Beach Trip

We just got back from a GREAT four nights in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. We split a 2-bedroom condo right on the beach with our best friends, making a total of nine people (five of them preschoolers) under one roof. There was concern that it might be a little too chaotic, but everything went surprisingly smoothly. The kids were able to sleep when they needed to, and they had a GREAT time when they were awake.

We thought we might take the kids to play miniature golf or ride go-carts one of the days, but they didn't get tired of the beach and the pool, so we ended up sticking with that every day. Our kids woke up each morning between 6:00 and 6:30 (just like they do at home). I kept them in our room watching a video or reading books until about 7:30, when the triplets woke up. (Marcus would go into the empty bunk room and go back to sleep.) When all the kids were up, we would have a leisurely breakfast of bacon, pop tarts, toast, cereal, dried fruit...whatever was requested. (My dietary goals for the kids go out the window on vacation.) After breakfast each day, we'd head the beach and play. Caleb really enjoyed the waves this year. Marcus taught him how to stand perpendicular to the breaking wave and brace himself so that it didn't knock him over. He'd stand out there in the surf forever, it seemed like, never tiring of the water crashing against his body and then rapidly retreating. Ethan was less fond of the waves, and did not like having sand all over him either. He preferred the hotel pool to the beach, and was always the first of the kids to start clamoring for the next stage of the morning (the pool).

That's all the time I can spare for typing today, so more about our beach trip tomorrow :)

Marcus took this picture of all of us at the pool from our room's balconey.