A First for Me!

     Today (Monday) Mark made a big breakfast for everyone so we'd be full and last a long time at the beach.  We had home fries, eggs, toast, and bacon.  I think the baby and I ate more than our fair share!  After breakfast, everyone got ready and we headed for the beach.  The weather said it would be a high of 70, partly cloudy.  Weeeeeelllll, the wind was HOWLING and the sun was no where in sight, so for me, IT WAS COLD!  Truth be told, it wasn't bad at all, but I've NEVER been to the beach when it wasn't hot.  It was a first.  It was so unnatural for me.  But I thought, it's better to be cold and at the beach than not at the beach at all!
     We placed our chairs beside a pool of a local condo compound and that helped block some of the wind.  The children had a really great time digging in the sand and just playing outside in general.  Emma and Sam even found some jellyfish down the shore.  About lunchtime however, the troops were cold and getting hungry, so we came back to the beach house (which was only a few blocks away) and had a simple lunch.  We had decided that it'd be best if the two younger children napped today since they didn't much yesterday.  So Alyssa went to bed & not long after, Mark took Marcus to bed as well. 
     Within a few minutes, I knew Mark had fallen asleep with Marcus, Lisa went for a quick stroll around the block and Greg took the two older children out to the pier to go fishing.  I stayed back with Marcus and Alyssa for when they woke up.  Soon after, Alyssa did but wasn't cranky in the least bit.  Picture this scene with me:  Both my boys were resting, I was sitting comfortably on a couch in a beach home, holding a precious baby girl (who, by the way, fell back asleep on my shoulder, and I LOVED it), AAAAAND I was watching Braves Spring Training. All was perfect in my little world at that point and I would've been ok if time just stopped.  But it didn't and that's ok.  I still enjoyed every minute of it. 
     Everyone eventually woke up and returned and we were excited to hear that Emma caught a fish!  Apparently she's quite the patient little fisher-girl.  When we were all back, Mark and I left to pick up pizza.  We returned to quite a hungry bunch of people and we all SCARFED it down.
      Our evening ended with the children playing.  Can I just tell you?  It was goodness to my heart to see Marcus playing with his cousins.  Emma and Sam are SO GOOD with him and he has a lot of learning to do regarding sharing and dealing with smaller children, however, he enjoyed himself so much.  After Alyssa went to bed, the older three wrestled with Uncle Mark and tuckered themselves out.  It was a fun way to end the evening and ultimately our mini-vacation with them. 
     We are SO THANKFUL that Greg, Lisa, and the children met us in Charleston and we got to see them.  There's NOTHING like spending time with family, even if it is only for a short amount of time.  I'm especially grateful because, with the baby coming in June, we won't be making it up to Canada this summer, and I'm not sure when we'll see them again.  Nonetheless, good times were had by all.

He loved this shovel so much!

Building sand castles with Daddy.

Cutie pies.

Here's our crew.

Mark dug a hole & Marcus thought it was great.

And so did she. :)

The older two weren't going to be outdone & dug a REALLY big one.

"Ahh!  This is the life!"

We tried to get a cousins shot, but the younger two weren't having it.

Fishing on the pier.

Pizza time!  (note: one precious little boy was straight up hiding from me when I was taking the picture)

Wrestling with Uncle Mark (not sure who had more fun)