Summer Beach Trip 2012, Part IV

So, we left off the last post with Friday night of our vacation (er, trip).  Saturday morning we had to wake up way too early.  Gary and I had a seminar to attend at 8am, so Auntie Ann and her mom came over to watch the kids (seriously, how lucky are we?).  This time, Auntie Ann and her mom took the kids to the pool, which was again a big hit.  Penelope continued to love the pool, and this time she didn’t even want Auntie Ann or her mom to touch her while she was swimming. 

After our seminar, Gary and I arrived at the condo to find that all four kids, Auntie Ann, and her mom were all bathed/showered and dressed.  We all went to lunch at Stinky’s Fish Camp, which is Gary’s favorite restaurant at the beach.  It was great.  We followed that up with naps, then dinner at McGuire’s.  That dinner was a little crazy – Penelope spilled TWO cups of water on me.  I was wearing jeans, so I felt yucky the whole dinner.  But the kids had a blast, and there was someone walking around making balloon animals for the kids.  That was a huge hit, and we left with a butterfly and two bugs. 

During dinner, a lady stopped to let us know that she and her husband had been watching us during dinner, and that they had 4 children who were very close in age.  She said that as they were watching us, they wondered how they made it.  You know, while we’re in the middle of it, it never seems that bad, but sometimes afterwards Gary and I have that feeling.  For instance, the newborn days – well, actually the first 6 months – with the big kids.  It was hard.  Looking back on it, I have no idea how we survived.  But we did, and it wasn’t bad while we were doing it.  Anyway, our conversation with her made me wonder how this time in our lives is going to seem years down the road. . . .  The good thing is that we are enjoying it now, even if later we look back and wonder how we made it. 

Sunday was our last full day at the beach.  The weather left a little to be desired.  We’d had a lot of rain the entire trip, and Sunday was promising to be the heaviest rain day.  We didn’t want to go to the pool or beach where getting out of the rain would take too much time, so instead we decided to go play miniature golf.  The kids had been talking about all the golf courses they were seeing at the beach, and they were thrilled at the chance to participate. 

I think that Gary had some grand hopes of teaching the kids a bit of some of the basics of golf etiquette on the miniature golf course . . .

. . . but there was very little etiquette gong on.

They did have fun, though, and Henry especially got really excited whenever he got the ball in the hole.

It was really fun.  After we played miniature golf, there were some kiddie rides that the big kids were able to enjoy.  We tried to get Penelope to hop on the rides, but all she would agree to do is to ride on a carousel.

Fun times!!

{ to be continued . . . }