Beach Trip 2012

Hello? Hello? Anybody out there?

Graham loves phones these days. He holds them to his ear and just talks and talks...no clue where he gets that from... :)

We are loving our summer swim days at Julie's neighborhood pool. What a treat to go cool off with some of our favorite people!! Graham likes floating :)

But, as much as we love hanging out in town with our family and friends, nothing beats a road trip to the beach with friends!
Perkins-Tidwell Beach Vacation 2012!!

We packed up our gear and hit the road 

Getting close!

We decided to take a Ferry to Fort Morgan...bad idea. We had to wait about 3 hours for the ferry in a long line of cars. The kids handled it great, though! Even Graham was pretty content just hanging out and strolling around. Finally, we made it on board! When our ride was over, our friends realized their battery was dead. Thank goodness, the folks on the ferry were prepared and jumped them off in no time!

At the beach house at last!!

 

While the guys were doing manly things (like grocery shopping), Kari and I decided to take a break from cleaning and unpacking and took the kids to the beach. Little did we know just how excited they would be. Especially Graham. My goodness, that child is fearless. He started laughing as soon as the sand touched his toes and ran full speed ahead into the ocean. Waves knocking him down, choking on salt water, he was not fazed. I managed to snap one picture of him in between saving him from being swept out to sea and drowning :). Seriously though, it was chaos. Crazy. Kari basically manned the other four while I chased him. What were we thinking?? We had to abandon the plan and head back in. Graham was NOT happy with me! Sigh. What a day!

After a good night's sleep, we were all rested and ready for more! This time we brought back-up (the Dads) and had a great time! Graham actually mellowed out a little and had a lot of fun. The kids loved digging, building sand castles, and floating. After they had enough of the beach, we went back to the house to swim in the pool. Ahhhh....

Graham insisted on sitting in a big chair like the big kids :)

Kallen and Jack were officially worn out!

Another good night of rest, and we were ready for more! Time for the pirate breakfast!! Arghhhh!!

After the breakfast, Kari and I went shopping at the outlets, yippee! It rained a bit that day, so it was a good day for them to have some indoor playtime. The rest of the week had beautiful weather!

The next day was more beach fun, and then a night out! We got all dressed up to try for some family photos. "Try" being the key word...

Me and the bubs

The iPad = big fun

Love this kid

Daddy and his little buddy

I sure do love my sweet family...even though none of them can smile without squinting when the sun is out, haha.

Hmmm. Close... Sadly, this is pretty much the best we could do! Ha!

Now, these girls know how to pose! Sweet babies!

We had a great dinner at Lulu's and then the kids had so much fun playing in the sand. A lovely night!

Freedom!!

The next morning, more beach time!!

Resting in their sand-beds

Thursday night, we went out to dinner again and then had plans to go to the Track.

This little guy had other plans, though. Poor buddy kept crying all through dinner which is not like him at all. He couldn't get comfortable and was just miserable. So, while the others went to the Track, G and I went to the Urgent Care clinic. They were so nice there, and saw us pretty quickly. Turned out, G had a horrid diaper rash that just suddenly appeared along with the beginnings of an ear infection. Some meds to fix him up and we were headed back to the Track!

My cutie girls are growing up!

Kinley was so excited to drive the go karts!

Heh, heh, revenge from last year's bumper boat incident. Seriously, I couldn't stop laughing. Good times :)

Duck and cover, Jeffy!

Daddy and his girls on the big go karts

Sweet Kinley

Graham decided that it was really fun to sleep in bed with his parents this week. Probably didn't help that our beach neighbors set off one firework every night about ten minutes after he fell asleep. Thanks, strangers!! Anyhoo, he was not his normal good-sleeping self this week, but I didn't mind some extra snuggle time :)

All good things must come to an end, I suppose, and this week was no exception. We had such a great time and are so blessed to have such great friends to travel with. The kids are the best of friends and love their family like they are our own family. The actually call each other cousins, haha.

G buckled in and heading home

Loaded up! Arlington, here we come!! Um, where's Kallen?? ;)

Until next year, beach!!