Dad rented a beach house from a friend of his.  I was being a little dramatic and high maintenance because I found out it only had 2 bedrooms.  I just couldnt’ picture how my whole family, plus mom and dad, plus Diana were going to fit.  Oh I was wrong.  Oh so wrong.

We were crammed in, but it was perfect.  The house is on a canal and so it had a dock and a boat (that we didn’t use this time…next time we want to use the boat!).  This vacation was the last hurrah for the summer and also for my maternity leave.  It was the perfect distraction for me.  I got to spend my last weekend off of work playing with and enjoying my family…not worrying about work.  What a HUGE blessing.

Mom and Diana took Alison with them to the beach on Wednesday.  Dad met them there.  Jake, Reed and I joined them on Thursday.  Then Dad left Thursday afternoon for a meeting.  Dad and Randy came back on Friday.  Sheesh.  I’m tired just typing all of that!  The beauty of this weekend was that everyone did whatever they really wanted to do.  We took it easy inside.  We went to the beach.  We cooked together.  We fished.  We napped (well, in theory we napped…with three little kids we didn’t nap as much as I would have liked!)

Favorite moments from the trip…

1. Friday night we were on the dock fishing.  Out of nowhere Reed declares, ‘it’s good to be fishin’  It was hilarious.

2. Reed watched every single boat launch and load back up.  We were 2 houses down from the boat launch and he couldn’t have been any happier.  This boy is OBSESSED with all things trucks and trailers and hauling things and trailer hitches.  You should see his school journal.  Obsessed.  That boy was literally in heaven.

3. Alison named her babies (finally).  She named them Astronaut (pronounced aster-not) and Bonnet.  Man I love that little girl.  She is so spunky and confident in herself.

4. I got to sit on the beach and relax for approximately 4.2 minutes.  Saturday morning we had a lighter crew (see details below) and I was so excited to quietly sit in a chair and read a magazine.  Who the heck was I kidding?  I had Diana and my parents with me.  There’s no way I could keep my mouth shut and read.  I had too much to talk about!!!  Plus I had Alison to play with.

In typical Baldwin fashion, it wouldn’t be a trip/vacation without an injury.  Reed tripped on the dock when he was running to see a boat launch into the canal.  He peeled back the skin on his big toe.  I was so thankful that mom was there.  I could.not.deal.with.the.blood.  Seriously.  I couldn’t look at it.  Just nasty.  Unfortunately this happened on Friday night, so Reed couldn’t go to the beach with us on Saturday morning.  Luckily Randy didn’t want to hit the beach either, so he stayed at the house with Reed and Jake. 

All in all the beach weekend really was the perfect end to the summer and to maternity leave.  Thank you for renting the house Dad.  Can’t wait to do it again next summer when Jake and Rhett can swim in the ocean too!!