Beach Vacation 2012

Our family beach trip this year was a short, very quickly planned one.  Having been very pregnant for the majority of this summer, I've been quite sad as I watched our friends post pics of their families hanging out in the sand, while I was hot and huge and miserable at home.  Imagine my husband's surprise when as soon as Tessa was born, I started talking about taking a newborn + our 2 and 4 year-old boys to the beach.  He thought I was crazy.  Fast forward 6 weeks and we have just returned from our first vacation as a family of 5!  We had a great time - not very similar to the relaxed vacations that I'm used to, but we had a great time nonetheless.

The boys LOVED every second of playing on the beach - in fact we only spent about an hour total at the pool in the 4 days we were there.  Once we were in the sand each day, the boys were really no trouble (except making sure Brooks didn't just walk out into the ocean, which he nearly did several times).  Tessa was pretty easy on the beach as well, mostly napping in her baby beach tent the whole time.

Our mornings were spent eating donuts for breakfast, and watching the ocean from our balcony and our days were spent digging in the sand with our boys.  After a late lunch each day, the babies took naps and I got a few quiet moments alone on the beach.  Dinnertime was absolutely the hardest part of our beach trip.  Taking 3 small kids into restaurants, keeping them occupied and happy during wait times, keeping them relatively quiet and mindful of others at the table, and actually getting food in their mouths was the biggest challenge of the whole trip.

Our favorite restaurant (you know the one you talk about all year until the next time you go) is on a marina and I just knew the boys would love it.  I dressed their little sun kissed behinds in brand-new white polo shirts with every intention of taking their pictures in front of all the fishing boats.  Well wouldn't you know it, there was no wait time for a table that night, so I decided that taking their pics after dinner would be fine.  The very first thing Brooks did was dump an entire cup of honey mustard down his white polo shirt.  So much for pics :/  I couldn't dwell on that though, because Will sat right next to me the whole time pulling on my arms, whining and asking questions about each and every boat at the marina - "where is that boat gonna go?"  "when is it gonna leave?" "I want it to go Mom!" "let's go look at the boats!" "mommmmmmmmaaaaaa!"  The WHOLE TIME.  All of this while I fed a newborn at the table and my food sat there looking at me.  After an hour of misery, we drove the half an hour home to the glorious sounds of an overly tired and cranky newborn and a 4 year old who was hungry and whiney (because he spent his dinner whining instead of eating).

The boys enjoyed lots of fun time while on vacation, and I can truly say that seeing their excitement makes the entire trouble of dragging 3 babies to the beach worth it.  They rode their first ferris wheel, took rides on the merry-go-round and played for hours and hours in the sand.  Take it from me, there is not much you need while on the beach with 2 and 4 year old boys - a bucket and a shovel will keep them occupied for hours on end.

After the most challenging dinner time, the only other big challenge was the car ride to and from the beach.  This is normally a 5.5 or 6 hour drive time from our home, but put 3 small children in the car and it becomes closer to 8 or 8.5 hours.  Within the first hour and a half on the way down, I had probably answered "How much longer?" about 100 times.  Not kidding.  Then the whining began.  Tessa actually was the best car rider - we only had to make one stop specifically for her on both trips.  The trip home was worse - at least 5 stops for "I gotta pee!" then you get back on the road only to hear "I gotta poop!"  We officially found the NASTIEST bathroom in Alabama on the way home thanks to Will and his unwavering 10:30AM poop.  Holy moly - when I stumbled out of our car in the garage last night, I could have literally kissed the garage floor I was so happy to be out of that car.

Here are (LOTS) of pics of our trip:

(Will smelled "cigared" as he calls it)

(Brooks wouldn't comply with sitting in this chair)

Waiting in line for the ferris wheel

I was so proud of Will - who is my cautious/nervous child - after a LOT of discussion, he got on and once we went around a couple of times he said "Mom, quit holding me.  I'm being brave." 

Brooks looks so big here

Tessa really enjoyed the rides as well :)

A few final thoughts on our whirlwind trip with 3 babies:

• I would probably eat more dinners at the condo and then take the boys out after dinner for fun time.  I would pick a few fave restaurants and then save the headache of eating out on the mediocre restaurants.  
• Take less sand toys.  A shovel and bucket will do the trick.
• There is no good way to travel 6+ hours with 3 kids.  Just buy some earplugs and drive as fast as you can (you know - in between the 17 stops).