9 kids. 7 adults. 1 house. 4 bedrooms. 3 swimming pools. 1 great big ocean. 4,296,063,532 grains of sand stuck in our shoes, swimsuits, and suitcases. 103 popsicles. 356 meltdowns (not of the popsicle variety). Hundreds of smiles and giggles and happy memories made. It was the Holland/Argo/Partin/Wright trip to the beach. It was epic.
Three years ago, when I was great with child(ren) and Caleb was barely two, we went to the beach, and as we left for home, Tony and I swore that we would not come back to the beach again for at least five years - we were exhausted. I held true to that promise for almost three years, but when we were offered a trip to the beach with the rest of the fam, we couldn't turn it down.
It started like most family beach trips do: with lots of cramming and stuffing bag after bag into our vehicle (our van needed some work so we borrowed a smaller SUV the night before the trip). It looked like we were ready for a month long pilgrimage to Mecca.
But we made it all fit...only a few things would fall out when we opened the doors. We actually made it to the beach in record time (for traveling with three young children). We were so early in fact that our house wasn't quite ready yet. What do you do when you're so close to the beach that you can smell it, see it, and hear it but your swimsuit is packed away at the bottom of the pile of suitcases? You go to the beach anyways. We didn't tell them to get wet while still wearing their clothes - they did that all on their own. This was Wren and Judson's first time playing at the beach.
Then to the playground to dry off a bit.
Once we all got settled in to our house, the real fun began: playing with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents; jumping waves; building sandcastles; light saber fighting (continuously, thanks to Caleb and his great imagination); eating; dancing; watching/riding on dolphins; swimming; riding bikes; and making memories.
As you can see, we did it all. Including running out to the ocean the evening before we were to leave to make sure we rode our blow-up dolphin in the ocean waves. This was clearly the highlight of Tony's (and the dolphin's) trip.
Like our last trip to the beach, we were exhausted when we left, but it was totally worth it! Maybe we'll see you again next year, beach!
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