4th of July Morning

On our first morning in St Augustine we planned on hitting up the beach 🙂 Kye and Zach went to get our breakfast (they have a little restaurant attached to the hotel that gives two free breakfasts for anyone staying in the hotel…score!) and Britt and I got things ready for the day. I was in and out of the fridge packing up lunch stuff and Britt snatched this bacon and kept running around with it. I let her keep it b/c I knew it would make Zach laugh when he came back, and it totally did 🙂

After breakfast we loaded up and headed to our favorite spot for the beach. I was very, very excited for our family beach time. Both kids are old enough to PLAY and ENJOY it! No dealing with breastmilk, no worries about babies eating sand, just relaxing and enjoying watching them play! 

I know a lot of people are “in the action” types who enjoy DOING. I’m not. I’ve always been more of an observer. I have fun by being able to see those I love have fun. As a mom one of my strengths is planning fun events for my kids to enjoy. I then sit back and savor their smiles! I’m the same way with the beach. Zach, thankfully, is a “doer” and enjoys playing in the sand, running around, and jumping waves. I enjoy watching it all go down and taking lots of pictures of it all! When I take pictures my goal isn’t for them to look professional or to even be frame worthy. I just like to capture the memories with my children and love being able to look at the pics and smile at our fun times together!

All of that being said….here is over 100 pictures from our two hours at the beach haha!

For the first time, Kye decided to boogie board! He LOVED it and Britt totally wanted to get in on the action too 🙂 Zach got a GREAT work out carrying around our kids on top of the boogie board 🙂 Here’s a few videos of the fun: Zach carrying Kye out and waiting for a wave, Kye catching waves, and Britt catching waves!

The entire time we were out there I kept thinking back to last year and how Britt just was as content as could be sitting in my lap the entire time. I said back then that I’d found my beach buddy…well I was wrong. This child goes and goes and goes and LOVES adventure! She did the boogie board, she wanted Zach to carry her far far out into the ocean, she jumped over waves at the shore, she raced back and forth along the beach, she dug in the sand, she played with cars, she did it ALL and never, ever slowed down and never, ever stopped smiling. In fact, I think she’s more of an adventurous spirit than Kye even is! Maybe baby #3 someday will chill with me? 🙂

Zach was on a mission to build a super big sand castle and Britt was happy to help! She kept getting more and more sand to fill the buckets with and Kye took his dump truck to pick up loads of sand too!

Zach took a break from the building haha

Zach doesn’t freak out about much as a parent. His two biggest “freak out” inducers? Choking and sand in the mouth. He was HILARIOUS whenever she ate a little sand. He got all worked up about it and raced to get her some water. I figure God made dirt and dirt don’t hurt, right? 🙂

Stealing my seat for the 2 seconds she actually sat down 🙂

She was in her own little WORLD. Such a funny girl!

Kye really enjoyed the boogie board and also loved playing in the sand. His favorite thing was also probably chasing the waves with Britt. They ran back and forth over and over again. We’d run and scream when the waves came close and run away then turn around and run right back! 

Muscles!

Majority of the time I have the camera but I do like to play with the kids a bit too. It may not be my favorite thing in the world, but I want them to have fun memories with Mommy interacting with them and not just always being with Daddy! I took over as the “fun parent” for a bit while Zach rested and decided to take over the picture taking. Now you see why I’m not IN many pictures…the hubby doesn’t take very flattering ones of me haha!!! You should have seen the ones I deleted…like zoomed SUPER far in on my body…typical man!

He also takes RANDOM pictures of complete strangers!

Zach’s favorite camera feature…

I love the bond that Kye and Britt share and it was SUCH a joy to get to see them play together this year at the beach. Last year Britt was just a tiny baby!!! Now she’s running around with her big brother, copying everything he does. He loves the attention from her and loves to be “the boss” with her too. They were PRECIOUS together and I pray they always stay such good friends!

Lunch time!!!

“Who loves lunch at the beach?” MEEEEE

Crazy faces 😉

After lunch we packed it up to head back to the room and swim for a bit and unwind before naps. We had SUCH a wonderful morning! Whenever we visit St Augustine Zach and I both get super mega crunk about our dream of owning a beach house someday. It def keeps us focused on our financial goals and to snowball the Dave Ramsey plan so we can reach that beach house goal. I would love to be able to escape for a quick beach trip whenever we wanted!!!