We left for the beach on Saturday morning without a hitch.
We had planned for Grandpa and Darla to arrive around 9:30 in the morning, departing from our house at 10:00. I should have known things were too good to be true when Grandpa and Darla arrived earlier than expected and we pulled out of our driveway at 9:38 am. More than twenty minutes ahead of schedule? That never happens!
Here's a little photograph of what Phoebe felt was important to pack in her suitcase:
She gathered up every bottle of sunscreen we had in the house, a handful of granola bars, and one pack of microwave popcorn, beneath which is a handful of clean laundry that she'd grabbed from the pile of clothes I was folding.
I was grateful for her help but ultimately redid a little (all) of her packing.
She was so excited to leave for the beach! I mean, we all were, but there's nothing quite like anticipating an event when you have no concept of time. She asked about when we were leaving for the beach the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. She could hardly believe her luck when we told her that the day had arrived!
She was also excited because Andrew had grabbed a couple of "Good 2 Grow" juice bottles for Phoebe and Alexander when he was out buying snacks for our trip. One was a Bluey bottle and one was a Bingo bottle. We don't actually give our kids juice that often, but these little cups are pretty nice—we rinse them out and use them again and again as water bottles.
The juice though, was such a treat, that Phoebe drained hers in the first half hour of the trip.
So she spent the next half hour of the trip asking if she could go potty.
We finally pulled over and I ran her inside, but the [one] bathroom was occupied. She really needed to go, but she'd managed to hold it this long and I was confident she could keep holding.
She started humming, "Hmmm...hmmmm...hmmmm..." and squirming frantically in my arms.
And then...she started vomiting.
She had a mask on her face, so I ripped that off (and tossed it directly into the garbage can). She threw up all her juice and all the other little bits she'd eaten...and then wiped her face on my shoulder (which was lovely because smelling like vomit all day is my favourite).
Darla jumped into action and started cleaning up the floor with some paper towels (the dispenser was in the hallway) while I cleaned up Phoebe a little bit and then took her in to use the potty. The employees brought over a mop bucket and things were good as new by the time Phoebe and I came out of the bathroom again.
With that (out from) under our belt, we hit the road again. Our goal was to stop for a picnic lunch at Phinizy Swamp Nature Park, doing a little walking along their trails, and then pile back into our vehicles to head to the beach. The Phinizy Swamp Nature Park website claims they are open 365 days a year so we were quite surprised when we pulled up and found their gates locked.
Evidently they are open 365 days per year minus the day Augusta has their Memorial Day airshow.
We saw some fun planes come by while we were turning around, but we were a little sad to miss out on the swamp...and the picnic area...
Instead we had our picnic in a gas station parking lot.
Everything was smooth sailing after that! We made it to our little "Villa by the Sea," which is so close to the ocean we can see it from our windows and porch!
After unloading the cars, Rachel and Andrew headed to the store to pick up some groceries while the rest of us went to the beach. By the time I had myself and Phoebe ready, Grandpa and Darla were already in the water with Alexander, Zoë, and Benjamin.
Miriam walked down to the beach with me.
Phoebe surprised me by taking to the water right away. She's been a little timid at the pool so far this year, but in all honesty the ocean feels warmer than our pool does (at least at this point in the season) so she wasn't uncomfortably cold. She thought the waves were hilarious and giggled (and screeched) every time they washed over her.
Here's Alexander enjoying the surf with her while Benjamin and Zoë play in the background:
I would say that every parent should know that these tennis-ball green swim shirts are the absolute best for seeing your kids out in the water...but if every child on the beach showed up in tennis-ball green then my kids won't be as easy to spot. That said, for water-safety they're great!
Here's a picture of Phoebe and I filling a bucket (which I then had to lug all over the place because the sand she collected was important and could not be spilled).
Phoebe found a little sand hopper, which she was quite excited about (she has been excited about every living thing she's seen so far).
Here's Zoë with her messy, messy hair.
Here's Phoebe putting some finishing touches on her bucket of sand:
And here's Miriam soon before we went in for dinner:
After dinner we went back out for a nighttime stroll on the beach. Right when we got outside Darla pointed out a fast-moving train of lights in the sky, which Andrew told us was Starlink.
After putting the kids to bed, we gathered to play a few games (we had to teach Darla how to play Hand and Foot). For some reason (to have a noticeable presence in the community), we had three police cars parked just outside our beach house. We don't have curtains on the front window, so we could see right out to them and they could see right inside to us. We waved at them a couple of times when staring through the window got a little awkward. Unfortunately, that only made things feel even more awkward.
They left around 11:36 and that's when we saw the moon behind them (leading me to believe the police officers were all gathered at our beach entrance just to watch the moon rise).
Andrew, Rachel, Miriam, and I went out to watch the moonlight shimmering over miles and miles of water:
Phoebe woke up soon after we came back inside and stayed awake for hours because everything was wrong. She was thirsty. And hot. And didn't have all the stuffed animals she wanted. And her pillow wasn't her pillow. And the room was too dark. And she had a mosquito bite on her cheek. And...
She eventually fell back asleep (thank goodness) and then slept in a few hours on Sunday morning.
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