Beach, Day 3

We settled into a routine of pool in the morning, nap and then beach in the afternoon...tough vacation, huh?

Daddy decided he wanted to dig a mote today...good thing we bought the kids the big shovel...

The task for today was collecting sea shells.  Buckets and buckets of them.  And once all the buckets were full, Timo used his shirt.

A few bucket of shells then Cameron decided she wanted to decorate the mote with them.

More filling buckets with sand and water, back and forth, back and forth, mixing and mixing.

There goes Timo again, making a another friend on the beach.  This boy was digging a whole and Timo asked if he could help.  I think they did a pretty good job, Cameron loved it!

The kids wanted to play in the pool a little more that afternoon and feeling very brave.  Cameron started practicing her swimming and Timo took off his floaty and actually was putting his face in water!  He did one short swim out to Daddy so I ran to get my camera to video...but he wouldn't do it again.

We all went to Broadway on the Beach that evening.  Being July 3rd, everything, every store, every restaurant was packed.  We were waiting in line for a table at the Hard Rock, about 5 min into a 45 min wait and Young spotted a few seats at the outdoor bar.  The kids had a great experience sitting "at the bar" in the really high chairs.  We got great service, coloring book and a great view of the sunset!

Daddy and Timo...this is the upside down house there.  It's a big game area inside, maybe the kids will be ready for it next year.

Rides at the kid pavilion!  They were so excited to ride all the rides by themselves this year.

The kids did really great all week, going with the flow and adapting to all the last minute changes, so we wanted to treat them to something special.  I had coupons for Build a Bear and for this place RideMakers (build your own car).  I thought Cameron would want to do the teddy bear and Timo could do the car but...my little girl wanted nothing to do with the teddy bears.  She only had eyes for her pink hot rod car!  So they each picked out their car, wheels, rims, car noise, etc and got to build their own car.

Ice cream before we left, closing the place down.  It was close to midnight before we left!  Timo couldn't keep his eyes open for the 10min drive back to the hotel.

Beach, Day 2

We were up bright and early on our first day at the beach with the kids and in the pool! We decided it might be better to get a cabana again, just to have a landing place for the kids in between pool/beach/naps/eating...you get the idea. The resort was packed, fully booked so all the chairs and tables went quick and stayed full all day...not to mention a heat wave was going on, over 100 degrees each day, so the shade was scarce. This way we could relax as well as eat, snack, nap all in one shaded place.  We got our snacks and juice on ice, loaded up on towels, got our chairs all set and headed to the pool!

The beach was super crowded so we spent the morning at the pool.  I think the kids were overwhelmed by the size of the pool, even though they both can swim a little, neither one wanted to take off their floaty.  Just a full morning of splashing around.

Our lunch break.  The only real downside to the hotel, we had to eat every meal out.  We had a small room and not much space to make any real meals...just a small fridge for snacks.  But the kids loved eating chips, PB&J and chocolate pudding everyday...and the kids lunch came in a little bucket and shovel, very cute.

After nap we hit the beach!  Oh, it was all about mixing sand and water, going back and forth, mixing sand and water.

Daddy working hard digging a big hole for Timo...that's all he kept asking for, a big hole.

Testing the waters...not so sure of the waves crashing on him.  Cameron didn't really like the waves so she stuck to the shallow end.  She did like the feeling of sinking in the sand when the waves pulled out.

They both just ran and ran and ran up and down the beach...loved running and splashing their feet in the water.  To be four and so carefree!

Timo has this great gift of being able to make friends fast...as seen here.  He started playing with this little boy who had a water gun.  I forgot his name but he loved Timo.  He let Timo play with his gun and followed him all around.  He was so sad when it was time for us to go in...

Oh we love the sand! Sand everywhere...the only thing I dislike about the beach.

After showers and dinner, we tried our luck at put-put again.  The kids spotted a Captain Hook course the night before and that's where they wanted to go.  Put-put is a lot of fun except when it's hot.  Really, really hot.  And crowed.  Really crowded.  I think we got there around 8:30, a cool 90 degrees outside, and left around 10:30pm not much cooler.  But it didn't seem to phase the kids at all!

Timo got a whole in one!!  He was the only one of us that made one.  Future Tiger on our hands??  Maybe.  Even with the heat, the lines and the lost balls (Timo just couldn't resist smacking a few as hard as he could), we managed to laugh the whole evening.