The Beach!

When we started talking about taking a "real" family vacation this year and the idea of the beach came up, I wasn't so sure.  I mean...I wouldn't exactly call myself a beach person.  But, it was time for the Dugans to catch up with the rest of the world who seem to regularly take a break from life and go on vacation.  We haven't really done that together since before Joshua was born.  And now that he's old enough to realize that day trips and weekend trips aren't really the same as, say, Disney World or the shore, we thought we better start getting with the program. 

After returning from our week in Ocean City, MD, I think we can say that we just might be a little more beachy than originally thought.  And there were a whole lot of good reasons to feel that way.  Let me show you...

First of all, there was the fact that we got to share this trip with Libby, Zig, Brooke, Nana and Pap!  And I know I'm seriously biased, but they're a pretty special bunch.  The kids absolutely loved having each other to play with.  Fighting was minimal and the laughter was abundant!

Then there was the kids' reactions to the ocean.  We hit the beach for several hours each day after I had literally drenched the children in SPF 110+ suncreen from head to toe.  And don't think I'm kidding.  My fair skinned beauties would have been toast without it, but they absolutely loved jumping the waves.  Joshua even got brave and went out into the water pretty far with Daddy.  We loved watching Daddy and Uncle Zig on their boogie boards.

I can't neglect to mention the great place we stayed.  We literally walked out of the hotel door, crossed the boardwalk and ditched our flip flops because we were on the beach.  And although OC is perhaps a bit more crowded than I would have expected, we never had a problem getting prime real estate on the beach to plant our umbrella and start digging in the sand.  In this picture the hotel is the building behind the kids.  Our condo was on the top floor and our balconies were the last two on the right.  Pretty awesome to wake up to crashing waves each morning and to fall asleep to them at night.

I have to admit that I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the sand.  Which I'm still dumping out of bags, purses, etc. that really it has no business in.  But the kids seemed to really enjoy having the world's biggest sand box at their disposal.  Lauren spent the first hour that we were on the beach each day complaining that she was covered in sand, "Mommy, sand on my hands!  Sand on my feet!"  But once she got accustomed to it we would find her sitting in it digging and playing with our sand toys.  I have to say, she appears to be a girl after my own heart and didn't love the bright sun.  She was pretty easily convinced to park herself under the umbrella where it wasn't so hot.

One of the highlights of the trip was a little pirate ship adventure that we took Joshua on.  Mom and Dad were so kind to keep Lauren at the house with them so that we could have some one on one time with Joshua and do something special with him.  The night before, while waiting a ridiculously long time to have dinner at a really cute, but super crazy busy restaurant, we had seen a big pirate ship pulling into the bay.  I thought Joshua's eyes might pop out of his head.  Jason looked into it that evening and found out that The Duckaneer sets sail each day, so we thought we'd check it out.  On this ship, everyone donned a mustache (see mine in the picture?) and we had a serious water fight with a rogue pirate who was attacking our ship with a super soaker.  The kids shot water canons at him to fight him for the treasure.  Let me tell you that we were totally drenched...soaked to the bone, after taking many super soaker hits straight to the face, but the kids had a ball.

The pace was pretty calm for us on the trip, and I felt like we took the time to relax and unwind a bit, which was much needed for Jason and I.  My family's help was a huge blessing as taking munchkins out of their element always creates some challenges, but we couldn't have enjoyed the trip the way we did without all of their help.  The beach trip this year was a highlight of the summer, and I'm so grateful that we had the opportunity to go.

Maybe we are beach people after all!