Labor Day- O.I.B.

I'm not gonna lie, I was a bit nervous about how our 2nd, and last, beach trip of the summer was going to go. With an 8 week old who is not the best napper and who had never traveled before, the need to bring two pack-n-plays since Braxton is not out of a crib yet, and the temptation to just rent a U-Haul to make it easier than puzzle-packing the truck with all that was required for this 4 day trip, I was a little skeptical about things! After we literally packed up the whole house, and beach supplies, we got to Memama's house right at 2:45 Thursday afternoon. All three kids did awesome in the car and Layton slept almost the entire way down! Shawn took Reilly and Braxton straight to the beach for a quick stay while I stayed back to feed Layton and let him nap in a bed instead of a carseat. We had our traditional dinner at Sharkys with Memama to "kick off" the weekend, where Shawn got his routine flounder sandwich a ice cold corona and I got my routine grilled chicken sandwich with fries; yes, I food from the land vs food from the water :) The trip started out a little bumpy with Reilly complaining of a headache, throwing up twice, and sleeping most of the afternoon on day 2, all the while I was in the ER with Layton for an extremely high fever, running every test possible with all results being negative. We did hit the beach for a couple hours Friday morning before all the sickness started, but most of the day Friday was a complete wash. But we more than made up for it on Saturday when we hit the beach with DeeDee and Poppi and Uncle Brandon and Aunt Angel for a few hours. Shawn grilled some mean hamburgers on the charcoal Saturday night and we all just hung out! Sunday was the best beach day ever. We stayed on the beach for 5 hours! I don't think I have ever been on the beach that long, and I know my children have never made it longer than 3 hours before. We all had so.much.fun. The kids played and played, we got Sunset Slushies, the kids rode the waves, we had a big football throwing game going, we barried Cooper in the sand up to his neck, we built sandcastles, Braxton pretended to take a rest several times but never sat still for more than a few minutes or else he really would have fallen asleep, and Memama even stayed out for most of the day with us! We finally all headed in around 6:15 when we realized it was dinner time! It was such a perfect day. The weather could not have been better...mid 80's all day and not a cloud in the sky. It was a great trip and other than our rough start on Friday, we had a blast! Thanks Meam, for always opening your home to ALL OF OUR STUFF....and all of us :)

all Reilly talked about leading up to the trip was building a sand castle...

Braxton's FAVORITE was dumping a bucket over and then yelling at the top of his lungs, "I made san-casl!!!!!" He was so proud....every single time.

Uncle Brandon was the best "wave-jumper" and "deep water taker" ever!!

1st time riding the waves! They both LOVED it!

(I promise we have bathing suits on....even though we both look like we're naked in this picture!)

DeeDee lovin' on baby L

B was such a trooper!! He didn't nap once the whole trip b/c we were out on the beach so much and he did so great. He was covered from head to toe with sand, but he just kept on going!

Memama (great-grandma) hanging with Layton in the shade.