Those were happy memories but my aunt and uncle sold their place a long time ago and moved to Houston and we haven't been back, that is until last weekend when we went back with our neighbors for 4 days. We were looking for somewhere close for a couple days that had a pool and beach and this was the perfect place. We had a 3 bedroom condo on the beach with a small community pool.
As I have mentioned before, Ella likes to do things on her own time when she is ready and that was no exception when it came to the pool and beach. She usually loves the pool and loves playing in the blow up ones but it has been since Christmas when she was in a real one and that one was heated and indoors so almost a year since she has been in an outdoor one and she wasn't too sure in the beginning. She was very happy sitting on the steps playing with her toys.
And then getting a little more brave trying the next step, with a secure hand on Tracey of course.
And once she decided she was ready, she was off. She would climb to the second step and leap off into Mike's arms. (I have it on video and will post that later.)
She learned this pool thing can be fun. We tried using the arm floaties but she decided she is not ready for those yet and quickly pulled them off. She stills prefers to swim with mom and dads safe arms around her. We start swim lessons again at the Y in a couple weeks so I am hoping after that maybe she will try swimming on her own with the swimmies.
When there are 5 little girls all under the age of 4, there is some loud craziness going on for sure and some girly girl time. Ella had her first experience with wearing princess heels this weekend. Wesley is a pro at wearing with big sister Addie loving all things princess and they even had a stage perform on with the fancy shoes.
We did have some beach time as well but just like the pool, Ella had to ease into it. Ella and Wesley were very content just shoveling sand into the bucket.
She actually did better than I thought about keeping her hat on. She can take it off herself but she kept it on a pretty long time. But I wish she would keep some sunglasses but she is fine with just squinting.
She never loved going into the water herself but she did love it when Mike or I would take her in and "bounce" in the waves and splash it. The water was perfect temperature, not too cold and not too hot.
Who needs to play in the ocean when you have Froot Loops??
After some naps for the little ones, we decided to have an early birthday celebration for Wesley. She doesn't turn 2 until July 3rd but they will be away visiting family on her birthday so we decided to celebrate at the beach.
It is always a safe bet when it comes to chocolate frosting to just eat it in a diaper and not ruin any clothes. I don't even know why we have the cake for the kids, we should just scoop some frosting on a plate and they would be happy.
Happy early Birthday to our Best Buddy! Can't believe this little ones are going to be 2 already.
I think this is the only time all weekend we could get them all sitting and eating quietly at the table. The power of sugar.
Check out the nice view from the balcony. Ella and Allie are giving each other a hug. Ella loves giving everyone lots of hugs.
Family pic. Ella and Daddy both sporting their Vineyard Vines!
After dinner and dessert, the girls would all have movie night. Ella loved it and now every night, she ask for movie movie???
Like I said, she loves to give hugs. Before each nap time and bedtime, she would have to go around and give each of the girls and Jaime and Tracey a big hug. She gives some good hugs.
Trying to get all the girls still still and pose for a picture is no small feat. Here are four of them minus Wesley. They look like they could all be sisters or cousins.
Our attempt to get all of them, not sure what Ella is doing but I think she is trying to pick up her monkey.
Our final night, we all went out to dinner at an amazing seafood restaurant. I enjoyed some of the best shrimp and grits and Mike got some lobster. Earlier in the week, all of the girls had gotten together to make the Dads a special short for Father's Day. We gave them the shirts at dinner.
They had a great deck that was perfect for the kids to run around once they got antsy sitting at the table.
It was pretty hot and humid and check out Ella's curls! I have never seen her hair curl so much and it was the cutest thing. I love seeing her sweet curls. Last summer she was still pretty bald so this is the first time we have seen her beach hair!
Adam and Mike sporting their new shirts. It is an outline of the Dad's shoes and then Ella's footprint inside and says "Hope to fill your shoes one day." On the back, we just let them paint freely. Ella had the best time painting, using all the different colors.
On this hot night, a popsicle sounds good to me.
Ella and Wesley learned a new trick on this trip, how to cheers with their drinks. They liked to cheers their sippy cups and juice boxes and even their popsicles.
And then we even give our best buddy a taste of our own popsicle.
Whenever you have 5 kiddos in a house, it is a loud and there is not a lot of sleep happening but it was definitely a trip with lots of fun and lasting memories. We are so lucky to have such great friends where all the kids and adults get along so well. And Wild Dunes was just a special as I remembered from all those years ago.
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