Our First Family Beach Trip!

Having grown up less than an hour from Florida Gulf Beaches, beach is just what you do. Having lived in Atlanta now half of my life I definitely miss the ocean....a lot!  We've done a few beach trips here and there but I was craving another trip like crazy.  Eric's parents have been planning this week for quite some time.  The treated the whole family to a week at a beach house along 30A.  The house had 4 bedrooms, full kitchen, backyard pool and a very short walk to the beach.

We did a Saturday to Saturday stay, which we LOVED. It was great to have Sunday to sort laundry and get our life organized before heading back in to the weekly grind.

With a five and half hour drive ahead of us, not counting a potty training 3 year old's bladder, I decided to stock up on a few car toy surprises. I bought this Melissa and Doug Picture Maker, a Crayola dry erase board set, a few new story books, and the scrounged for some old favorites the girls hadn't played with in a while.  The first hour of the trip was great. Everyone was so excited for our first stop, The Original Chick-fil-a in south Atlanta.

 The rest of the trip down was touch and go, but in the end it was all worth it because the girls fell in love with the beach.

 We were so thankful we left Atlanta at the crack of dawn because we could get settled and out to the beach before dinner and bed time.

 Everyone has been asking how the girls did.

Evie was SO excited to go.  She knew what the expect from the sand because she plays in it out at the lake, but she was NOT prepared for the ocean waves. They intimidated her a bit (okay, A LOT) but by the end of the week she didn't want to get out of the water.  The best line of the week was our first trip out to the beach Evie exclaimed, "This sand is perfect. It's like sugar!"   And boy was it!

Maggie didn't know what to expect.  She really didn't like the sand. And she was very unsure of the ocean water.  We ended up only taking her to the beach 2 or 3 times. However, this girl ROCKED it at the pool. She also really loved bike rides. All the family was so generous in taking her out on bike rides anytime they left the house.  Maggie and G.Daddy spent a lot of time hanging out not on the beach.

 For food each couple was responsible for two dinners: make at home or eat out, whatever you chose. We chose to make both our meals and home but the others did one of each. It was nice to save going out for the rainy days.

At night we played cards, sat on the patio, or walked the beach. One night was a Strawberry Full Moon. It happened to be the night Eric and I took a walk. It was breath taking!

One of the things we loved doing was going on bike rides. There's wide paved bike paths everywhere down 30A. We had bike seats for the kids and road to dinner, ice cream, the growler store, or just to cruise.

I looooved that our neighborhood had private beach access. It was rarely crowded and all the folks around us were on family vacations too.

We seriously had the best, most relaxing vacation.

We left at 9am and by 10am both girls were sound asleep and slept for over two hours.  They were EXHAUSTED!!!

Thanks for a wonderful vacation, Grandma and G.Daddy!!