I was a little nervous about our trip to the beach. Well not so much the beach itself, rather the drive TO the beach. It is a 5.5 hour car ride and the last time Isabella was in the car for any length of time longer than like 45 minutes was when she was 8 months old. Ya know PW (pre-walking). I used my best teacher brain, did some research, and set up a game plan. J.T. couldn't go with us as he has to save his vacation days for his procedure and recovery (Cancer blows, man). So I was able to get me brother to make the drive with us. We left at morning nap time and drove to Chapel Hill where we visited the University of North Carolina Tar Heel Hall of Fame and stopped at a brewery for lunch (for my brother). Then we stopped at a playground for Isabella.
To this point the trip was a success (ok we were only half way through but I was feeling good about things!), but things started taking a turn when my brother decided he needed to make a pit stop before leaving town. Maybe because it is a college town, but we could not find a gas station with a public restroom to save our lives! We eventually stopped at a Walgreens which was a double edged sword since Isabella LOVES taking things off the shelves and putting them back on them. Girlfriend was majorly ticked off when we only stayed a few minutes and left. By this point she was overdue for her afternoon nap so after some crying fell asleep but only for about 30 minutes. We then broke out the emergency entertainment kit which was comprised of snacks and random crap from the dollar store (bendable hair rollers, a box of bandaids, a stuffed turtle, etc.). My brother would chuck something back about every 10 minutes. It got us within 30 minutes of the beach house before it lost its appeal as we ran out of new stuff to throw at her. This just meant I needed a bigger arsenal for the return trip!
The house my parents rented was perfect. It was two stories so Isabella and I claimed the bottom floor so when she woke up at the crack of dawn she wouldn't wake anyone and when people wanted to stay up past our bedtime they could do so without disturbing us. We decided 8am was a reasonable time to come upstairs so that gave Isabella and I about 2.5 hours to kill in the mornings. Each morning we took a walk/run and went to the grocery store. Isabella slept very well. Though she did prove to everyone what I've been trying to tell them. Even if I keep her up later she STILL wakes up between 5-5:30 she can just be more cranky because she got LESS sleep. Our room had a walk in closet where I kept the pack and play. This would be Isabella's second trip where she slept in a closet. It works, I swear!
She did a great job on the beach. I already knew she LOVES sand, but wasn't sure how she would feel about the water. She loved it too! We could only spend about an hour at a time at the beach because the photo above on the left is the ONLY time she sat still the entire week and after an hour of chasing a toddler around the beach this mama was TIRED! Our house had a pool so we would go back and swim there too.
Toward the end of the week we broke up all that water with a trip to the aquarium which was a hit. I know that most aquariums do not feature dinosaurs but I'm glad this one does because it allowed Isabella to show off the only animal sound she knows. "Isabella, what does a dinosaur say?" "Roooar!"
Ever since I was in elementary school my family has always gone with a group of my parents friends to the beach and this was the first time in a long time our family trip was able to be scheduled at the same time. It was nice seeing people I had not seen in ages though with Isabella's schedule I did not get to visit very much. It has been a tradition for decades that Thursday night is Kite Flying and Awards night. It was too windy for kites but they still did awards for the kids. Isabella is receiving her "Newbie at the Beach" award in the top left photo. A new tradition that began in more recent years is apparently beer pong (though it is played with water in the cups), so yes the other picture is in fact me holding my toddler, playing "beer" pong with my mother as my teammate:).
Fortunately the trip home was more smooth than to the trip there. Same game plan (leave for morning nap, extended stop, continue driving for afternoon nap, arsenal of Dollar Store crap), but without the bathroom scavenger hunt we hit the afternoon nap time better and didn't even have to use all of the Dollar Store items for entertainment. The picture above was taken at an awesome kids museum we stopped at during our mid day stop in Raleigh.
Overall Isabella's first trip to the beach was a raging success. I really wish J.T. could have been there and my nephew and sister-in-law's absences were also felt (he just graduated high school and was on a senior week beach trip and my sister-in-law had to work), but it was a lot of fun and look forward to doing it again next year when hopefully EVERYONE will be there:).
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