Life with Sweet Peaches

Over the recent Labor Day weekend, we managed to squeeze in one more trip to the beach before fall arrives.  We are fortunate enough to live close to (and enjoy spending time with!) my parents and one of my sisters and her children, so we all traveled to the coast together. {We missed Whitney, but she was having her own adventure.  It just happened to be on the opposite coast.}  It IS hurricane season and it just so happened that there were numerous storms in the Atlantic the week before Labor Day, so we watched the weather all week and literally arrived at the beach just hours after Hurricane Earl passed through; lucky for us, Earl was in a hurry to move up and out, and we arrived to perfect beach weather.

As everyone knows, traveling with children can create some interesting memories…A few of my favorites include:

1)  We allowed plenty of time for travel (we were with FOUR kids, ages 13 months to seven) and ended up arriving at the marina in time to catch an earlier ferry, so we hustled to get the cars unloaded and everyone onto the same ferry.  Beverly and I had Addison and Molly in strollers, and being some of the last people to board the ferry, there weren’t many places for us to go.  So, we ended up in the front of the boat.  Remember that hurricane that just moved out?  It wasn’t until we were soaked that we remembered the water might be a little rough because of the category four storm that had passed through a mere ten hours before.  And, we also remembered sitting there once before and getting similar results; fortunately, the boys thought it was a grand adventure and the girls didn’t mind too much.  Beverly and I were the ones that were the most disappointed:  we had both straightened our hair that morning.  Go figure.  It was at this point in the trip that my dear husband reminded us that we were creating memories.

2)  Addison and Molly were troopers on the beach, and Jackson and Benjamin were having a blast building forts, digging holes, and casting fishing nets.  Beverly, my mom, and I even got to sit down some.  Well, my mom didn’t really get to sit down, but that’s what Nana’s do, right?!  There was a lovely breeze from the east and the temperature was ideal.  There was just one pesky problem:  Horse flies.  They were literally attacking us and Molly was none too happy about being annihilated by the  horse flies.  On the first day, the wind calmed down and the horse flies subsided.  But on Sunday, while Beverly, my mom, and I were dancing and hopping to prevent the pests from landing on our ankles, Molly was getting her fair share of bites.  At this point, I had two choices:  1- continue to subject my daughter to the sting of the horse flies or 2- take her in even though we’d been on the beach for less than an hour.  So, I did what any good mother would do when faced with a similar dilemma:  I covered my baby in Deet.

And although there are many more memories to share (Nana on a rollout bed?  Only for a camp-out with her grandsons!), I’ll leave you with two final thoughts:

1)  Babies love Goldfish crackers.  And Pop-tarts.  And they can survive an entire weekend on a diet of Goldfish and Pop-tarts.

2)  Waitresses don’t think it’s funny when you order a beer at dinner and your husband jokingly orders one for the baby.  I mean, seriously?

I love that Molly has so many opportunities to make memories with her cousins!  I hope it’s always as fun as this past weekend was.  Thanks for a great time, everyone!

{picture courtesy of Beverly}

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