After a good nap, Lydia and I decided to head over to the park. (Les was still sleeping…)

We had so much fun swinging…

swinging some more…

chasing butterflies…

walking on the dock…

where we found some starfish!

Then it was time to head to the beach again!

Lydia’s favorite thing was to play in the sand and find shells. She filled up her whole nature-catcher with shells!

Then we just played & hung out with our family.

Let’s go! It’s dinner time!

We went to a yummy steak/seafood restaurant. Les and I split the fried seafood platter. We ate some a lot most of it!

But Lydia had broccolli!

Lydia’s favorite part was looking with Judah at the big fish in the aquarium!

day 3. coming sometime…

We started off the day in our little trailer eating oatmeal (‘cereal’ Lydia says). She was so excited. She wanted to sit in her booster chair. She got to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while we were eating. It doesn’t get much better than that for her!

We got dressed and ready to go but stopped long enough to pose in front of our trailer.

Then drove our golf cart to see if the rest of the fam was up. And they were! Lydia and Bryar got a little ball time in.

We got to the beach and Les took Lydia down. This was the closest she got all weekend. She ended up being terrified of the water. So, that called for some fun times of her clinging to me for hours at a time.

Progression of fear…

Hi Daddy!

Lydia, isn’t it nice? Let’s get in the water now.

WAAAAHHHHH! Up! Up! Up!

After an introduction to water and waves, we did what kids do best–play in the sand!

Judah, showing the girls how it’s done.

I decided to make sea turtles and a few starfish! Free hand, of course.

Here come Grammy and Bryar Rose!

Bryar is one serious digger.

After awhile we all decided to get comfortable in the beach chairs. Here’s Lydia loving a pink chair!

Grammy & Bryar waving to everyone in the water.

Grammy & Grandpa.

And Judah.

Later on, Lydia & Bryar decide to take a walk down the beach while Grammy watches.

On the way back to our beach home for lunch, we stopped by the pool! Lydia loves to wear her “armies”.

But we didn’t do much swimming because it was so cold! What am I talking about? I didn’t do any swimming! One look at Scott’s face and there was no way I was jumping in!

Judah is a tough guy, so he didn’t mind!

I think Lydia was holding on to Grandpa to keep warm! Her little lips were blue and she was shivering!

Uncle Scott trying to get a smile out of Lydia.

Daddy & Lydia decide to test out the kiddie pool. Yep. Still freezing.

Finally, we gave up on the pool, wrapped up in a beach towel and it was off to the trailer for a nap!

day 2 part 2 coming soon…i hope…

We set off about 9am. We stopped by quickly to pick up Les’ mom. She wanted to ride with us so she could get there before the rest of the crew who were coming after church. I guess I packed my camera away because I didn’t take any pictures till we actually got there. But nothing exciting happened on the way down there–just a quick stop at Sonic for a cherry limeade and lunch.

When we got to our beach house, I was impressed! I remember we had these little places in Orlando, too. It’s kind of like a trailer park, only a lot cuter. People own these little places then rent them out when they aren’t home. I guess it’s mostly snowbirds who use them during the winter and fly home for the summer. Anyway, Les, Lydia and I had our own 2 bedroom place while everyone else was in a 3 bedroom trailer. They were both very nice and furnished with everything we needed! (Well, we actually did run out of toilet paper on day 3…)

Anyway, to be a true member of this new community you had to have a golf cart! Lydia thought this was the best thing ever. We weren’t even moving and she was giddy!

And now, one of the 3 of us. It’s sweet, even if I do look weird.

We headed off to the grocery store to get food for the next few days. That took about 3000 times longer than it should have. But that’s what happens when you’re buying for 9 people. Lydia was starving and kept asking for milk. We finally got her back to the il’s room to eat and who shows up? The rest of the crew. Oh well. I guess she wasn’t as hungry as she was excited to see them. They played for awhile and then we whisked Lydia off to bed to get some rest for our big day in the sun!

(stay tuned for day 2: the beach, the water and the sand. pretty exciting, huh?)