B-Days and Beach Trips

So Chad turned 30 a couple weeks ago. I would have loved to do something big, but... again, I'm no holiday person. It was SO crappy though, poor guy! I made his favorite dessert. We sang to him and gave him a card. That was it, and even that was totally lackluster.

Here's Chloe asking him to secretly tell her what he wished for. That girl can NOT handle secrets or surprises!
Chad served up the kids. Chloe loved licking the candles.
And then he savored his piece.And a few days later we went to Chad's parents' beach house. We had fun. Each morning, we'd wake up, go to the beach, go home for lunch and naps, wake up, go to the pool, shower, dinner, bed. It's a good routine. For the first half of the first trip to the beach, Everett was perfectly content playing in the sand. Finally he decided he wanted to go play in the water with Daddy and Chloe. Then there was no turning back. He LOVED it!

This was a fun game.I interrupted boy time to snap a few more pics against their will.

I don't know why, but he liked dragging the boogie board around behind him. Of course both kids LOVED riding it too, but that wears us out!

Finally, he just plopped down on it. That was relaxing until the waves started washing him away. Then it was fun.

And of course they had to build a sand castle and destroy it. Everett started out destroying carefully. Then Daddy just plopped him onto it and showed him how to destroy it right.

Chloe was pretty chill most of the time. That's why there aren't any pictures of her. She just kinda wandered, doing her own thing, jumping waves, swimming, playing in the sand, and sun bathing. It's very anti-Chloe to just do her own thing. I'm guessing it's because she refuses to EVER nap no matter what, even though the beach really wears you out. By our last day, she was done. She just sat most of the time. But hey, she looked good doing it.

The pool is right behind the town house. I love it because the whole community gathers and hangs out together, playing with each others' kids and whatnot. These trucks belonged to another kid. They loved hauling "dirt," especially Everett of course.

Chloe forgot how to swim this year. So she relied a lot on her floaties. She did fine if she had her goggles on though. That way she'd put her face down into the water to keep her bootie from sinking.

This was a fun game. It wasn't overcast at all, it's just my stinking camera! I guess I forgot to lighten these two.

He's swimming all by himself... with his floaties!

This is on the pool deck. Papa started fishing. Chloe likes it. (I guess she likes whatever her loved ones are into? I know she likes doing something with Papa.) But she also likes swimming, so she'd join him intermittently. There are also turtles in this little lagoon, gobs of them, babies and adults. It's fun to watch them sometimes and feed them.

When he caught a fish, all the kids ran to see. Most of them were going, "Cool! But I don't know if I want to touch it. It looks gross." Not Everett. He ran up and yanked the darn thing nearly out of his hands! Poor thing never saw it coming. When Papa didn't let go, he just held it and touched it, examining it. Papa did throw it back after all the kids got to look. Course they had to look through Everett, but it seemed good enough for them.

One last trip to the beach. Chloe was SO mellow, we thought she was sad.

These lucky ducks get to ride! In years past, we haven't had the wagon b/c we didn't have a minivan to haul it in. WHAT A LIFE SAVER! I don't know how we did without.

The weather was perfect too. It was hot enough to have fun in the water, but not so hot that it was miserable getting there. It was supposed to rain off and on during our whole time there. But it held off until we were heading home from the beach on the last day. We thought about staying until that evening, after pool time. But the weather made that decision easy for us.

Heading back from the beach on that last day, raining outside: usually this look and position means he's a goner. But he did make it home.

Chloe however, not so much. She only got a couple minutes of zz's. So by the time we got showers, lunch and packed up, both kids got in the car and zonked out. I did too for a bit. They slept most of the ride home. It was grand! We can't wait to go back, maybe even without Chad. But for now, our sights are set for Disney baby!