Beach Week

I am going to post several separate posts 'talking' about our recent trip to Litchfield Beach and posting pictures. There is just too much to talk about in one long post. So, just as I would normally do, I'll blog about what happened over the week in general.

Every year, David's extended family travels to Litchfield Beach for a week of family fun in the sun. My first trip was in 2003 when David and I were engaged. Since then, there have been a lot of changes to the trip (more people have been added, including babies, we've changed houses a couple of times, and this year, it was moved from May to June.) It is a wonderful time that everyone looks forward to. One family (with 3 kids) was unable to come this year due to illness and it wasn't the same without them.

We left on Saturday morning to fly to Charlotte, NC, rented a van and drove about 4 1/2 hours to the beach house. We spent hours at the beach all but one day, played in the pool, ate a ton of wonderful food and treats, had a bridal shower and a 1st birthday party, took naps, visited a state park, and overall just had fun. It was wonderful to have extra hands (and eyes) to help out with the boys. It would not have been nearly as much of a vacation without our helpers, especially Mia and Papa.

The boys did fairly well on the plane, but it wasn't easy. Thankfully Luke slept most of the trip there, but was fighting it big time on the flight home. I had 2 different people tell me how sorry for me they felt watching me deal with him fussing and fighting so much. David finally got him to sleep for a little while and that helped a ton.

Sleeping during the beach week for Luke was a whole different story. In a word, it was awful. Until the Austin trip where he was up coughing so much, we had him fairly well trained to sleep until about 3:30 or 4am, eat, then go back to sleep for 2-3 hours. At the beach, he woke no less than 3 times a night (usually more). Because he were sharing the space with several others, we didn't want to leave him crying for too long. Thankfully, his roommate Jacob, never stirred during his fits. It was tiring for David and me, though. Thank goodness for naps!Luke ate like crazy. Anything and everything he was given he ate - and a lot of it - and quite often. He's turning into quite the eater. We'll see how much he weighs at his 1 year checkup this week. Jacob on the other hand, has gone dramatically in the other direction. I've always been proud at what a great eater Jacob has been. These past 2-3 weeks though have been anything but. He learned "I don't like that" and uses it often. He doesn't eat much, but still seems to be gaining weight, so I suppose I won't worry about it as long as it isn't junk. More posts to come about the beach, including a lot of the picture links. Here are some pictures of the boys just hanging out at the beach house.