Beach Vacation: Days 1 and 2

Yesterday morning started off with a trip to the doctor before we set off for the beach. I took Jude just to make sure he didn't need any medicine before we left town since he was running fever the day before. Sadly, he had hand, foot, and mouth disease :( He had sores in his mouth that I hadn't even seen. The doctor said they were really painful. Poor baby -- no wonder he had been fussy! One of his ears was also slightly infected, so we got an antibiotic. Because of all that, we got a late start on our trip. Finally, we were all loaded up and ready to go! We started off with the girls in one car and the boys in the other. Well, sort of. Rebekkah and Jude and our sweet babysitter who was going with us, Laken, were in one car, and the two Davids and Aubrey and Carver were in the other.
We thought we were getting the better end of the deal since we had the "quiet child" in our car ;) At first, Jude slept, and it was great. We stopped for lunch, and then got back on the road. Sadly, Jude was super upset off and on the rest of the trip. I got in the back with him, and that helped some, but after a while he was just screaming. It was so sad because I knew he just didn't feel good and was exhausted, but there was nothing I could do. He did finally go to sleep for a while, thankfully.

We finally made it somewhere around 7:30, and we were SO happy to be out of the car!! We were also excited to check out our loft where we are staying :) It's small but we love it!



We walked around a little bit and got some dinner and then came back to get the kids in bed. I had been SO nervous about how the kids would do in strange beds, but they went down without a peep. They were just that exhausted. They both woke up a couple times in the night, but that wasn't unexpected.

This morning, Aubrey woke up with fever :( I hated that for her, but I wasn't surprised. We gave her medicine, and she perked up and got excited about going to the beach. Thankfully, Jude seems to be on the mend. Going to the beach with kids is a new experience. It took us forever to get sunscreen on everyone and all of our stuff gathered up, but we finally made it! I was so excited to watch Aubrey see the ocean for the first time. She LOVED it!



When we first took her to the water, she just laughed and laughed when the waves would go over her feet. SO CUTE! She had a blast.



Her bathing suit straps would NOT stay up.

We had gotten a little beach tent for Jude, and it was pretty much useless. The wind just blew it right over (even when he was sitting in it!). I think we will be taking that little sucker back :) Aubrey and Jude sat in there together for a few minutes. (The sand was WAY too interesting for them to take their eyes off of it and look at their mother.)



We stayed at the beach for about an hour and then headed back to the condo for naps. We ate lunch and got the kids down. Aubrey was so exhausted that she fell asleep sitting up in David's lap.

Then the guys decided to stay here and read/hang out, and Rebekkah, Laken, and I went to the pool. That was so nice and relaxing! It was so quiet, and we were able to just lay out and rest. We even dozed off for a while!

When we got back to the condo, we got ready for a date night! We had reservations at a restaurant called Paradis, and we were excited!



We left the kids here with Laken, and we had such a fun evening! Dinner was great, and we had fun conversations, too. After we ate, we went to another place for dessert. They have lots of different chocolate desserts, and wow! They were all so good! I hope we go back there again! :)



We came back home after that, and Laken and the kids were doing fine. Carver was already in bed, and David and I got Aubrey and Jude down immediately. Rebekkah and I had to make a grocery store run, and now we're just sitting around reading and watching TV (and blogging!). We are having a blast so far! Being on vacation with our kids is definitely more work, but we're so happy to have them here! I'm so thankful that Jude seems to have turned a corner with his virus, and I'm praying that Aubrey is better soon, too. I want her to have fun and feel good!