End of summer beach trip

Since we have a baby coming in about eight weeks I can't really take off a whole bunch of time as I'm saving all of my leave for maternity leave, but we wanted to take the kids to the beach for an end-of-summer vacation. My cousin's engagement party happened to fall on a Saturday evening and was being held near a beach so we decided to extend the weekend into a mini-vacation. The kids were beyond excited about spending time away at the beach, but I was still a bit wary about how crowded the beach can get and keeping an eye on them all. Turns out it was easier than expected.

We took off early on Friday and arrived before lunch. Our room wasn't yet ready, so we made some sandwiches, packed up our lunch and stuff for the beach and walked over. The kids could barely contain their excitement and started digging in the sand the minute we dropped our stuff. We rented a beach cabana every day so we could have some shade and a place to stow away our stuff.

The first beach day we spent as much time on the beach as we could and left when the kids started to look tired. After checking in to our room, we got everyone showered and dressed and then headed over to The Beach Pub for dinner. I had a pound of crab, but I should have gotten the flounder again. Don't get me wrong, the crab was good and definitely satisfied a craving I was having, but the flounder was so delicious last time. Like melt in your mouth delicious. Tom got some sort of platter and shared a scallop with me and I almost took the rest of them from him. And the hush puppies that came with the meal? They should be served with every meal everywhere. Enough said.

After dinner we walked the boardwalk with the kids and saw the statue of Neptune and took a few boardwalk pics. 

On the walk back to the hotel we stopped at Dairy Queen and got ice cream. It was about that point that Lexi started falling apart in a major way. Sheer exhaustion got the better of her. So we went up to our room, got everyone ready and put them all to bed. We had initially planned to read or watch TV or something once the kids were asleep, but we both wound up falling asleep with them. Good thing, too, because Tommy was up at the butt crack of dawn. 

I swear he got up early every day just to see the tractor comb the beach for trash. He also loved watching the people running and biking on the boardwalk and the garbage trucks. Once the rest of the family woke up we headed down for a quick breakfast before getting ready for the beach for the day. 

Our set up on Saturday was similar to the day before, but in addition to renting a cabana we decided to also rent a lounge chair so we could have a clean space for the kids to sit off of the sand while they ate lunch. This was our set up for the day. We also put out another towel about 10 feet in front of this set up and dumped the rest of the sand toys with it. Kind of our way of extending our beach space and line-of-sight to the water. 

Tommy and Lexi spent most of their time playing in the sand and running back and forth to the water. Stasa alternated happily searched for shells and body surfing the waves. 

Eventually we were all in the water playing in the waves. Tommy reached up to be held and snuggled right into my body. The kid was done. I took him up to our spot, wrapped him in a towel and lay down with him. He quickly passed out and stayed asleep for a couple of hours in the cabana. 

This one was a beach bum, too.

Although that didn't last too long. She stayed still long enough to warm up and then was up and playing in the sand and water with Stasa. 

We only stayed until about 3:00 on Saturday since we had to get ready for the engagement party and wanted to give the kids some time to cool off and relax out of the sun. Even then we managed to get in a solid six or so hours on the beach. The girls passed out in the car on the way to the party - the sun and surf took a toll on them. I remember as a kid coming home from my grandmother's, Garu's, house having spent the whole day on the beach and riding the waves and just crashing on the sofa still in my swimsuit. Those summer days are still some of my favorite memories and seeing the kids play like that brings back all the good feelings from those days. 

The kids were okay at the party - now don't get me wrong the party was great, but the kids must have been bored. We stayed a couple of hours and left a little after bedtime for the kids. Unfortunately we had to wake them all up when we got back to the hotel so we could get them up to the room and ready for bed. Fortunately they fell back asleep pretty fast and Tom and I were able to hang out on the balcony to people watch and chat.

You'd think that taking a beach vacation would be relaxing, but when you're traveling with a 2 year old who enjoys waking up every day at the crack of dawn. 

At least him being up early helped us all take full advantage of the day. Bright side, right? So once again we went down to breakfast after everyone was up and had a chance to actually wake up. After that it was back to the room to pack our lunch and things for the day. Since this would be our last real day on the beach we wanted to spend as much time as possible in the sand and surf. And again we rented a cabana and beach lounge and the kids immediately dropped their stuff and started playing. We lucked out with the weather - it was absolutely gorgeous every day and this day was no exception.

We spent nearly eight hours on the beach that day. Tom and I were spent, but I bet the kids would have happily played for a few more hours. We packed up, got back to our room and got the kids cleaned up so we could head out for dinner. We debated driving someplace, but I really didn't want to get in the car with the kids for fear of them falling asleep and being grumps during dinner. We walked up and down Atlantic and settled on a Tex Mex place and then walked the boardwalk some more before calling it a night. As we were getting ready for bed we were on the fence about spending another day on the beach or just getting on the road early. 

Of course the llama was up and at 'em before the sunrise again. 

This morning though his incessant chatter woke everyone up early and after thinking about it we chose to get some breakfast, pack up and get on the road. I'm glad we made that choice because traffic wound up not being too bad and we got home early afternoon with enough time to rest and get everything cleaned up from our trip, including washing all of the sand and grit on the car. And hey, we even got a couple of hours of peace in the car on the ride home.

I like the beach! I like the beach!

We decided to take advantage of my leave before it's over and take a quick trip down to the beach with the kids. I wish Tom could have taken more time off, but I'm happy with the time we spent together. Before we went to the beach Tom went off to the lake for a bachelor's party so it was just me and the kids for the weekend. Me and the kids for 36 hours. And we survived. As soon as Tom left on Saturday I quickly formed a game plan for our time alone. I figured I needed to plan out as many hours as I could to keep us all from going crazy. So after breakfast we took off for "the farm" aka the Reston Zoo. Too bad I didn't realize it would be about a hundred degrees out. The girls still had a good time and ran around from animal to animal with their feed cups and bottles.

After visiting the birds, none of whom wanted anything to do with our budgie sticks, we stopped for an ice cream and some shade to cool off. 

After the Reston Zoo we swung by Wendy's for a special lunch and brought it back for an indoor picnic to really cool off. Since we were all still hot and sticky after our picnic we all took some cool baths and then got dressed to walk around the Reston Town Center. Saturday evenings in the summer they have free concerts and I figured between that and the big fountain the girls would stay entertained. The girls happily ran around, threw pennies in the fountain, and danced to some jazz.

The girls got out a ton of energy between the zoo and the town center and passed out early when we got home that night. I decided that we'd hang around the house on Sunday and work on packing for our beach trip. I let the girls help pack their own stuff. Stasa carefully laid out her outfits and then folded everything up, packed it, and zipped up her bag. Lexi needed more guidance, but happily told me what she wanted to pack and tried to fold her clothes. By the time Tom got home we had most everything packed, the house cleaned, laundry and dishes done, and the car ready to be packed. 

Monday morning we got up bright and early, packed the car, and headed down 95 to Virginia Beach. The trip down was pretty fast and the kids were okay, but got antsy for the last 20 minutes. As soon as we got checked in to the hotel they started chanting "I like the beach! I like the beach!" We all got suited up, grabbed our beach things, and headed out. 

Storm clouds rolled in after about an hour so we packed up and took the kids to the hotel pool to wait out the rain. Before the trip we looked up a few places to eat in the area and settled on four that were rated highly. We headed over to The Beach Pub for our first lunch and had amazing flounder and crabmeat in butter. And hush puppies! I've missed hush puppies with every meal.

After lunch it was back to the hotel to suit up and head back down to the beach. I'm pretty sure any kid could spend hours happily playing in sand and water. I know I used to spend hours just walking the shoreline looking for seashells. Lexi plopped down and starting digging and destroying every sand castle I made. Stasa was happier splashing around in the water.

After a couple of hours playing around on the beach we were all a bit tired, even though the girls kept saying they weren't. We packed up, washed up in the outdoor shower, and headed up to our room to take a real shower and rest. Stasa tucked herself in bed and took a nap without us saying a word to her. Lexi chose to stay up and play on the balcony while Stasa snoozed. 

We let Stas nap for an hour and a half then woke her up and got everyone dressed for dinner. Parking at the hotel was limited and since we had a good spot we chose to walk the boardwalk to find a place for dinner instead of driving somewhere. On the walk Lexi asked for a ride and fell asleep before we found a place to eat. 

She missed the entire dinner and slept in Tom's arms the whole time. Stasa helped us finish off a whole pizza and chatted with us while we ate. Lexi finally woke up on the walk back to the hotel when we mentioned stopping for ice cream. There was a DQ right by our hotel so we stopped there and got blizzards, something we've been craving for a long time. We took our ice cream up to our room and ate it on the balcony while we watched everyone on the boardwalk and bike trail. Our kids are becoming expert people watchers and are so observant, especially Stasa. When we were at dinner that night she was drawing on her placemat and then started practicing her numbers. All of a sudden she pointed out what she wrote. 112. "One one number two. That's our number at the hotel." Pretty damn close. We stayed in room 211. Smart cookie. For bed we each took a kid in our bed and put Tommy in his Rock-n-Play. I ended up with the perpendicular sleeper, Lexi. I kept moving her back to her side and turning her around all night. I kept waking up to her taking up most of the bed.

We woke up Tuesday morning to beautiful weather. Tom and I both wished we had caught the sunrise, but said we would try the next morning. We got the girls up and dressed and headed down to breakfast. Tom and I tried to get them to eat a hearty breakfast since we planned to spend the majority of the day on the beach. This time we decided to rent one of the big sunshades instead of using our umbrella since we almost lost it the day before. 

We were practically the only ones on the beach when we got there, but it got packed pretty quick.

The girls alternated between digging in the sand and splashing in the water. I taught them both how to dig up sand crabs and that kept them busy for awhile. We searched for more seashells and Tom buried them both in the sand together.

Tommy spent his time resting under the canvas sunshade and hanging out in our arms.

We packed up around 3:00 or so and headed up to our room to bathe and rest before dinner. We went for an early dinner at the Lynnhaven Fish House, somewhere Garu and my mom used to take me. The food was delicious and we had some amazing she-crab soup and more hush puppies. After dinner we opted for ice cream on the boardwalk, something we all enjoyed. 

Stasa finished hers and then came over to me asking if I could share. Stinker. That night I ended up falling asleep with both girls in bed with me while Tom had Tommy snoozing on his chest. Wednesday morning we missed sunrise again, but I didn't really mind because I preferred the sleep after being up and down all night with Tommy. He must be going through another growth spurt because he wanted to eat the entire vacation.

Since checkout was at 11:00 am, we chose to forgo the beach and pack up and head to the Children's Museum in Portsmouth before heading home. We all had fun at the museum, especially the girls. 

I'm glad we did the museum before heading home because it got enough of energy out of the kids so they actually napped half of the way home.

After a quick stop for gas, the girls woke up and happily snacked on their lunch leftovers and played on our iPads.

All in all it was a great mini-vacation with the family and makes me want to take more trips to the beach. This trip brought back so many good memories from my childhood and I want my kids to love the beach as much as I do.