THE BEACH!!!

We just returned from our first beach vacation with Alex. Our generous friends, Jim and Jaime and their sweet little girl, Hastings, invited us down to the beach with them. It was wonderful! The weather was absolutely perfect.

(Warning long blog ahead as I am documenting this as Alex's baby book as well)

Friday night we got ready for vacation with a practice swim in our pool that has warmed up nicely.




Saturday:
We headed out bright and early for Santa Rosa Beach, FL.

Alex did great in the car. He is still not a very good car seat napper, so he fussed a little before his morning nap.

We stayed at Jaime's parent's rental house. It was beachy, beautiful and roomy. We were greeted by her parents and many thoughtful welcoming touches: fresh flowers in our bedroom, a fridge full of food, beer, wine, etc. and an adorable handmade bib for Alex.

The best part about the house was the location - right next to the pool. We could put the babies down for naps, take their monitors with us and go lounge at the pool.

The pool was nice and warm the first day and Alex and Hastings loved splashing around and floating in their rafts.

Here Alex is taking a little break with Daddy.



Sunday:

Happy First Mother's Day to Jaime and I.

It got a little cool on Saturday night, so the pool was cooler on Sunday and Monday. Alex was not impressed with the temperature change and pretty much wanted nothing to do with the pool on Sunday. He also decided that during the beach vacation was an excellent time to start getting in his top teeth, so he was a little out of sorts on Sunday.


We did head down to the ocean and introduce him to sand and waves. He thought the sand was great fun and loved to walk/run holding our hands while watching his feet kick the sand.




He would put his feet in the ocean, but wasn't very impressed and quickly wanted to go back to the sand.


Here he is hiding himself in Eric's legs to avoid the water:



Alex loves airplanes and there were a lot flying by the beach that afternoon - so we did a little airplane watching....

On Sunday night, Jaime's parents had us all over for dinner. Alex was highly entertained by scooting all around the house and crashing into walls in Hastings walker.

We had an amazing dinner - Eric and I both loved the Red Snapper on the grill.

Monday

The guys golfed on Monday morning and then we spent the day at the pool and the ocean again.

Jaime made the babies matching outfits - too cute. Alex's is called a jon-jon in the South :). THANK YOU Jaime. Our dreams of a cute little photo session were pretty laughable!


At night, Jaime's sweet mom came and babysat after the babies went to bed so we could go out for a child-free night - YEAH!. (Thank you GranT) . We had drinks at a bar overlooking the ocean, then dinner at a restaurant with outside seating. We had big talks all week about going out on the town (but after early morning baby wake ups, lots of sun and fresh air, etc. I think we made it out til about 10:00 :) )