Beach Vacation

At the beginning of the summer, Jess asked Sydney where she wanted to go on vacation. Syd said "the beach." So Jess went on a long, extensive search for the perfect beach house. Weeks later, she found one and booked it. At the time, I was not really looking forward to it - I know, I know ... who doesn't want to go to the beach for a week? Well, the two-and-a-half-week-long road trip at the beginning of the summer was still very fresh in my mind. It was an awesome trip, but exhausting. The thought of getting back in the car for a 13-hour drive was not appealing to me - beach vacation or not.

But weeks have passed and I've had a while to get excited and appreciate all the hard work Jess did to put together a great vacation. We left on Friday afternoon (the same day Mary left our house and flew back to Boston) and drove about six hours. We stopped in Hattiesburg, MS where, at the hotel we stayed, there was a beauty pageant ... Toddlers and Tiaras style! Jess was beside herself with glee. She wanted to buy a ticket and watch the whole blasted thing! I had to pull her away and remind her that we were on our way to a ... beach - va - ca - ion! That slapped her back to the fact that we still had about six hours to drive before we arrived at our destination. So we hit the road.

What is a road trip without seeing a big beautiful (double) rainbow along the way?

We drove about an hour and then we sat in traffic. The congestion thinned and we were on our way. And then 30 minutes later we weren't just slowed in more traffic, we actually stopped. My foot started to fall asleep, so I slammed the car into park. And we waited, and we waited. And this wasn't the last bit of traffic that we experienced. It seemed like just when we thought we'd broken free, there was more congestion. It was agonizing! It set us back a LOT - we did NOT make good time. Not including the hour difference in time (FL is one hour later than AR), it took us eight hours to travel a six hour trip. We were so happy to be done driving.

We got to bed late and we woke early. We just wanted to see the island. It's beautiful! We grabbed some food and beach accessories around the tiny town. Sydney saw a boogie board with a dragon on it and just about died. We told her that we couldn't get it. But she wanted me to take a picture of it. Little did she know, I took it up to the register and paid for it while Jess took them to look for something else. I propped it in her seat in the car. I went back into the store and we paid for the other things that we got. Sydney had no idea, so when she opened the car door and saw the dragon boogie board sitting there, she gave me a look as if to say, "did you STEAL this?" I wish I got THAT picture.

And then we got our suits on, packed a lunch, and headed to the beach. The kids took no time to get busy making sand castles.

It was hot, so it wasn't long before all four of us were in the water splashing around in the waves. Cali came with us to the beach and she was so good. [One reason Jess chose this location is because it is so pet friendly. We knew we wanted to bring Cali, so it was important that everywhere we went, Cali was welcome.] Even when all four of us were in the water, she sat so calmly under the umbrella on the blanket. She wasn't even tethered or leashed. Such a good girl.

Today, although the day started with thunder and eventually rain, the clouds blew over and the sun came out. So, just like yesterday, we went to the beach. The only thing that made today different from yesterday was that the sun was behind the clouds most of the day. Otherwise, it was a lot of the same - sand, fun, and water. And after hours on the beach, we got back to the house and rinsed off in the outside shower and jumped into the screened-in porch. Ahhhhh... I'm tired - and I know the girls are too.

Jess's sister and brother-in-law arrive tomorrow morning. And then Jess's mother arrives on Wednesday morning. Everything will change. I'm glad we got these couple days for just us. It's been nice. The girls want to go fishing and I have no desire to do that, so my mother-in-law and brother-in-law will probably take them.

I chose NOT to take my big camera. I've regretted it a couple times, but on the whole, I'm happy with my little indestructible Olympus. I've take a lot of pictures, but I forgot to pack my USB cord, so I can't download them onto my computer. Thus, the blog post with all these pictures will have to wait until we get home.

We arrive home on Sunday - probably late because we have to make the whole 12-hour drive in one day. I have to be back to work bright and early on Monday morning (my new job is a blog post all it's own). And the following week, the girls start back at school. This summer has flown by, but it's been a really great couple months.

To be continued ... with lots and lots of pictures.