A special thanks to everyone that shared uplifting words after my rant yesterday. Hubby and I are trying to work out a better work/life balance so Avery gets the best of daycare & home life…an ongoing puzzle we’ll perfect one of these days…
Now onto something a little brightertoday…..After swearing off all travel during the month of August, we felt recuperated enough to venture down to the cape (only an hour away) for Labor Day weekend. For those non-New Englanders, ‘The Cape’ refers to Cape Cod… the south-eastern peninsula of Massachusetts…lots of beaches, lighthouses, tourism, and a common place for summer homes… the Kennedy’s even have a summer home down there!
Our friends J+D invited us down to their family house in Hyannis, and we gladly accepted (we went with them 2 years ago). It was a long weekend, so it was worth an hour drive each way. And knowing the crazy traffic going south on Friday, we left Saturday morning. Avery took a nice nap in the car…
10 minutes into the ride…
…and we were there by 10am. The beach is a short walk down the street, so we spent the weekend enjoying the sun and sand…
And as always, Avery HATED the ocean… it’s just too cold for him. But he loved playing in the sand…
Are you closing the summer with a trip to the beach? We’re glad we made this trip because fall starts tomorrow….
To celebrate the 4thofJuly, we took a(nother) family trip to the beach! You’re probably wondering why would we put Avery through that again after his reaction to the ocean on our first beach trip?! Well, we’re at ‘If at first you don’t succeed‘ kinda family. And good thing too, because this time, Avery loved it!
On the 4th, we woke up to a scary forecast… morning showers and scattered showers in the afternoon. Boo! That didn’t stop us though. We spent the morning getting ready… Avery had a big (and messy!) lunch…
…and at noon when the clouds started to break, we hit the road!
We were off to a bumpy start… we needed to gas up – because we were going to Nantasket beach… a little further than the beach we visisted last time. Then we used up all our cash to get cheaper gas and had to find an ATM to get cash, knowing parking will be crazy and we’d need to pay. So after 20 minutes of running around, we were all set and started the journey to the beach.
Surprisingly, Avery stayed awake during the ride (unlike last trip where he slept the first 20 minutes at the beach) and was bright-eyed and bushy tailed to see the thousands already parked on beach towels… not surprising other people had the same idea today
We made a home for our tent, kindly asking to switch places with another group (We were in front of them and were going to setup our new beach tent and didn’t want to ruin their view, so we moved behind them). They were super-nice and swapped with us. And then we hit another hiccup (it’s never a fun family trip without hiccups!). Our tent, which we JUST purchased at Costco last night, was broken. Bummer. No tent. We wanted shade for Avery to chill out, but the sun wasn’t too hot and the water could cool him off, so we setup our big beach towel…
Avery didn’t seem to mind the sun. But he still wasn’t too fond of the water…
So we tried a gradual approach…
Avery was better in this position, but when the water touched his toes he would still squeal and squirm!
Oh well… It was super cold, so the big waves might have been scary but I think the chilly water was what he didn’t care much for.
What he did like though, was the sand! The first time he crawled off the towel, he inspected the sand…
And surprisingly, he didn’t eat it! He played with it like he does with food on his highchair table… just checking it out and moving it around….
After a while, he was covered from head to toe…
Then it was time to hydrate before playing more…
And then he was off again! He was crawling all over us…playing with toys (bath toys make great beach toys!)…
And once he got comfortable with the sand, he was all over the place!
He’d crawl to the nice neighbors in front of us and try to play with their beach bag. Then he’d crawl over to this family and just sit and smile at the lady. It was too funny!
After a few hours at the beach, we called it a day. We stopped and had some late lunch, then it was home for a shower – man, I couldn’t believe all the sand up this kids butt! And off to bed at his normal time. No fireworks this year. They still went on without us though – We were in bed just after 9PM and they didn’t stop ‘Kabooming’ until almost 10PM. Good thing I was going to play a little Words With Friends, because there was no way I was sleeping through them! Luckily, Avery slept soundly…
How did you celebrate our country’s birthday? Did you attend a BBQ with friends and family, or did you have an intimate family adventure?
Over the weekend, we took advantage of the warm & sunny summer weather, and took a family trip to the beach!
It was Avery’s first trip to the beach. I packed a big beach towel, some toys, the usual baby bag of bottles and emergeny stuff, got Avery all dressed in his swimming gear, and headed off to the beach (only a 15 minute drive from home)!
We were so excited for Avery’s very first trip to the beach!!! The whole ride there we were chatting about how he’s going to love the water because he loved swimming in a pool. And before we knew it, Avery was passed out in the back seat. Not uncommon, as he likes the motion of the car and typically sleeps on car rides. But when we finally found a parking spot (after some girls stole a spot I was pulling into! Vinay had a few words with them. Seriously… you’re in your 20s and can walk from a further parking spot while we have a baby and getting to our car faster than you is a little more important for us. Sorry to digress but they were very rude and snuck in behind me when I was about to pull into the spot. Hmpf!)
… so when we finally found a parking spot, and lugged all our gear out, dear Avery was STILL passed out! Even after finding a nice sandy place amongst the other beach-goers, he was STILL snoozin’! I was worried he was going to miss the whole thing!!! We had only planned to stay a short while because we didn’t want Avery to be in the heat too long. I covered him in a light towel for the time being… then after about 20 minutes, he woke up. He looked around curiously and before he knew it, Daddy swept him up and took him to the ocean.
We let him look at the waves crashing in (they were small, but still, they were waves) and take it all in before giving him a dip…
Then it was time to test the waters… (which weren’t warm or cold really.. it was just right)
And oh man did Avery throw a fit!!! He cried and grasped onto Vinay’s shoulders… he did not like it.. and was NOT happy.
So we thought maybe he just needed to try it again… give it another shot…
NOPE! Avery started crying again. And so ended our dip into the ocean. We headed back to our beach towel for some relaxing in the sun…
Avery enjoyed this much much more…
After about an hour in the sun, we packed up and made a stop at the Clam Shack across the street for some shrimp cocktail, for Vinay, and some ice cream for Avery and I.
Although our beach trip didn’t meet our expectations, it just gives us reason to keep going back so Avery can give the ocean another shot… and Avery must have really enjoyed our outing and was tuckered out because that night… he slept thru the night!!! I think we’ll be making many more beach trips if it results in a night of uninterrupted sleep!!!
What are your favorite beach activities? Do you swim in the water, build a castle, or play sports in the sand? Vinay and used to walk around a nearby beach when we were dating… just walking and talking and enjoying the weather and breeze is really relaxing. I’m looking forward to sand castles with Avery…
