Beach Vacation - 2010

I cannot believe that it has been over a month since we went on our summer vacation to Corolla, NC. This is our annual trip with my family and I look forward to it all year long. It is sad to know that it is over, but we have already booked the same house again for next year! We just love this particular house and the location so we couldn't pass up reserving it for next year! (Click HERE to see the house where we stay).

This year, there were 17 of us in one house - 12 adults and five kids. This includes my parents, my three siblings, their spouses, their kids and my grandparents. It was quite the happening (and sometimes crazy!) house when all of the kids were awake (which actually didn't happen all that often), but we had a great time nonetheless. Here is a picture of all of us on the beach on our last night:

And, here is my little family:

When we went to the beach last year, Jacob was only five weeks old so obviously he did very little other than sleep. I was excited to take him this year because I figured he would really enjoy playing in the sand, swimming in the pool and just being outside. Unfortunately, it didn't really work out the way I had hoped.

As you can see from this picture, he wasn't really too sure of what this "sand" stuff was all about.

And, since he was in the midst of transitioning from two naps to one, most mornings (which is when we would all go to the beach) he was fussy and a bit clingy. He did go into the water a few times with Daddy. Mostly Keith would carry him in and they would watch the waves. A few times he would laugh as the water would splash up onto his feet, but mostly he wasn't very enthused. He did stand in the ocean one time - he doesn't look too upset by it in this picture, but I can tell you that he didn't stay in for long (I must admit it was a bit cold at first).

He did enjoy digging in the sand once or twice with Pierce, Sierra and Reid. And one day he had fun chasing a seagull down the beach (I wish I would have gotten it on video - it was so funny watching him walk after this bird!)

I think the thing that Jacob enjoyed the most during the vacation was the time he got to spend with his Daddy. Jacob just adores Keith and loves to be around him whenever he can. Keith is always so good with him and he spent a lot of time with him on this vacation. He even told me on the way home that he purposely went out of his way to take care of Jacob a lot because he wanted to be sure that I felt like I had gotten a break and enjoyed my vacation with my family. Awww, what a sweet husband I have!!

Here they are outside on the deck one morning enjoying the view

Every morning after breakfast, Keith would take Jacob for a walk. Jake loves to be outside and LOVES to go for a walk and Keith wanted to get some exercise while we were on vacation (better him than me, although I need it more than he does!!). Jacob would get so excited that one day he even went over to the stroller and showed it to Keith. It was really great bonding time for them and it was nice for me to get some time to get dressed, help clean up the breakfast dishes or just do whatever I wanted to do without a little one to worry about.

Jacob didn't really like being in the "big" pool that we had at the house, but he sure did enjoy the baby pool. Thankfully my sister brought this pool along because Jacob was in it A LOT! I think he liked it so much because he could walk around and didn't have to be carried or in a float like in the regular pool. He really enjoyed playing with his toys and splish splashing around. As you can see, it was fun for Daddy (and sometimes Mommy) to get in with him!

Even though Jake wasn't too fond of the pool, one afternoon, I put Pierce's swim vest on him to see what he would do. Of course, he doesn't know how to swim, so basically he just fell forward and wasn't too happy! I tried to get him to kick his feet, but he wasn't having it. Hopefully next summer, I'll be able to teach him to swim a little and he'll enjoy it more than he did this year.

Thankfully, he did stay in the pool long enough for us to get a family photo, although I think he was fussing to get back into the baby pool not long after this picture was taken!

All in all, even though this year's vacation was definitely more work than last year, we still had a great time. If you have children you know that vacation with your kids is not really a "vacation". But I am very blessed to have a wonderful husband who helped out A LOT so I was able to relax a little. It is always so much fun to get all of my family members together to play games, talk, laugh, eat great food and just be together. With our busy schedules and not living near each other, we don't all get together nearly as often as I would like. The memories I have from this vacation is something that I will cherish for the rest of my life.