tell them that it could be rebuilt, but they decided it was time to take a dip in the ocean...

After a very much needed nap, we headed to dinner and go cart races...

Later that night we saw the absolute best fireworks show we've ever seen out over the water. It was amazing!

Come Tuesday morning, it was back to reality. School, dance class, and mountains of laundry...

It was fun while it lasted, but there's no place like home!