Beach Trip Part 1

I figured I'd do the beach post in two parts since there are SO many pictures and I feel they should get a post all their own. In fact, we took over 400 pictures of Austin's 1st beach trip and 4th of July! I think we actually took less than that in his first month of life! I will add a few pictures here and there on this post however to give you something fun to look at in between my longwindedness!

So we started off Thursday morning and 7 hours later we were at our condo in Garden City. No, it does not normally take 7 hours to get from Greenville to the beach, but that's how long it took us due to a stop in Columbia for an early lunch at Rush's (oh how I miss Rush's), a stop for gas and diaper changes and of course the dreaded beach traffic! Austin did pretty well considering he is not a fan of being strapped down for long periods of time but he was very excited when we made it to the beach and finally get out of his carseat for a little while!

Our first night was pretty laid back as we had been traveling all day and needed a break. Austin had a fabulous time exploring the new place (he especially liked the ceiling to floor mirrored walls) and Ryan and I just enjoyed being together and watching our little man do his best to find something to get into! We ate at Fazoli's for dinner which shows you right there how things change when you become a parent. We wouldn't normally opt for fast-food Italian on our vacation, but it was getting late and someone was starting to get cranky and we just didn't have time for a long sit-down meal at a nice restaurant.

Friday was beautiful and once morning nap time (for all three of us) was over we finally got to head out to the beach for awhile. Austin and mommy went straight for the ocean while daddy set up camp. My fearless little man squealed with excitement and started crawling off straight for the crashing waves! I had to keep picking him up and bringing him back to the dry sand so he could start right back off again. He really liked crawling on the beach and was licking sand and salt water off his lips the entire time.

When we weren't playing in the water, Austin was playing in his baby cabana or in the sand. He kept trying to eat shells and fistfuls of sand and when we said "no" and emptied his hand he threw a fit like you wouldn't believe!! Ryan and I couldn't help but laugh as he showed off his little temper eventhough the people around us probably thought we were horrible parents for laughing at our screaming child!! He got over it pretty quickly though when he spotted something new to play with or decided it was time again to try to pull his hat off his head.

After a few toasty hours on the beach, we headed back up for lunch and Austin's afternoon nap. When he woke up we went to Barefoot Landing for some shopping and dinner. We visited our favorite winery and sipped on some blueberry wine as we strolled around. We stopped and fed some turtles (at which time Austin threw his paci into the water), looked at the tigers in the preserve exhibit, tried on ridiculous hats at Tiki Jims and just enjoyed walking around and seeing the sights. Right when we were about to sit down for dinner, however, we had a very tired and fussy baby boy to deal with and so dinner number 2 turned out to be a take-out pizza! We got Austin back to the condo and he snoozed away as Ryan and I enjoyed our pizza on the balcony and watched some pre-July 4th fireworks.

On Saturday, Austin got us up in time to watch the sunrise (who needs an alarm clock when you have a baby) and after I went back to bed with the little guy, Ryan stayed up and got to see a sunrise beach proposal from our balcony. It was kind of funny because Ryan proposed to me on July 4th 3 years ago!

Once again, after naps and breakfast, we were back on the beach. Austin decided to sport his SPF 50 Baby Banz swimsuit this time which I really love. As a fair-skinned family, we get burned easily, but with Austin's new swimsuit in addition to tons of sunscreen, the 3 of us came home completely sunburn free!

Austin had another fabulous time and has already seemed to master the art of picking up women at the beach! Actually, he didn't have to do a thing, they came to him. I guess it was the "I'm not interested" look and sunscreen mohawk that had the girls going wild. I think I'm in trouble though, he seems to have a thing for older women. I totally caught him eyeing up a 6 year old!

Saturday night we were kindly invited to join the Corley clan at their beach house for a 4th of July cookout. We were really thankful to get to spend some time with such a sweet family and for the chance to enjoy some of Mrs. Corley's famous brickle crunch!! Austin enjoyed seeing everyone and had fun hanging out with Mr. Corley and his new best buddy, Cali.

When it got dark it was about time to head back to our condo as the little man was getting sleepy and needed to go to bed. We were astonished at all the fireworks we saw going off on the beach as we went home and as soon as Austin was out, Ryan and I sat on our balcony and enjoyed the show. It was the biggest display of fireworks we've ever seen and from our 9th floor oceanfront balcony, we had a fabulous view! Just when we thought the show was over, more fireworks would go off. I think we sat out there for about 2 hours and they were still going strong even after we headed to bed.

Sunday was a sad day because it was time to head home, but not without a nice lunch at Conch Cafe and a little shopping at Broadway at the Beach first. Around 9pm we finally got back into Greenville but had some trouble settling Austin down for bed after such an eventful few days. He was finally out by 11pm and woke up at 8 this morning. He is currently on hour 3 of his nap, however, so I think he's finally playing catch up with his sleep.

We had such a great time at the beach and we really were sad to leave. Austin loved the beach and being in the water and I enjoyed spending some quality time with my two favorite boys and finally didn't feel like I had a thousand chores I needed to get done. It's amazing what kind of weight is lifted just by getting out of the house for a few days! We were all in better moods because of it.