The Rest of Summer Vacation

Our beach house wasn’t going to be available for check-in until Saturday afternoon, so we took the kids to Big Kahuna’s Waterpark for the day. By 2 pm, our children looked like Latinos.  I think the park was named after all the Euros I saw in Speedos.

Later that day we arrived at the beach house….which was literally 25 yards to the beach. It was heavenly.

We spent the afternoon swimming in the back yard. We measured and it took approximately two and 1/2 strokes to get from one end of the pool to the other…but it was still a pool, right? 

That night, at sunset, we took the kids to the beach for the first time. It was precious to watch their reaction to the sand and the waves. They ran screaming and squealing….jumping up and down…and twirling with their hands in the air.

Later that night, we waited with great anticipation for our friends Renee and Kevin to arrive from Salt Lake City. Renee is my BFF from childhood. She is one of those people that you can just pick up right where you left off. Instant comfort. We were so glad they were able to join us for a week at the beach with their two, sweet children. They cooked us breakfast, too…an added bonus!

The kids were so excited to have their own bunk room.

The house was the perfect size for a long week at the beach. There was plenty of space for everyone to sprawl out.

We stayed in an area called Frangista Beach. It is a private beach of 1000 feet of shoreline. The owner of the house arranged for us to have beach chairs and umbrellas set up for us each morning. It was wonderful to not have to deal with crowds and to have the waves all to ourselves.

Karah, Bradley, and Bethany…waiting for the waves.

Bryce and Will. Digging Partners.

Some other Highlights of the trip….

Going on the Pirate Ship ride…which would technically qualify as a lowlight.

It was stinkin hot…and we were out “at sea” for 2 hours…with lots of waves. The bonus was a group of obnoxious brats that kept spraying everyone with water guns while their parents ignored them. I considered throwing one of them overboard…but feared there were too many witnesses. The kids had a great time…so it was worth it in the end.

My pirate, Karah. Argggh….

Bryce didn’t like the sounds of riding a pirate ship…so he opted to stay back at the house with Daddy. When we got on the ship and saw that the sides of the boat were ropes…I was so thankful we didn’t bring him. It would have been a 2 hour panic attack for me.

The pirate.

The kids got to help raise the sails.

We saw several dolphins on our voyage

A few more highlights….Renee and I took off one night and went on a GNO to a cooking school. It was SO much fun and the food was delicious.

Both couples took turns babysitting so we could each have date nights. We went to The Henderson Park Inn, which has a cozy little restaurant right on the water. So romantic.

The view from our table was incredible. The food was amazing…especially dessert…Bread pudding, made with Krispy Kreme donuts. Wow!

On our way home from our date, we saw this guy. Incredible.

Tom and Kevin did some golfing…and Renee and I had a spa day. The highlight was spotting a woman in a sexy two piece…

And me dumping over the snack dispenser in the Relaxation room. It was quite relaxing for everyone to watch Renee and I laughing, frantically trying to clean the mess up. The treatments were LOVELY, though.

One day, we all went out to eat at an Irish Pub. Their claim to fame is over $1,000,000 hanging from the ceiling of their restaurant. It smelled like dirty money…and I itched through the entire lunch. It was worse than eating on the floor of a Flea Market, in my opinion.

Ick. They also thought they were hilarious with these bathroom signs.

I didn’t read the fine print until it was already too late.

Another day we rented a mini beach car. It was fun to take turns driving the kids around town.

Tom forgot he was wearing my sunglasses. He had lost his at the waterpark in the lazy river.

At first, we stuffed both boys in at the same time. It was too much helmet for one car.

The kids loved our visit to Gulfarium…

My baby Beluga.

Brothers…reviewing the map.

The kids enjoyed their trip to the fresh seafood market…where Kevin and Renee picked up some fresh shrimp so we could have a shrimp boil. Mmm…it was good.

We discovered a bigger neighborhood pool on our last day, go figure.  We had been swimming in this…

When we could have been swimming in this…

On our final day…before catching our flight home…we drove aimlessly, looking for a place to grab lunch. Somehow, we ended up here.

This was what the table next to us looked like.

The art in the bathroom was…”artistic”. Meow.

We were going to order their appetizer combo…”The Mother Fokker”…but thought better of it.

The pizza…was actually really good. Believe it or not…we will go back.

It was a great trip.

The kids have asked us, every single day, without fail…”When can we go back to the beach house?”

We are so excited to go back next year…this time knowing the ropes and not having the learning curve.

We are counting the days until we can go back.

There are a few more pics to come – that I took on a disposable camera that I will post later. A few stories to tell…