Beach Trip 2016

Another year headed to Daytona Beach.

 Kylie's face does not show the excitement we all get for this trip:-)

If you know us, it is NEVER easy getting to our condo. 

The plan was for Ryan and Nanny to drive 3 kids and Craig and Tina to drive 2 kids to go on to the beach while me, mom and dad go to Walmart to get our groceries that I ordered online. We flew into Jacksonville which is 1.5 hours from Daytona Beach. Well, our cars were plenty big but the luggage always takes up more room than I remember. 

Here is our car that was full of luggage and now FULL with groceries too.  

Well, the car full was not the problem. We are driving down the interstate when this metal piece flies off another car and dad can't miss it and runs over it. About 30 seconds later, a car comes up beside us blaring his horn telling us to pull over. I'm thinking "Great, we have a flat tire!" so dad pulls over on the interstate. I open the door since I'm on the grass side and I immediately smell a strong gas smell. Dad says "Get in, we've got the get to the next exit". Thankfully the next exit was 1 mile away. Cars continue to blow their horn at us to get over because our gas tank is BUSTED. Ugh! 

We get to a gas station safely and the whole entire gas tank emptied right behind the car all over the road. Gas was everywhere. 

The next few hours were spent on the phone with the insurance company while we wait for Craig to come pick us up because our rental has to be towed. Well, that seemed like a great idea until I remembered that we had to unload all of our luggage and weeks worth of groceries plus squeeze 4 adults in a tiny jeep cherokee. Memories, right?!!!

I rode on the console the remaining 30 minute drive.

We were all exhausted after Saturday.

The only family picture we got but it's a great one. Nanny rode a bike on the beach with all of us one morning. She did great especially for being 91!

Ryan, Craig and Nanny played Rummy at least 3 hours a day. 

I think Nanny held her own and beat them a lot!  

Beach Trip Continues

Our most favorite time of the year is a tie between Christmas and the beach trip. It is such a relaxing trip and so much fun just watching the kids.

 Ryan riding the waves with the kids.

 Sawyer learned how to swim this summer so it was super nice not having to worry so much this year about someone needing floaties.

 If you've never gone ghost crab hunting, you should! I'm not sure how we have been to the beach for 30+ years and never done this before. The videos I took were hilarious of the kids and adults screaming and running after these fast little things. Ghost crabs come out at night from their holes that are near the condos and go to the ocean to wet their gills. They are really hard to see and super fast. The first night Reed was the main one catching them but Charley caught up.

 The second night Braden wasn't so apprehensive, but Kylie and Sawyer might have to wait until next year to catch theirs. 

 The second night we found some big ones that we were even a little afraid to let the kids try to pick up. This guy was mean and kept climbing out of the bucket. 

 Sawyer and Kylie searching for shells which lead to them finding a baby sea turtle all by himself. We told the girls not the touch him and he got washed up on the beach and was not strong enough to get back in the ocean. Tina told a life guard and she came and got the turtle with a bucket to take to the Marine Hospital where they will keep him to get bigger and release in the spring. Apparently they do this all of the time!

The lifeguard let the girls hold the turtle with a glove so that 

the oils from their skin would not damage the turtle.

 This was the first night of attempting a photo shoot but it did not yield any good pics:-) 

It started raining in the middle of trying to get pictures. Oh well, we tried again another night!

 We were blessed with great weather another year. It rained for a short 30 minutes one day but that was all. The ocean was still where the kids loved to be as long as their new friends they met weren't at the pool.

The few times you will catch Craig in shorts!