Our 2010 Beach “Vacation”

It took some planning to get us all there in one piece. 

We left last Saturday during Ryan’s long afternoon nap time and Tyler’s questionable nap time.  The drive down there was pretty uneventful and Ryan slept the entire time waking up just as we walked into the condo. This is leaps and bounds from when we took Tyler to the beach at 3 months old and he screamed.the.entire.drive.there.  Bravo, Ryan!

Tyler told us over and over again he wasn’t tired.

Josh and I had researched beach cabanas for shade options on the beach for Ryan.  We didn’t really want to spend  a lot of money not knowing how well he would adapt to the heat and lack of…well, swing.  For the most part, Ryan did pretty good! 

 

 

He did need a little help sleeping at times…

At night, he slept in the swing and fluctuated between waking up 1 to 2 times at night.  We started our days bright and early at 7am each morning and he hung the best he could with what “schedule adjusting” we had to do on vacation.  We got in a few morning walks.  He had his fussy moments (another post), but all in all, he really did well.  Next time this time of year, he will be walking all over the beach!

On the Tyler front, there was no doubt that he’d love the vacation.  He has talked about going to the condo for 6 months now!  He is truly our little fish and wants to jump in the pool over and over again with or without his swim vest on!  He has never been a huge fan of the beach.  He always wants to be at the pool, but we always tell him we do the ocean first and then the pool. 

There was plenty of cousin time … (did I mention our condo is the kid condo?)

And of course, plenty of Ryan and Tyler-lovin moments

Monday afternoon, Josh and I took Tyler and Garrett to see the NC Battleship.  The boys loved it.  Me?  Not really my cup of tea, but if anything I got my workout with all of the stairs!! OH, how my legs hurt!!  Not to mention it was super hot!

I was super happy, see?

Thursday evening, we ventured to the newly renovated Boardwalk for rides and ice cream.  Let me tell you that Tyler had NO fear for riding rides!  He was devastated when he wasn’t big enough to ride the Ring of Fire!  For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is a huge ride that even I wouldn’t get on that goes upside down in a circle!  He did manage to go on other rides though including the Ferris Wheel and another one that yet again, I would not go on.

Ryan hung with us too…

As great as the vacation was, I was ready to come home this year.  We had our fair share of four year old discipline problems and tacking on a 2 1/2 month old to everything we wanted to do was not easy even though it might have looked that way from the sleeping pictures.  But hey, that’s life with kids.  It’s always been a balancing act! 

On our drive home, it decided to POUR 30 minutes outside of our town, and our luggage was on the outside of our car …not covered.  So, all the laundry I had done prior to packing up now gets to be done again.

My house looked like this coming home:

I can’t say it looks a whole lot better in a day’s time.  I need a vacation from my “vacation!”

Here’s to another beach vacation with an additional redhead!

 

Until next year…