It is not often that I look forward to watching the sun rise, as I loooove my bed and I loooooove to sleep. But when we woke up to this on our first beach morning, I couldnt get out of bed fast enough:
This little dude was the reason I was awake in the first place, but I was happy to have company as I watched the sun rise to start a great day.
Grady is officially an easy, happy, laid back kid now. Rarely crying, quite predictable, and just a happy lil camper :)
My dad had the whole beach to himself, bright and early on the Fourth of July :) That soon changed as the beach eventually became a sea of tents and people. Such great weather and a great place to sit back and appreciate where we live :)
Dad came up from the beach to help us pack up the kids and get settled on the beach for the morning. So far we have nice routine, spending the morning at the beach after breakfast, then coming up to the condo for lunch, a tub, and a nap for the kids, and then some pooltime and dinner in the evenings. Cant complain!
Eric seems to be thoroughly enjoying his time away from the office :) Blowing princess bubbles was first on the list for day one while Big Sister patiently waited for alllllllll the crap necessities to be packed and carried down to the beach.
Only the best daddies are cool enough to rule with a bubble wand scepter!
And Capt Happy was excited to get into his bathing suit for some pics before we hit the beach!
She was bouncing around the condo with excitement coming out her ears!
We have the two cutest kids on the planet. Im certain.
The Meatball became a bit of a sausage as I had to squeeze all his rolls into this adorable body suit from my Uncle Mike and Aunt Leigh. Toooo cute :)
Tough picture-taking ages, but still freakin adorable :)
Daddy has been on sand-castle duty, and Im not sure who is having more fun :)
They headed out to the water early :)
And it looked like we had the whole ocean all to ourselves....
....but within about three minutes, Whitney confidently and happily waltzed over to two little girls playing next to the surf school kids. We learned quickly that these girls were four and five years old, and their older siblings were participating in the surf school all week. Whitney was quickly friends with A and A, and I was so proud of our girl and her ability to make friends quickly and confidently. I am well aware that kids, little girls in particular, can be mean and uninviting....especially when they already have friends on the scene and arent anticipating a new, three-year-old friend joining in the fun. But these girls were really sweet (and Eric was on stand-by in case things went south.) I am SOOO grateful that Whitney is a good judge of character :)
They told her "We are going to go out a little far into the water and you are smaller so we dont want you to get hurt, okay?" Little did they know that our girl is fearless :)
As I took these pics, I had no idea if the girls were being nice or if they were picking on her or making her feel bad, but I had to trust that she could work it out no matter what happened. I love that they were so nice to her and love that our girl gets to keep her happy spirit and "i wanna be friends with everyone who smiles at me" attitude. (And Heaven help the little brats who make my happy kid feel like dirt some day....it will happen, I know....and I hope the offending child is as prepared as I will be. :))
After some splashing and playing with the big girls, it was time to boogey board with Daddy!
She was sooo proud of herself!
After meeting new friends and boogey boarding, it was time for some mermaid fun (ooooh, how the memories of my own childhood beach days flooded back as I tried to get the sand out of her bathing suit that night....ack!)
And I have to pat myself on the back for being significantly more laid back about Grady's first beach trip than I was for Whitney's first beach days. Thankfully, Grady has been happy o go with the flow, chill in his car seat or in the pack n play, and slowly drift off to sleep thanks to God's white noise machine...the ocean. He has been hanging out in all his redneck glory with just a diaper on the beach, despite all the adorable bathing suits I have for him. He wears them long enough for some cute pics, but its not worth heating him up to a sizzle on the beach.
We were excited for Grady to put his feet in the ocean for the first time, and there was no better man for the job than Gramps! My dad dipped Whitney's feet in the ocean for the very first time back in 2009, so it was fun to carry on the tradition with Grady.
Im not sure Grady loved the shock of the water or the glare of the morning sun, but he did pretty good!
Eleven weeks old and meeting the Atlantic for the first time!
He let out a loud cry, captured here, but calmed down right away and was okay when he dipped his feet a second time.
We made our first attempts at family pics before dinner on the 4th....like I said, its tough to get a three year old and an infant to cooperate, but we try our best. :)
She tries to cooperate....I love when she says, "Mommy. Its HARD to be still when you are fwee! (three)!"
After two beach/pool days, Grady and I spent today in the condo to avoid the heat and give my sun/wind-burned eyes a break. Tomorrow we are going to watch the Wimbledon Women's Championship in the morning, then head to the beach for the day....then repeat the whole lunch/tub/nap/pool/dinner routine we have fallen into.
I mean, its working so well....why mess with it!?
Bass Baby 2012:
Bass Baby 2009:
Life is good!
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