{"id":2770,"date":"2013-08-27T15:57:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-27T15:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.randybaldwin.com\/family\/?p=2770"},"modified":"2014-02-07T04:00:11","modified_gmt":"2014-02-07T04:00:11","slug":"the-beach-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.randybaldwin.com\/family\/2013\/08\/the-beach-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beach 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_2299\"<\/a>Dad rented a beach house from a friend of his.\u00a0 I was being a little dramatic and high maintenance because I found out it only had 2 bedrooms.\u00a0 I just couldnt’ picture how my whole family, plus mom and dad, plus Diana were going to fit.\u00a0 Oh I was wrong.\u00a0 Oh so wrong.<\/p>\n

We were crammed in, but it was perfect.\u00a0 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!).\u00a0 This vacation was the last hurrah for the summer and also for my maternity leave.\u00a0 It was the perfect distraction for me.\u00a0 I got to spend my last weekend off of work playing with and enjoying my family…not worrying about work.\u00a0 What a HUGE blessing.<\/p>\n

Mom and Diana took Alison with them to the beach on Wednesday.\u00a0 Dad met them there.\u00a0 Jake, Reed and I joined them on Thursday.\u00a0 Then Dad left Thursday afternoon for a meeting.\u00a0 Dad and Randy came back on Friday.\u00a0 Sheesh.\u00a0 I’m tired just typing all of that!\u00a0 The beauty of this weekend was that everyone did whatever they really wanted to do.\u00a0 We took it easy inside.\u00a0 We went to the beach.\u00a0 We cooked together.\u00a0 We fished.\u00a0 We napped (well, in theory we napped…with three little kids we didn’t nap as much as I would have liked!)<\/p>\n

Favorite moments from the trip…<\/p>\n

1. Friday night we were on the dock fishing.\u00a0 Out of nowhere Reed declares, ‘it’s good to be fishin’\u00a0 It was hilarious.<\/p>\n

2. Reed watched every single boat launch and load back up.\u00a0 We were 2 houses down from the boat launch and he couldn’t have been any happier.\u00a0 This boy is OBSESSED with all things trucks and trailers and hauling things and trailer hitches.\u00a0 You should see his school journal.\u00a0 Obsessed.\u00a0 That boy was literally in heaven.<\/p>\n

3. Alison named her babies (finally).\u00a0 She named them Astronaut (pronounced aster-not) and Bonnet.\u00a0 Man I love that little girl.\u00a0 She is so spunky and confident in herself.<\/p>\n

4. I got to sit on the beach and relax for approximately\u00a04.2 minutes.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Who the heck was I kidding?\u00a0 I had Diana and my parents with me.\u00a0 There’s no way I could keep my mouth shut and read.\u00a0 I had too much to talk about!!!\u00a0 Plus I had Alison to play with.<\/p>\n

In typical Baldwin fashion, it wouldn’t be a trip\/vacation without an injury.\u00a0 Reed tripped on the dock when he was running to see a boat launch into the canal.\u00a0 He peeled back the skin on his big toe.\u00a0 I was so thankful that mom was there.\u00a0 I could.not.deal.with.the.blood.\u00a0 Seriously.\u00a0 I couldn’t look at it.\u00a0 Just nasty.\u00a0 Unfortunately this happened on Friday night, so Reed couldn’t go to the beach with us on Saturday morning.\u00a0 Luckily Randy didn’t want to hit the beach either, so he stayed at the house with Reed and Jake.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All in all the beach weekend really was the perfect end to the summer and to maternity leave.\u00a0 Thank you for renting the house Dad.\u00a0 Can’t wait to do it again next summer when Jake and Rhett can swim in the ocean too!!<\/p>\n