To the Beach and Back

Friends! It's been so long. Sorry for the absence, but Violet and I have been bumming it at the beach. If you follow me on FB, or Twitter, or Instagram, you probably know this by now. We've just returned, full of sun and sand (and a bit of an attitude that I'm hoping will straighten itself out).

Each year my neighbors have a tradition of packing up the kids, throwing them in the car on the first week after school lets out, and heading to Florida. Last year was my first time tagging along, and it was so much fun that I decided to try it again. Alas, this time the dads had to stay behind to win the bread, but us three moms bravely wrestled our five kids for the trip. And we've been patting ourselves on the back because this year, we wised up and brought along our secret weapon - a babysitter. Yep, we tricked begged asked our favorite neighborhood babysitter S. to tag along and she nervously happily agreed to the adventure.

The beach crew and our saintly sitter. (Don't let those angelic faces fool you.)

Our party of five. Showing their true colors. (Their true colors are apparently varying shades of pasty white.) Oh Violet, falling prey to peer pressure already.

Ready for the beach!

Once again we stayed at the lovely resort RV park (ignoring your snarky looks of superiority and/or your gasps of mild repulsion). It's cheap and it works for us. It's actually rather quite nice in that quaint, rustic campground kind of way. We were spread out between three units, but we all congregated for meals and downtime. Our Super Sitter even corralled all the kiddos one night so us ladies could have a night on the town! A night that consisted of a beer and nachos, but a night out nonetheless! Which was pretty much the only downtime we had, as a trip with five kids to the beach goes something like this:

Wake up (in Violet's case, at 7 a.m.)
Hope that Kim walks over with a cup of coffee (we left the coffee pot in her unit and were at her mercy).
Feed everyone breakfast, clean up.
Immediately give the kids a snack.
Dress and sunscreen everyone.
Haul massive amounts of gear to the beach, haul selves to the beach, set up.
Give the kids a snack.
Watch with grateful tears in eyes as Super Sitter takes over beach duties.
Feed everyone lunch, reapply sunscreen, give the kids a snack.
Eventually, haul everything home, possibly stopping at the pool on the way.
Unsuccessfully attempt to get Violet to nap.
Try to keep kids from snacking as one of us tackles dinner (we each had a night).
Feed everyone, clean up.
Give the kids another flippin' snack.
Bath, pajamas, attempt bedtime.
Crawl into the shower after Violet finally falls asleep 2-3 hours past her usual bedtime.
Insert a hearty sprinkling of whining, fighting, laughter and Finding Nemo throughout the day.
Repeat for four days.

Could. Not. Be. Cuter.

The big blue sea. Just you and me.

Snack break no. 647.

Violet's innocent attempt to feed a bird a cheeto turned into a creepy seagull stalking scenario.