Life at the Beach

We just got back from an eight day stay at the beach! We began our drive down on Thursday evening and finished on Friday morning. The kids did really well in the car, even Mady. The hotel did not go as well though, as Mady kept TJ up for a few hours in the middle of the night. She woke up crying and made Daddy sleep next to her on the couch. Then, she proceeded to talk his ear off for the next 90 minutes! Lucky Daddy. We spent the weekend with TJ's family at the beach house in Naples. We all had a great time! Trip got to share a room with Ava and Molly. So, they had the party room! :-) I don't think any of them got much sleep and it started to show by the end of the weekend. All the kids had fun swimming in the hot tub. (It was too chilly to swim in the pool even though it's heated). We also took them to the beach, even though it was only 60 degrees out. They had fun collecting shells and Trip and Ava even dipped their feet in the cold water. BRAVE! After about 30 minutes, the 3 oldest kids were all wrapped up in towels on the beach chairs, eating graham crackers, so we packed them back up and headed back to the house. Pitty got the girls tu-tus and the boys fun beach shirts and we attempted a photo shoot...see above. The best part of the weekend for me was when Tom and Patty sent the adults (all but themselves) to dinner while they watched our children...5 children of which Trip is the oldest. It was so sweet and thoughtful of them, and a wee bit crazy. And, they all survived! After Monday, it was just the kids and myself with Patty, so it was a little more low key. We took them to the Naples zoo and to ride on the little train at the local mall. And, of course, they still got in the hot tub every day. Mady really loves the water, almost too much. She loves to go under and just expects that someone will help her back up. Scary! It was a wonderful vacation and it was hard to come back home and get back to the real world. We drove 11 hours on Saturday and made it back in time for the kids' bedtime. They were real troopers and did great on the drive home. We all can't wait to get back down to the beach again!