Day Trip to the Beach 2018
14 hours - from blast off to crash landing - we planned on leaving at 6 am but really left around 6:20 since we heard from our friends parking might be an issue. We knew we needed to be home around 8ish but that really ended up being 8:20ish but we did an A+ job on timing
13 snacks left in the bag. I packed a ton of food. So many snacks. I knew we would have to call it quits if the blood sugar levels were plummeting so I overdid it in that department which was fine. The run of the mill Kids Bars, Fig Bars, Apple sauce squeeze packs, fruit strips, fruit rolls etc etc etc
12 beach goers. So so so thankful and grateful our friends could meet us and catch up and hang out and they even came back to meet us for dinner! It was really great having 4 adults on the beach because at any given moment there were some kids in the ocean, other building a sandcastle, some sumo-looking sandcastle smashing, babies eating sand, chasing birds
11 books sprinkled in the van that didn't make it out. The kids did well in the car for the just over 4 hours total they were it in. Everyone except C slept for some time on the way home.
10 donuts for the beach. You can correct me if I'm wrong here but I think that is the right count. One for each person except for the babies. C and my goddaughter were left off the donut train but they played nicely and C happily ate sandy Cheerios from her. (They are about a month apart so they were really cute and C definitely needs to step up her hat wearing game!)
I think they loved our friends donuts for the beach tradition!
9 baskets of hushpuppies for the table. I knew I wanted some seafood since we were AT THE BEACH so we went for it and there is nothing like fresh hot hush puppies to keep our kiddos hushed and munching on them
8 kids on the beach - that was great! The only time we got some serious stares is when a lone wolf decided it'd be good to run up the beach looking for us except he was super far past our spot
7 hours spent on the beach. Sunscreen was applied on multiple occasions and there were still lots of red spots that needed aloe after our showers. Well we rinsed off in the cold water at the beach and them we showered for real at home when we got in the door. No one likes sandy sheets!
6 eggs and sandwiches - Lee made 6 eggs that morning. One for C to eat before we left and 5 eggs and cheese tortilla rollups. I made 3 PBJs and 3 PBHs (PB + honey - blah! for the kids they love them)
5 kids who gotten woken up to a surprise beach trip. This trip had been in the works for no more than a week. Lee said he'd go on the condition I pack up everything - food, snacks, beach stuff for everyone - adults included. I love our kids enthusiasm over stuff but I couldn't handle them asking about the beach every 2.5 seconds so I hosed off the sand toys the afternoon before and the ONLY one who noticed them out of place was.... R. Which surprised me. All the other stuff was pretty easy to grab
4 hours spent in the water. Well maybe but it is highly likely that E spent that much time in the ocean. She and R and M love going out and there was a far out sandbar that they (and 50 other people were on) that I had to go out and herd them in on. There was boogie boarding and body surfing and just floating down shore.
Salty red eyes
3 highchairs needed for dinner. We did dinner early. Because the beach is tiring and we were hungry and we needed to get back home. We had a great meal at Dockside and the kids did great too. We loaded them up with hush puppies : )
2 stinky beach diapers. ALWAYS USE disposable beach diapers unless you want to wash and scrub to save them - which I did but have no desire to do again!
1 hour that C screamed in the car. Gracious the last hour she howled pretty nonstop. It is tough to sit in a seat that long!
He really did have a good time I promise. C conked out after a short walk down the beach
0 pictures of the whole group. Probably the only disappointment from the day. Next year we have to get a good group shot!