Every year we take a pilgrimage of sorts to the East Coast to spend a week with Betsy’s family at the beach. They’ve been going to the same beach for almost 40 years. Betsy has never not had this trip in her life so it’s something that we really look forward to each year.

This was the first year taking both kiddos so it was possibly not as relaxing as other years, but was also more fun in some ways.

Thought I would take a break from the recipes and share some photos and videos from our annual beach trip!

The Travel

We were pretty concerned about the air travel for obvious reasons, but I think we did a decent job of preparing them for the trip. Theo was super-pumped about it. He’s been on an airplane before but this was the first time where he was old enough to get what was happening.

Excited.

Meanwhile, Darby just wanted to move around because she recently discovered that she can, in fact, move around. Sitting in a chair for 4 hours was a bit of a struggle!

Busy.

A “Relaxing” Week

Even though I’m not a huge beach fan (pale, etc.), I’ve really come to love this trip every year. It’s very relaxing.

Turns out that’s less true when you have to chase around two kiddos all week and be constantly concerned the ocean is going to sweep them away into the abyss.

But hey… Darby found the beer so that helped.

Need a drink.

And Theo and I were able to walk around the beach with little shovels looking for something to dig.

Also, if you happen to be pale like my family, can I just recommend this full body rashguard for the kiddos? I think we saved $50 in sunscreen and never had to worry about sunburn for him except for face.

Trouble.

Time to Build

One thing I’ve started doing at the beach each year is head out super-early in the morning one day and spend a few hours building something cool. I actually use real tools for this and am getting decent at working with sand.

This year I went for a big pyramid. While it may not be as impressive as some of the castles I’ve built in previous years, it was actually pretty challenging to get the sides all even.

What dada made.

I think it was about 4×4 and was a few feet tall. It was A LOT of sand for one dude to move. Trust me.

I love how peaceful it is in the morning though before the masses get down to the beach.

Pyramid visit.

Once I finished it, it lived for just long enough to get a picture snapped before Theo the destroyer made his presence known.

Destroyer.

Meanwhile, Darby was cool just chilling in a hole.

It’s the simple things right?

Happy baby.

Let’s talk about the ocean.

To be honest, I’m scared of it, but I married into an ocean family and my kids will be water kids. Theo is already a beast in the water. Betsy showed me this video after the fact. To the casual observer, it might look as if he might drown, but trust me. He loved it. He went down again and again and went back for more! (And an adult was always within reach obviously.)

It’s fine though. I’ll just have to go on blood pressure meds.

Non-Life Threatening Activities

We aren’t really a family that spends the whole day at the beach. It’s just not our speed. So we always find some other activities to do during the day.

This year, Theo discovered the stomp rocket. He stomped MANY a rocket. I just love how he thinks a running start helps, but always stops right before stomping.

Meanwhile, Darby had her first taste of ice cream and joined my lifelong quest to eat all the ice cream.

The Trip Back

I wish I could say that the trip home was breezy, but it wasn’t. We had multiple delays and what was supposed to be a 11-12 hour travel day turned into a 16-17 hour travel day. I think it was harder on the parents than the kids. They handled it like pros.

Darby just slept it off.

Tiirreeed.

And for Theo… well, they say never make promises about your parenting. That’s definitely true.

I never though we would be the parents that give our kids tablets, but we did actually get him one of the Amazon Fire tablets for this trip (he can only have it on airplanes and on long car rides right now). It ended up being a lifesaver and he was an awesome traveler because PAW PATROL exists.

Never say never, right?!

I’ll allow it.

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