life's a beach

and then you have to come home to the real world!

It was another great trip to the beach. Due to other vacation plans, we moved the beach trip to Spring Break. We are use to sunny and sometimes sweltering days where you spend from 10-4 inside playing games, eating, reading, shopping, watching movies. Days where the best beach times are when the sun is coming up and when the sun is setting.

This year we had some rain and some cool temperatures but it is hard to beat staying on the sand all day and not sweating. One day I kept my long sleeve T-shirt on all day!

Carly had big fun. She made friends with kids in the 2 neighboring beach houses. They played hard all day including swimming in the frigid water. She was even invited to join their bonfire one night to make s'mores and then go crabbing (aka playing on the beach with a flash light at night).

There was kite flying, castle building, digging in the sand (who knew how much fun a full size shovel can be), shell hunting, and so much more. Carly played so well that it reminds me again how easily she fits into situations. She talks easily with adults, holds her on with older kids, plays hard with active kids, teaches younger kids, involves everybody, and has no trouble jumping right in with any group. She did not think twice about going to watch a movie with the family next door or joining them for their bonfire. When a kid Carly had met the day before wandered over to the group, I heard Carly introduce her to the kids she was playing with followed up with "you want a turn?" There was dolphin watching. One morning there was a huge group that had at least a dozen dolphins in it including a couple that looked like babies.

More things to remember about this trip....

ate at the Original Oyster House for the first time and everyone agreed that it was a good experience and we should try it again sometime,

ate breakfast at Tacky Jacks II (YUM),

read 2 1/2 books and about 10 magazines,

colored in Carly's quilt pattern coloring books,

played lots of games including 2 new ones called "In a Pickle" and "UNO Flash" and an old one "Progressive Gin",

got LuLu's smoked tuna dip recipe (score!),

after a stop at a souvenir shop was thankful that we were staying out at Ft. Morgan and not "in town", and

did not take enough pictures especially of anyone besides Carly!

{Spring Break 2009}