A Little Fun Family Outing

We decided to take a quick outing to the aquarium.  I thought Jackson would be a bit more intrigued with the fish than he was, but it was still fun to get away as a family.  We haven't been since I was about 20 months pregnant with Jackson so it was fun to go back.

Day Four - Beach!

So I had planned to take the kids to another museum today but when we went outside it was so pretty, I decided to try the beach by myself.  Elli promised to be my big helper and she did great!  We got there about 9:30 and it wasn't crowded at all. We played in the water, searched for shells, and did a lot of digging.  Jackson was really cranky by 10:45 (I think he is more like his Daddy and doesn't really like the beach) so we had to go. I think Elli and I would have stayed all day.  We came back and hit up the hotel pool for a few minutes.  It was a fun morning and showed me I really can do anything with the kids. Elli has been super responsible and helpful so we are able to get out there and explore. I'm sad today is our last day of vacation.  It has been nice trying out new things and spending down time with Jacob when he comes home from work. All in all, I'm really glad we did this!

 We do some ocean work every night while Jackson settles down.  Last night we did gold fish counting and measuring with gold fish.

Ocean Trip!

So we made it!  An eight hour trip took ten hours but that's ok.  We had two good stops to get out and stretch our legs.  I mean, it wasn't like a big ball of fun or anything, but we made it here to Jacksonville Florida.  This first day Jacob has been hanging with us and he'll start working tomorrow so that will change things a bit.  Everyone (including Mommy) was cranky this morning with a lack of good sleep but after naps, things turned around a bit.  It hasn't been "smooth sailing" (you know I'm all about honesty) but I think we will be glad we did this together.  Here are some photos from our first day.

Trying out the hotel pool.  This went quite well as Jackson really liked his float!

Of course then Elli had to use the float

Ocean size sorting...

Counting out spikes for our sea urchins

These pictures capture the first time we have ever really been to the beach to play.  Let me tell you - it was a hit!  Jackson did JUST what I thought he would do, sit in the sand and dig.  Elli did just what I thought she would do, run around like a crazy person.

What could be better?  An entire beach to dig dig dig!

Jumping the waves