Mini vacation at the beach!

Our beach trip was short lived, but still so great. Two weekends ago, we packed up the car, and I mean jammed it as packed as it could be. I wish I had taken a picture of how crammed we were as we made our way to the beach early Friday morning. We had 3 car seats full of adorableness, 3 adults (equally as adorable), a large cooler, pack and play, 3 beach chairs, luggage, beach bags, beach toys, blanket, food and thankfully a few DVD’s and the DVD player for the kids. We managed to cram everyone and everything into my Honda Pilot and set off for the beach.

When we got to the beach we grabbed some lunch and then headed to the beach for all of Friday afternoon. The weather was beautiful all weekend. Nolan loved the sand. He would sit and dig with the shovel and actually pour it into the sand pail. He was not too fond of the ocean, but unless you spent a bit of time adjusting to the water the ocean was rather chilly. I wish we had brought a baby pool for him to splash and play in because he would have loved that. He enjoyed splashing the water in the sand pails though!

After a day in the sun, we finally checked into our hotel and showered to get ready for dinner. We went to dinner at Lombardi’s. We decided it was so good last year that we would go back. At dinner they gave Nolan a booster seat so that we could all squeeze into a booth. I preferred he have a high chair, but with 3 hungry kids the booster seat seemed like a better idea than waiting. We learned that although he is not ready for a booster seat he did do a good job of sitting in it to eat. Once he was done eating he was ready to climb all over the place. He hammed it up smiling at the people behind us though.

Next on our agenda was mini golf, children 5 & under are free—jackpot! Hayden and Lincoln zipped through the course. Alaina, Ryan and I played an occasional hole and Nolan played close to every hole as well! He loved it! Hello, a golf club to swing around and a ball, he was a happy kiddo! He would actually stand and swing at the ball all on his own. We would walk him toward the hole and he would eventually hit the ball in the hole and then squat down and pick it up all proud. He did manage to throw 2 golf balls in the water when we weren’t paying attention and attempted the golf club as well. It was so fun watching and taking far too many pictures of my 14 month old playing mini golf.

Our last stop for the night was ~~Dumser’s~~ McDonald’s for ice cream! The line at Dumser’s would have probably taken about 45 minutes to get through and being that it was already 9 PM (an hour past Nolan’s bedtime) we were not about to stand in that. We resorted to the quick, cheap and easy drive thru at McDonald’s. Nolan was already sound asleep at this point. Hayden and Lincoln quietly ate their ice cream in the hotel room awhile we put Nolan to bed. He was so exhausted that he did not wake up at all when I changed him and laid him in his pack and play. Nolan slept in until 8 AM on Saturday morning.

Day two at the beach –

We packed up and went to the beach early. We stayed there all morning into early afternoon. Nolan and I went for a walk along the beach and he fell asleep in my arms. I was able to lay him down for his morning nap in the pop up beach tent. Both Nolan and Daddy took their morning naps on the beach together. Hayden and Lincoln started to warm up to the ocean at this point. Lincoln was surprisingly braver than Hayden. Both of them enjoyed jumping waves with Aunt Lainy and I.

In the afternoon Ryan, Nolan and I went to see Aunt Ginnie and Uncle Chuck’s new beach house. It is seriously the most beautiful beach house I have ever been too. Nolan started off a little whiny because he had a belly ache, but after a good diaper change our happy boy was back. Uncle Chuck made some delicious orange crushes and it was a great afternoon spent talking to wonderful company.

On Saturday, my brother met us at the beach. Him and Lincoln went exploring in Ocean City (Jolly Rogers and then Hooters—oy vey!) awhile the rest of us went to dinner with Uncle Ron and Aunt Michelle at Cactus Café in Fenwick. Once again, the same restaurant we went to with them last year. I can tell where Nolan gets his need for routine from…

Dinner was delicious as always and it was so nice to catch up with Ron and Michelle. Ron worked at the same golf course as Ryan and taught PE in PG County. He is the reason why Ryan started teaching in PG County. Ron and Ryan went from seeing each other and teaching together every day to living hours apart. I know that Ryan was so happy to see both Ron and his wife.

They enjoyed seeing how much Nolan had grown. They enjoyed watching him be a little piggy and chow down on chicken fingers. Seriously, the kid was gobbling up every last piece. He even picked the pieces that dropped into his bib pocket out and ate those. He is hilarious.

At the end of the night, Nolan gave good kisses goodbye and gave Uncle Ronnie a lot of high-fives.

Saturday night the same thing happened. We got in the car and Nolan fell sound asleep. We got back to the hotel and awhile changing Nolan’s diaper he rolled over to his belly on the bed. I tried to roll him back over and he was still asleep, he was so stubborn and would not stay on his back. Ryan had to help me, but it woke him up. He got changed and just started to smile and then proceeded to stand up and jump on the bed. He had a last whim of energy and was excited to get it all out. My brother and sister took Hayden and Lincoln to the hotel pool and in a few minutes Nolan had fallen sound asleep in his pack and play. Good boy Nolie!

At what I thought was 6 am Nolan woke up, stood up and started to fuss. I quickly jumped out of bed so that he would not wake everyone and laid him on my chest as if he were still a tiny infant and brought him into bed with us. Nolan never ever sleeps in our bed, but I made an exception since I thought it would only be for another hour or so. Apparently, it was only 4 am (which is probably why he went back to sleep so easily) and he ended up getting to sleep in our bed with us. Nolan woke up on Sunday at 7 am. We quickly got dressed and took him for a walk on the beach at sunrise awhile everyone else was sound asleep.

It was a great morning spent walking on the beach listening to the calm waves and playing with Nolan. Aunt Lainy met up with us for breakfast and then we headed back to the hotel to pack up (insert tears). We checked out of our room and my brother and his kids headed home. Ryan, Alaina, Nolan and I drove to the outlets and spent the day shopping. Really, we spent the day wishing we had gone to the beach because we didn’t find any good deals and came home pretty much empty handed.

Overall, it was another successful mini vacation at the beach. Next year, I insist we stay for a whole week.