We spent last week in a cottage in Seacrest Beach, Florida. It was a wonderful vacation. Sure, there was still plenty of laundry, dirty dishes, and crying, but those things are much more tolerable when at the beach! :) The weather was perfect. The kids had a blast. Everyone slept well and stayed healthy.
When we arrived on the first evening, we unpacked, ate dinner (I brought a cooler of meals that I had frozen for us to have at our cottage), and took the kids out to see the ocean.
Here is a video of the initial reactions, or lack thereof.
The next day, we devised a plan to get us all out to the beach in one trip. Matt wore Ethan in a backpack, strapped on two beach chairs and carried a basket of sand toys. I pushed James in the stroller to the boardwalk where he walked down the steps and I carried two umbrellas, a bag with towels, and a cooler. James and Claire each carried their life vests. It was quite a haul, but we mastered it by the end of the week and had a nice little setup. We were usually among the first at the beach each morning thanks to our early risers being used to eastern time (the beach was on central). We played at the beach each morning, headed in for lunch, gave the kids baths (sand sand everywhere!), ate lunch, and then had a naps/quiet time. After naptime, we either went to the pool or went out to another beach area.
There were A LOT of fish in the ocean. It was really fascinating to see, but a little unnerving to have them constantly brushing up against your legs. Thankfully, James and Claire were not bothered by the fish. We were so glad that they were happy to be in the ocean, that we tried to hide our discomfort. I must have shown some at some point because Claire said, "It's ok Mommy, the fish just tickle!" James and Claire loved to go out "deep" in the ocean with Matt or myself and jump waves and swim around. They also both enjoyed playing in the sand, James in particular.
Ethan was a little harder to entertain at the beach, but he had stretches where he was happy playing with a sand toy or bucket of water. His favorite thing seemed to be the seagulls. He would point and babble every time there was one nearby. He fell asleep being held out at the beach a few times. He's long past the days of napping in my arms, so these moments were pure bliss for me.
Video of Ethan playing at the beach
We took a big bucket of toys, some new and some old, to entertain the kids at the cottage. They played well. Ethan just loved walking all around, from room to room.
Video of Ethan around the cottage
The pool was a big hit for James and Claire. Ethan is not happy in his float for very long these days--he'd much rather be walking all around the pool deck. Over the course of the summer, James has gotten comfortable enough in his swimmies to go around by himself. Claire is swimming short stretches by herself and has fun with a noodle or kickboard for longer stretches. Claire really enjoyed some inner tubes that available for our use.
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