hey dad… when are we moving to the beach?

We spent last week with Gingi, Popi, & Bebay at the coast just outside of Destin, Florida… in WaterColor/Seaside on Grayton Beach. It was even better than I remembered it to be…. the beach, that is. Lots of sun, lots of water, lots of sand… and alllll day to play :o)

The weather was hot ‘n’ sunny most every day (perfect for beaching)… it only rained for a while the first day… and then again on the last. Most of our days consisted of beach, beach, more beach… and a little time for the pools & food, too. Did I mention that we spent most of our time ON THE BEACH??

There was quite a bit of seaweed to maneuver in the gulf this year, but I didn’t much care. The sand was white & beautiful. In fact - when we walked down to the beach for the first time, I stopped at the top of the stairs & said… “look! mom! it snowed on the beach”. He He! I wanted to spend every second digging & building & scooping.

Ardynn, on the other hand, spent the first half of the week in the beach wagon. Lately, the little bean has had quite the love/hate relationship with textures. Although she loves to touch ‘n’ feel things with her teensy little fingers (especially when she is trying to fall asleep)…. she is NO FAN of grass or anything scratchy gracing the soles of her tiny little hands or feet. This made her beach experience less than happy at first. In short, she would whine and cry when her footsies hit the sand and when she reached down to touch her feet to brush away the sand, she’d stretch her little hands out and beg (aka: cry) for anyone to clean them. I mean really… what kid doesn’t like the sand between her toes?? Little by little, though, we eased her into the sand… and the last couple of days were a little bit better. Ardy would at least sit at the edge of the water (where the sand wasn’t so sticky) and dig with her shovel & pail. She liked to have her little crocks on & kept her knees up high (no where near the ground). She still didn’t like for sand to stick to any part of her hands, but it seemed like she enjoyed it a wee bit.

Another fun part of the week, was that we hardly used our cars at all! The little community where we stayed was small and we were close to just about everywhere we needed to go, so we biked. Daddy got a little bike trailer to go on the back of his wheels, and taxied us around town. The bikes were a blast, and even though most of the big peeps had not ridden in a while, (despite a few minor incidents) they escaped with only a few minor bumps ‘n’ bruises.

Many, many thanks to Gingi & Popi for the phenomenal vacation. The week was a fabulous one… I can certainly imagine waking up and hearing the sounds of the waves every day! Oh daddy…. when are we moving??