Tag Archives: beach

Change in Tide

2 Oct

His first beach trip was a snooze.

Sleepy Beach Baby

His second was a race and a cling to daddy.

Lola and Papa chasing Nate.

Daddy Dear Life

See-ya later, ocean.

His third and fourth were filled with apprehension and he chose to play beach baseball to help him eventually work up the nerve to try the waves.

That’s far enough.

Beach baseball is a blast. Who needs the waves?

Got brave on the last beach day.

His fifth washed all the worry away. He ventured deeper and deeper until he was even farther than Nia (our brave beach sweetie) and Andrew at one point.

That’s a Nate head way out there.

It was like Nate never had any hesitation about the waves. This time, he wanted to start surfing them before he even reached them.

Skim Boarding Brave

Skim Boarding Brave

I love how he was now so carefree – wanting to go deeper and asking for that skim board to try some sweet moves.

Our little man – conquering fears one beach trip at a time.

Surf, Sting, Sleepover and Some Other Super Stuff

6 Sep

Surf

Our recent trip to the beach showed us our children view the whole surf and sand experience very differently. We couldn’t get Nia out of the water and it took forever for Nate to finally get into the water. (Or even close to it.) Nate didn’t even want the “mud” on him.  (That’s what he called wet sand.)

Instead, for a large chunk of three days, he worked up the nerve to run lightning quick in the shallowest of water, cried some, chased and fed birds, built a few castles, played his video game and then, eventually – toward the end of our time – tackled and conquered his fear of the water.

Beach Beauty

Beached Boy

Cool Wave Rider

Brave, Unbeached Boy

Sting

As the pictures above show, our beach beauty couldn’t get enough of the waves. Even a nasty jellyfish sting didn’t keep her sidelined for long. A lifeguard saw Andrew carrying her as though something was wrong and gave us some “Jellyfish Squish” spray. The sting beached her for a bag of chocolate-covered pretzels and that’s about it. She went right back in the water and acted like we were making too big of a fuss out of it.

Sweets Gets Stung

Chocolate Makes It All Better

Sleepover

This adventure marked the first time Nia and Nate shared a room. It featured two twin beds and a television that was almost as big of a deal as the beach. (They don’t have tv’s in their rooms.) The first night was a bit of a challenge for all of us. We let them watch some tv but then after that we heard quite a bit of commotion and then Nate came crying out of the room. When all the drama was calm, he informed us he had been building a “bridge” from his bed to Nia’s bed when he slipped and hurt himself on the bed. It’s all fun and games until …

Nate's Bed Bridge

Some Other Super Stuff

This beach trip also offered some great quality time with friends and a first for Nate.

We had such a wonderful time visiting with the Heidel family, who sacrificed their college’s opening weekend football game to spend Saturday at the beach with us. (Did I mention they are great friends?)

Snacks are better with buds at the beach.

After a day at the beach, we enjoyed dinner, drinks and caught a few innings of the Savannah Sand Gnats’ game. This is where Nate’s first comes in. He’s never seen a professional fireworks show before. This weekend though, he experienced two of them. One after the Gnats’ game and the other while sitting on the beach in celebration of the Labor Day weekend.

Enjoying the Fireworks

Nia also got a very special treat. One of her bestest buds ever, Miss Avery, visited us. Nia and Avery were basically born to be friends. Exactly a month apart, they were side by side crib mates at daycare and became inseparable until we moved away. The time and miles apart have not hurt their friendship at all. They picked up right where they left off and immediately began playing pretend “iCarly” while hitting the waves.

Reunited Friends

Our mini-vacation to the beach was so nice and memorable, Andrew was already, seriously, asking when we could go back. Nate, on the other hand, was ready to head home. Nia was just fine whatever we decided (as long as she’s getting a souvenir or two). Me? Well, I’m happy just making memories with them – even if one of them involves a jellyfish.

Happy Beach Fam

Beach Memories

7 Sep

Beautiful Beach
Where to begin? I just really don’t know. Right now, two days after leaving Tybee Island, the adults are pooped and the kids are sick.  I kind of feel like a need a vacation from the vacation. It’s not to say that I didn’t have a great time – I did – at times. At other times – well, it’s just hard being away from the comforts of home. It’s so hard to write about the negatives when, looking back on it all, so many positive things happened and some of them even came out of the negatives. That’s why I’m going to take a somewhat easy way out and basically summarize the entire trip (the good, the crazy and the yuck) through my experiences.

  • Great quality time, conversations and laughs with loved ones – especially sitting outside until 1 am-ish just hours before the storm rolled in and playing games (BUNCO! RULES and Nia and I totally need to stay away from Guitar Hero)
  • Getting to visit with friends – Paul, Karen, Brian and Baby Andrew – thanks for coming all the way out to share smiles!  Miss you!
  • Sharing the beauty of the beach with Andrew’s parents and my mom – Nia loved looking for sandy treasures with her Papa Dave – very special
  • Watching Nia and her BFF Avery play like they’re together all the time
  • Getting to see how much our niece (Baby Ella) is growing up – she has the cutest little voice and pronounces words so precise – it’s adorable!  The word “yes” is especially cute.
  • Getting to see (sort of) our other baby niece who is now comfy and cozy in her mommy’s belly (the prettiest pregnant lady in the world!)
  • Screaming children (Nate) in confined spaces
  • Screaming children (many) in awesome waves
  • Leaky roof, pots filled with slimy, brown water (when we called the rental agency, they told us there was a mop in the closet! ha!)
  • Laughing about the leaky roof and the
  • No power for an hour on our first morning
  • Andrew acting giddy because we have no power
  • Soaking rain for our first two days
  • Playing in the rain (Ginger and I being carefree and braving the rough waves)
  • Taking advantage of the sunny spots during the rainy days (we didn’t miss a day on the beach!)
  • Sick children (3 children diagnosed with strep – 2 of them also have ear infections and Nia is struggling with a high fever and sore throat now – so far no strep but she still has something!)
  • Happy children – (before, during and after the illnesses) – it was so hard to tear them away from the beach
  • Bad eye luck – Ginger was forced to bury a contact in the sand (she was on her last pair at the time) – Nate the Destroyer got his mitts on Andrew’s glasses at the same time one of his last contacts was unwearable – my mom accidentally dropped her glasses on the concrete and now has two chips right in the middle of a lens
  • Getting to go on a hot date with my husband of 7 years – we’re so glad we could share our anniversary with so many people we love
  • Eating my very own crab legs for the first time – I can’t believe I cracked them all by myself!
  • Can you say yum?  I certainly did thanks to Breakfast Chef Ginger.  (Eggs, bacon, grits, sausage, biscuits and gravy – I just had me some more of ’em grits today – I’m hooked!)
  • Four scoops of ice cream that ended up hitting the table before Nia could even taste it
  • Daddy making it all ok and telling both of his girls not to cry over spilled ice cream
  • New dents for Nate’s skull – I think he hit his head something like 3 times in 3 hours.  And don’t even get me started about one table that was the perfect toddler/infant height!  3 kids had bruised heads!
  • Speaking of heads and dangerous objects – this is all I have to say – ceiling fan. Those who know what I’m talking about will understand – those who don’t – you’ll have to ask me one day – it’s just too hard to describe on here without coming across as a complete jerk
  • Being on WSAV – I thought I quit?!?!  Paul – that was all for you buddy
  • Running after Nate as he chased birds on the beach yelling “B”
  • Witnessing the immense joy and excitement the ocean stirred up in the kids – their happiness topped everything
Hitchin’ a Ride
Getting Sandy
The chase is on…
The Happy Heidels
Givin’ Hugs
Death Grip on Daddy
Waving Bye to the Ocean
Addicted
Loves the Waves
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