Life's A Beach

For a few years now Brent and I have gone to the beach with my family and we were really excited to take Mckinley to the beach for the first time this year. We hadn't been able to go for the past year or 2 for one reason or another so when my dad said make sure Brent can get the week of July 4 off we did it right away. Then the worst thing I could ever imagine happened. We found out mom was really sick which meant the beach never got a second thought and we were all in treatment mode, or so we thought. I remember coming home and telling Brent that we were canceling the beach trip and he of course was the best and said we would have our own vacation and spend the week together since he was already off and we moved on. Skip to the next day when Mom and Dad are talking about when they scheduled mom's first treatment and how that fit around the trip[. If you don't know my parent's the one thing you need to know about them is they are awesome and I would rather travel with them then anyone else. Not just because they take us out to eat, but because they are really fun to travel with and they love to travel. Basically no matter what they were going to the beach with our without us and I am so glad we did go because I think everyone needed a break from the reality of what was happening and more then that we all needed a little sun,  rest, and pina coladas.

Let's rewind and go back to before we loaded up the cars and headed out. Mom had her first treatment and we were so excited because she was doing so good and then things started to go down hill, but that is another post in itself so we will skip that and move on. Even as we were walking out the door and climbing in the car we were a all a little wary about this 10 hour drive ahead of us. We knew with 1 sick mama and 1 baby we  might be stopping more then a few times. Basically we had no clue how this trip was going to go, but we were not prepared at all for what actually occurred. 

NOTHING!

This was the most uneventful trip to the beach ever. No one got sick. The baby slept almost the entire way or was entertained by veggie straws and movies. We never thought we would make it to the beach as fast as we did and we were so so thankful that mom was feeling so good.

We spent the entire week eating, drinking, and spending time together and of course being entertained by a Little Lady. We took some family pictures dressed all in white, then we took some pictures of the baby, and then we took even more pictures of the baby. We ate in most nights and either cooked or picked up some food which was my favorite (boiled shrimp, corn, and potatoes yum!) and we ate out one night which no one else really liked except me. 

The best part about this trip was it allowed us to all be together and to kind of forget about what was going on for just a few days, Now we are home and life has returned back to as normal as it can be right now, but I wouldn't change this summer or this trip for anything.

We made it!!! A little tired, but thankful we made it all in 1 piece.

Checking out the beach for the first time and not a fan.

Wild Woman

The beer was empty don't worry we don't condone underage drinking.

Happy 4th of July!

 Our beach angel

 On the road again.

And just in case anyone was wondering yes we took our cloth and it was a breeze to use while traveling even in the car. I packed a separate bag to hold all of my clean inserts just in case we needed them, but I kept my travel changing pad, wipes (we took a container of regular wipes just for the beach in case of messy hands while out to eat and to help wipe off sand), 6 liners, coconut oil and covers in my diaper bag which I kept in next to me in the car so I could easily grab toys, snacks, etc. Whenever we stopped I would unbuckle the girl travel to the back of the car where I already have everything set up with a diaper already snapped and ready to go, changed her, and then we spent a few minutes walking around and stretching our legs. I was shocked at how many places didn't have changing tables, but the ones that did weren't very appealing to me and using the back of the car was much cleaner and much easier. We thankfully had a washer and dryer in our condo right next to our bedroom so we just did what we usually do except we washed almost everyday since we seemed to change her more often and ran low on diapers faster, because we were changing her outfits so many times during the day (pajamas, outfit 1, swimsuit, outfit 2, another outfit because she got food all over herself etc). We had actually debated before leaving about taking disposables, but my wonderful husband said no we would take our cloth because it would be just as easy and he was right of course because he is always right (which always makes me so mad) and aren't I a good wife to be able to admit that.