Beach Days.....and Back to Reality

The rest of our beach vacation went well. It was very relaxing and restorative for us all. The kids were great and had so much to do.

With three preschoolers in the house there wasn't much sleeping in going on. But early mornings can be easily remedied with some fresh-from-the-oven french toast casserole. If you want to try some you can find the recipe on my other blog.
With all the yummy food around, we figured we best do a little PT. This was the usual scene around the breakfast table, doing either P90X or 30 day Shred. With my sister and I and 3 kids it was quite humorous at times. This was the Ab Grinder workout. Every time Beth grimaced, Carter would copy the face thinking it was part of the exercise- hysterical. When she complained something was tough, Carter would say, "This really isn't hard." Somehow I think a 5 yr old it at a huge advantage!! It sure looked hard to me and I wasn't even doing it!
Anderson and Julia both love to pour and dump water and could do this for hours. Anderson has a fond affection for cups- they are truly his favorite toy. The first words out of his mouth in the morning are either 'cup' or 'hot dog'...

Julia learned to spin herself in the pool and happily twirled to the motown tunes...
We built some really cool sandcastles on the beach- complete with pools for Julia...

Julia was tickled with burying Daddy...
Does anyone else have a thing for drip castles? I love them! Now Julia does, too...
It didn't take much before Julia was asking to go back to bed...
She and I enjoyed a great mother/daughter outing to the local shops. She is so fun to shop with because she gets so excited about everything...

• "I just love this!"
  
• "Can you put this on my list?"
  
• "Mommy, I love being your sweet punkin."
  
• "But I can't just leave him here (the stuffed puppy). He will miss me and cry for me. And what if someone else buys him?"
  

The last one is very hard to say no to! She picked out a beach book and some shiny gems. She was very pleased with her treasures. It was a great night. She's felt pretty good besides the fatigue and achy jaw. There are times she has trouble opening her mouth, but fortunately the pain medicine helps a lot. Her eyelids have the 'chemo droop' now. It's especially noticeable in pictures...

On Thursday, the storm clouds rolled in to stay :( We had 9 inches of rain, just on Thursday!
We took advantage of the rainy weather and went to the aquarium. It's one of the kids' favorite places and since our zoo passes get us in free, we go several times during the week. Fortunately if you get there right when they open it is pretty much empty. We kept Julia in the stroller most of the time. It still surprises me how quickly she's gotten used to all of this. When we're out, she'll say, "Mommy, can you clean that so I can touch it?" Then she waits for me to break out the lysol wipes. It does make it easier on us to not have to be so vigilant because she understands her limitations and precautions. She's had to grow up really fast for a 3 year old.

There are so many cool animals to see- sharks, alligators, sea turtles, frogs, sea horses, sting rays, river otters, and these beautiful jellyfish. It is so much easier to appreciate them in here than in the ocean :) I have had a few too many stings in my days at the Jersey shore.
Carter learning about and touching the horseshoe crab...
Daddy petting the sting rays...
I love her reflection in this picture...

At the house there was plenty of time for games. And how can you say no to one more game of Hi Ho Cherry-O to this face...
We all read lots of good books...
The rain stopped for a few hours the night before we left, so we enjoyed some family time at the beach...
We all hold on to each other a little tighter these days...
Saturday morning we packed up to head home and decided to surprise the kids with one last treat and took them to play putt-putt. It was empty because everyone else was headed home, which was just what we had hoped. The kids were so cute...
We were actually really impressed with Julia. This was her first time really playing and she had par on about half the holes. She stuck with it for the full 18 holes and never got frustrated.
Sunday was our first day back to reality. We had lots of unpacking and catching up to do. I decided to invite the kids' friends over and they played contentedly all day.

Here they are in their space ship blasting off to Mars...