Family beach trip 2013

We went to the beach as a family of 4 for the first time the last week of September. We stayed in Blue Mountain Beach off 30A in the same condo we have stayed in 3 times before. Russ and I both were ready for a week of no working and time with our babies!

We had quite the eventful drive down. We left the house at 7a on Saturday and it took us 9.5 hours to get to the beach. Ahhh!!! We stopped 6 times which was entirely too many...I blame Russ and his desire for McD's breakfast and his small bladder for a few of those stops. Caroline cried probably 40% of the way there, too. It was miserable for all of us...except for Tyler, who was actually pretty content watching DVDs even though he didn't nap at all. I think Caroline was just really tired...every time we stopped, she woke up and got upset. I crawled back and forth from the front seat to the back several times to feed and soothe her.

Proof that she was happy some of the time on the way there.

The new writing tablet was a big hit on the trip.

The other thing that made the drive down not-so-fun was the steady flow of rain the entire way there. I mean, it did not stop at all. To top it off, Russ had gotten new windshield wipers for the Pilot before we left and they were not installed properly so they kept coming off. We stopped to fix them a couple times (which of course, made Caroline cry) but we couldn't get them right, so Russ drove without them most of the trip. Good thing my windshield had RainX on it.

Lots of rain...my view from the backseat at one point on the way.

Once we finally got there, we unloaded the car, ordered pizza and got settled in. Everyone was glad to be out of the car and Tyler loved running around and exploring the condo. Uncle Brian, Lindsay and Granna got there around the same time (they left almost an hour after us, though).

That night, we gave the kids a bath together for the first time AND Caroline took her first bath in a big bathtub (in the bumbo seat). She absolutely loved it - splashing the water and laughing at Tyler the entire time. Tyler also loved having Caroline in the tub with him, too.

The other big thing that happened that first night was that Tyler slept in a big boy bed!! We brought the little cot for him to sleep on, but when he saw there were 2 twin beds in Granna's room, he said he wanted to sleep in one of them! If he was game, them so were we! I spied some pool noodles in the lost and found earlier, so we put them under the sheets to keep Tyler from rolling out. We also put some pillows on the floor, just in case. He did great and slept in the bed all night! Hooray! He completely surprised us and I am so glad we waited until he was ready so the transition was on his terms. If he keeps it up for the entire week, then we may just take the crib out and move him permanently to the twin bed when we get home.

I snuck a few pictures after he fell asleep.

After the kids were in bed, Granna and I went to the grocery store to get food for the week. I was exhausted by the time we got home so I crashed early, anticipating a fun, full day and week ahead!