Beach 2014

Mike and I were shuffling the idea of doing a family vacation solo (just our little.big family) this year the first week I got out of school. We decided to spend the money on a bathroom remodel instead. That was a hard grow up decision to make.

To our surprise we got to go on a week beach vacation anyways with Mike’s parents. There is a family reunion every year at the beach for a long week Friday – Sunday. Mike’s parents have always been kind enough to pay for our hotel room and honestly if we had to pay for the room I am not sure we would even go. The rooms run about $300 a night plus tax. We looked in to house rentals and discovered we could all stay at a house for cheaper than a couple of nights so his parents booked a house rental for the week. So our three day beach trip turned in to a week!

I already wrote a little about this trip…

I would say this trip was 50% fun and 50% a headache. My kids cried and where out of whack almost the entire trip. I now truly understand why people say they need a vacation after their vacation.

The babies were totally fine and happy as can be. They ate, sleep, and ate sleep almost exactly on schedule and as if we were at home. Their happy little smiles were nice in the middle of me feeling like I was about to lose my mind since their older siblings were driving me nuts.

The first few days both Presley and Noah were wine buckets. I kept thinking once they got use to everything they would be fine. Presley adjusted much better than Noah. Noah was a pill and glued to me the entire time.

Staying in the house were me, mike, our kids, his sister, her two kids, his aunt, and his mom. His dad came down Thursday night and his sister’s husband not until Friday night.

P and N (especially N) acted like they were afraid I was going to leave them the entire time. If someone else talked to him he would scream NO and run and grab on to my leg so tight! They did not like other adults telling them what to do! And I have no idea where this behavior came from.

My sister in laws kids are on a litlle bit of a different schedule than mine which also made things hard on my guys when it came to eating and sleeping. Two important things to happy 2 year olds.

I didn’t know there could be so much peer pressure on a 2 year old. I noticed little things all week. Here is one example. At home for every meal Presley and Noah wear bibs, I brought bibs to the beach with me, I would try to put a bib on them and they would freak out…. “no mama, no bib” and would rip it off.  Their cousins did not wear bibs. Did they not want to wear bibs because their cousins weren’t?! We are home now and every meal they ask for their bib… saying “bib mama!”

The kids had fun on the beach. It was a lot of work to set up everything. Even tho they had fun they still had fits of fussiness and crying and really only lasted a max of 2 hours and I think that was just for one day.

I have always had a little pride in having my shit together with all my kids and this trip was a test to that. The only time that even comes close to this feeling of chaos is when I first bought Max and Eli home from the hospital and even that felt more controlled then this vacation.

OK so that was the 50% headache. Now the 50% fun!

Through the headache we did have a lot of fun and some good times!  We played on the beach! They loved finding sand crabs with their Pop Pop. They loved going to the playgrounds, the aquarium, the amusement park, and walking on the beach at night! I loved taking Max and Eli out to the beach and putting their toes in the ocean for the first time!

I am glad to be home! And maybe we will have better luck next year? But then we will have two 18 months old running around to keep up with as well!

 Ok maybe it will be better in a few years!!!

This is the Noah cry face from the trip...

Back from the Beach!

We got back from the beach around noon on Sunday. I am going to do a separate beach post. We left a little early because a family friend passed away and her funeral was Sunday afternoon. She was my grandma’s best friend and they were neighbors for 63 years! She was 92 when she passed, she life the world surrounded by her three daughters and one of her granddaughters. She lived a beautiful life and was able to overcome some tuff cards she was dealt like losing her son in his 20’s to cancer and her husband in her 60’s. I remember her always being so friendly, giving, and funny.  The service was absolutely beautiful and was followed by the nicest champagne toast to her life. I am so glad I did not miss it.

My grandma was pretty sad about her passing and it is really hit home with her. I bought her back to Richmond with me so she could get away and I just took her home last night. While she was here she did a lot of talking about her own death and how she would like everything to play out. I think the whole topic is kind of depressing but I guess it is a part of life and normal thoughts when you get older (my grandma is 84). 

 

I had a really nice visit with her and it is so special to see her with my children, her great grandchildren… I really hope I am around and kicking and get to spend time with my great grandchildren. I mean how cool is that?!

Yesterday we took the kids to the children’s Museum and it was a blast! 

Beach Day 1 Photos

Eli


Max

Family Vacation!

This post comes from Kure Beach, North Carolina! WooooWHOOOOO we are at the beach! We are staying here with Mike’s parent’s, aunt, and my sister in law are her two kids 4 and 2 years old. Next weekend is a family reunion so we came down a bit early because a beach house was actually cheaper than renting several hotel rooms for three nights.

Now that we are here and starting to settle in I am starting to get excited to be here. The last 48 hours were a little stressful and my anxiety levels were pretty high.

Being the mom and going on vacation is stressful. I was responsible for getting everything packed and ready and I am the mastermind on what stays and what goes. Trying to figure out what you need and don’t need for a week for 2 infants and 2 toddlers is hard. Mike is the muscle and strategically packs, loads, and unloads everything. That was another task… and luckily we were able to load Mike’s parents car with some things.

Also the last week of my life was stressful on a different level because my husband owns a small business and he is more or less a one man band. So he was working around the clock to meet deadlines to even be able to be here this week. And when I say around the clock he was pulling all night-ers like he was cramming for a final exam or term paper.

Then getting here with the kids was stressful, the drive, the arrival, the kids being confused and not having a good nap, sharing a room with cousins who are on different sleep schedules. There was so much crying. My kids do not cry that much. But the last 24 hours my head has been spinning from my kids crying.

 We did manage to have a wonderful two hours this morning at the beach with crying that felt minimal compared to what we were dealing with! They were getting use to the ocean and playing in the sand and in the end it was a lot of fun. We came back to the house feed them lunch and laid them down for a nap at 1pm and they are still sleeping at 4:45. I am letting them sleep because I know part of the all  constant crying in the last day has been due to lack of sleep!

We are settling in and I am so happy to start to have all types of fun at the beach! I write this post to remember that with young children  (or at least mine) the first part of a vacation is stressful but it fades fast and the fun begins! 

5 months old: photo recap

5 months old! Happy 4th of July!

My littles turned 5 months old on the 4th of July... this seems so old to me! Ah it really does go by so fast!

Eli and Max

Weekend Recap

My husband and I are beyond blessed to have both of our parents living in the same city as us! They have been a huge help with us and our children. Both sets of grandparents are very hands on and love our children to pieces.

This past weekend my in-laws kept all four of our kiddos at their house over night! What a treat! We brought them over to their house after nap time on Friday afternoon and headed east to the beach. We booked a hotel in Virginia Beach for one night. But before heading to the beach we stopped at Busch Gardens since we had the season pass from P and N’s Birthday. There was no one there! We rode all the major rollercoasters and a couple of other rides – what I discovered about this trip was I don’t really like rollercoasters anymore. When I was on the rollercoasters I didn’t feel much trill… I used to LOVE rollercoasters… instead I was wondering if I was going to get sick the whole time instead of the normal rush of excitement and fear. I am wondering if I am not far enough postpartum for this… or if this is the new me. I don’t really want to be the mom that stands and watches versus riding with her kids… so I am hoping I will like them again or can at least continue to put up with them!

After spending only about 2 hours at Busch Gardens we left and headed to the beach. We checked into the hotel, showered and got dressed for dinner. We headed to Harpoon Larry’s for dinner. Before children Mike and I would go to Virginia Beach for the weekend on a very regular basis. One summer we went almost every single weekend. Harpoon Larry’s is our favorite place for seafood dinners and drinks. It is a small locals place and just has a great beachy feel that isn’t too touristy. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend it.

After dinner we were tempted to hit some bars but opted out. We both wanted a good night sleep so that we go get up early and hit the beach.

Grandparent's sent us this picture while we were at the beach. Mike nor I know who is who in this photo. Also this is an odd stroller combo... but hey they are rockstars for taking them of a walk!

We slept in… which to us means 8:30 am, we were going to go to our favorite place for breakfast/bunch but decided we wanted to get out on the beach instead so we opted for the free hotel breakfast. This was so funny to me because of how much our beach attitude has changed… we had to leave that afternoon to head back to our kiddos so beach time was all the mattered!

We checked out of the hotel, moved our car to an all-lot, and were on the beach just before 10am. The weather was absolutely prefect. It was sunny with clear skies and the high 80 degrees so not too hot or chilly, the visibility was 10 mileages, and the UV index was 10! So both our pales selves got some sun in just a few hours and maybe a little burnt in a couple of places I missed my sun tan lotion… whoops… my poor feet and a spot where my bathing suit top moved!

We pushed off lunch as long as possible because again we didn’t want to miss ANY beach time. By 2:30pm we were both hungry so we headed to lunch. Lunch at the beach always takes way longer than planed and we didn’t get back to the beach until 4 at the time we had to pack up and head back to the kiddos.

It was a GREAT weekend and much needed break/couples weekend!