Beach Days

Well, I survived. I'd like to say that I'm glad we're home, but, once we got settled in, I felt like I wanted to stay longer! This is the house where we stayed: 4 bedrooms, a loft, 3.5 bathrooms, gourmet kitchen, a hot tub, air hockey....it was perfect. We stayed with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. My other aunt and uncle, and 3 other cousins and their families stayed at a similar house about 2 blocks away.

3 decks - so cool!
Friday we got over there and got all settled in. The boys loved that the house was 3 levels and that there were so many stairs! Tyler decided to take a rest on the bottom stair.
Matthew and Kathryn immediately hit the hot tub and we had a fire in the fire pit behind the house. None of us went to bed until almost midnight - including the boys!
The next morning....off to the beach! This was the 2nd time the boys have been to the beach, but much nicer weather this time. Zachary loved playing in the sand....Tyler apparently loves the ocean, the fish that he is, and I literally had to drag him out kicking and screaming when the waves were coming in too fast and he kept wanting to go in but would get knocked over.
A few of the many cousins there.
Kathryn digging in the sand, after she too was knocked down by a giant wave

Gotta have your beach chairs! And sticks to put in the cup holders.

And digging utensils with bucket. Notice he still has his shoes on. He's not a fan of any sort of dirt or sand touching his body anywhere other than his hands, and even then he likes his hands to be thoroughly cleaned afterwards.

Grandpa put Tyler up on a log

So then, after the beach, the boys crashed, and guess where Grandma and I went? Yep, the outlets!!! And it was the busiest I had ever seen them. But they had great clearance sales and I stocked up on tons of tank tops for next summer for the boys for all about $1! I even found sweats for Kathryn for $.99! But, I also found.....yes, I know.....it's only the 1st of September, but.....the boys' Halloween costumes. I couldn't pass them up. I found the cutest monkey costume for Zachary, so I had to get it! But I didn't really see much for Tyler. Until Grandma found this - the skunk. At first I thought, a skunk? Really? That's kinda lame. THEN I saw the red heart on the butt of the skunk that reads 'Lil Stinker' and I had to have it too. Pretty much describes Tyler in a nutshell. So once we got the costumes home, Tyler wanted to wear his. AND then he wouldn't take it off!!!!!

This pretty much sums up the trip for Matthew and my cousin Erin's husband Sam. They are staring at the tv playing a PS2 game.

Sunday was pretty much a nightmare. After 2 nights of Tyler not sleeping well, and me finally getting him to sleep on my chest, I knew he had an ear infection. Sunday morning we set out on a quest to find a doctor. No Immediate Care.....closed down a year ago. The 'Urgent Care' isn't at all urgent care....its a doctor's office where you have to make an appointment. The ER was a joke. So......back to the 'urgent care' option. I made an appointment for that afternoon. After the doctor tells me 'yep, double ear infection' to which I was to say 'yah, no kidding!' We get a couple of prescriptions. Which are a nightmare to get filled. But....two pharmacies and two hours later, we have antibiotics. So, off we go. Once we got a dose in Tyler, he slept for 2 hours in Grandma's arms. Everyone else took off to the beach to roast hot dogs on the largest bonfire in the history of bonfires, thanks to my dad and Uncle Roger. The boys, Grandma, and I joined later for some Smores, while the big kids played football for hours!

Here are some videos of the boys and the activities that they found in their 'new home' for the long weekend.

Tyler slept on the way home, about an hour and a half, and then took a 4 hour nap once home. Zachary took a 5 hour nap! So, I think hopefully they will be caught up on their sleep by tomorrow. And hopefully I will be too.

And school starts Wednesday! Not that I'm counting down the days or anything. = )