Ruff Party of Five: Beach vacation

We spent our last week of summer at the beach, and we had a great trip with the Lindsey family. This was the first time Ben and his crew were with us since Thanksgiving, so it was a much-anticipated trip for all of us. David and I headed to Geyser Falls water park in Philadelphia on Monday to break up the trip and spend some time with our friends the Kilgores. The kids loved the water park! I have no pictures because I did not take in a camera, but I wish I had a picture of Kate wearing her life jacket floating down the lazy river. She fell asleep in it at one point! Anytime we told her she was too little to do a slide or anything else, she walked over, put on her life jacket, and came back as if to show us who was in charge. We have learned in the last few months that Kate is usually in charge.
After a day at the water park, we went to eat Mexican with the Kilgores. David took the big two to get ice cream so I could get Kate to sleep in the hotel. We realized it was not ideal having all five of us in one hotel room, but we braved it for one night and we all got some sleep.

Tuesday we piddled around Philadelphia for a little while because we did not want to get to Destin too early--David and Benton went to a putting green while I took the girls to Williams Brothers General Store. Anytime I mentioned we were going to Philly, someone told me I HAD to go to Williams Brothers. It has everything from bacon to designer jeans. I was not blown away, but we did leave there with an adorable new pair of Toms for Kate after she walked around the entire store repeatedly saying "SHOES! SHOES!" That girl knows what she wants.

We left Philly at 9:00 and thought we would be at the rental house before 2:00. We all lost our patience on that ride because it ended up taking much longer than we thought, and David had to quickly drop us off so he could continue driving to pick Ben and his crew up from the airport. Once we got there, the trip was worth it. My dad rented a five-bedroom house for all of us, and it was perfect. The house had plenty of rooms, bathrooms, and televisions, so we could spread out and have our space. There was also a private pool, and the kids loved having that. The highlight of the house was that there was a golf cart we could drive to the beach. All the kids thought the golf cart was so cool! The big kids had a room to themselves and slept well; Kate was with us and talked in her sleep often (even saying "Uh Oh!" in her sleep, which was hilarious).

While David went to pick up the others, we ordered pizza. As we were eating, Lindsey let out a scream. I looked at her wide-open mouth and saw a tooth dangling. My motherly response was, "Mom! Come pull Lindsey's tooth!" Her grandmotherly response was, "I don't do teeth. Eddie!" Luckily, my dad does do teeth and pulled tooth #6 for Lindsey. She was worried about the tooth fairy coming to a strange house, so she finally agreed to leave her tooth under my mom's pillow with a note on her door for the fairy. I don't think she trusted any of us to give her the money excpet B.

Wednesday we hit the beach bright and early (it was so early that it wasn't really bright out yet). Lindsey, Benton, and Wilson loved the beach--building sand castles, looking for shells, playing in the waves. Charlie loved napping on the beach. We hoped Kate would love playing in the tent we took, but her plan was to play in the water. If she was not in the water, she screamed until we let her back in the water. After a few hours we ended up back at the house with all the kids in the pool. That afternoon we took everyone to the track for bumper boats, go-carts, and rides for the kids. The track is always a hit with the kids, but I think my dad and David like it just as much as the little ones do. We went to eat at Back Porch, which is always a favorite, and the kids miraculously all behaved.

Thursday was a repeat of Wednesday but included a trip to the outlets instead of the track. We scored some great deals once David returned everything he had purchased and re-bought it using his military discount. Thursday night we stayed in and Ben grilled steaks and boiled shrimp--a delicious meal.

Friday was our final beach day, and this was the day Ben and David ventured out to the sand bar to find shells. They did find two sand dollars for the kids, so the kids thought they were so cool. My kids wanted to go to the bookstore instead of putt putt (which really disappointed David), so we headed to Destin Commons that afternoon. We also had a birthday party for Charlie, because he turns one next week. Lindsey helped my mom plan it, and we ended up with a beach/Smurf/circus theme. We ended Friday with a meal at Buster's then watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

Saturday was our trip home, and unfortunately, this trip lasted even longer than the trip down. Traffic was awful between Destin and Mobile. Kate slept a total of 15 minutes on the entire trip home, but that was more than the other two. We stopped in DeKalb to visit the Westmoreland crew for a little while, then finished our ride home amidst stops for Benton to try to go stinky several times.

We are all exhausted, but we had a wonderful vacation with the family at the beach. It was sad to see Ben's family leave, because I know the boys will be bigger and will remember us less the next time we see them. But I'm thankful we all spent the week together at the beach!