In addition to finding pennies in my couch (and everywhere else in my house!) I also find gloves in every nook and cranny, as Dave uses them constantly at work and usually ends up bringing some home by mistake. So I wasn't that surprised when I poked my head into the backseat and saw that Jack had found one and was using it to entertain himself on the drive up!
First things first, when we got to the beach we set up camp- the boys had way too much fun playing in Auntie Mimi and Uncle Scott's massive tent!
After we set up camp we explored the campgrounds and the beach and played some frisbee!
After our walk we came back and had dinner and then we went back out onto the beach to play on the lifeguard tower and toss around the football- which Jack thoroughly enjoyed! He actually did pretty well, too! I laughed so hard, though, when we were done and Jack turned to Dave and said "Daddy, did you know that we were playing 'Go Irish!'?" He sure knows his daddy's favorite team... but the funny part was that grandpa and Uncle Scott would have taken exception to that because I am sure that from their point of view they were playing 'Go Trojans!' Sam wasn't really interested in the football, but he did enjoy fighting the iceplant with his light saber!
When it got too cold to play on the beach any longer we headed back to camp and got our jammies on while Uncle Scott built up a fire- and he made us s'mores! The boys played with some glowsticks and Jack played with grandpa's headlamp until it was time to go to bed.
Bedtime went really well... Dave and I slept on the air-mattress and I laid out a bunch of blankets for the boys to lay on. They fell asleep just fine and slept well until about midnight, when a train went by, blaring his horn loudly and repeatedly the whole time! Entirely unnecessary if you ask me. Sam woke up and started screaming and crying... I couldn't get him to lay back down without freaking out, so I ended up zipping him up in my sleeping bag with me! There was very little room in there with the two of us, and Sam is a wiggly sleeper so I got very little sleep! At 4am I managed to get up and out of the tent without waking him up, but when I got back from my bathroom break he was all splayed out on my sleeping bag and I did not want to risk waking him up again so I decided to sleep on the blankets I had lain out for him... except that Jack had played out on top of those! In order to avoid waking anyone up, I ended up curling up into a little ball in the tiny little area that Jack wasn't splayed on. I slept there until about 6 when Dave got up- then 10 minutes later Sam woke up so I climbed back onto the mattress to snuggle him and try to get him back to sleep so that he didn't wake Jack up. That didn't work- Jack woke up shortly after and the three of us laid on the air mattress until Dave got back from his run. When he got back he was really sweet and took the boys for a walk to a playground he saw on his run so that I could get a little more sleep... I was so tired, and I knew that I had packed extra PJs because the boys would get dirty, so I just send them to play in their jammies and went to sleep!
When I got up I found some very dirty little boys with even dirtier pajamas! They were anxious to go play on the beach, so as quickly as we could we got them dressed in their swim clothes and headed to the beach! Uncle Scott had brought water guns and kites, and Jack was very anxious to get to play with them!
We had such a great time! It was my favorite trip to the beach in a very long time since we were all able to enjoy it together. Unfortunately Dave had only been able to take the first 12 hours of his shift off, so he had to go back to work that afternoon for the second 12 hours of his shift. I was a little nervous for how I'd be able to manage without him- I am very used to doing things by myself with the boys but camping with kids without daddy would be a new experience- but we managed everything better than I had hoped for! Even breaking down camp with the boys was much easier to do than I thought it would be!
Just a few more pictures...
I had to get a shot of this sign. Every time we went to the bathroom or shower Sam would point at it and say "It Darth Vader!" Cracked me up!
My dirty, but happy, kid! He was standing on the bench because he heard the train approaching and he wanted to get a good last view of it before we left
The train that very rudely woke us up that first night and periodically came through camp, much to the delight of the boys:
