Our Adventures in St. Simons-Days 1 to 3

Every year since the mid 80's, our family has gone to St. Simons Island.  My grandparents have a beach house here and we have been blessed to get to stay in it.  We left on Saturday for annual family trip.  Our goal was to leave as early as possible, but with 7 people that is easier said than done.  We didn't leave Atlanta till around 1:30 pm.  We decided to take 2 cars to the beach partly because Nathan and Cooper go out and I wanted a car and also because we have so much stuff, we can't fit it in one car.  We divided the children up-Nathan had Kindle, Grant and Celeste in his car and I had Cooper and Gunnar in my car.

We made it to Macon where I needed to feed the baby and take a very much needed Starbucks break-Caramel Frappucino mmm...   As I was nursing, Nathan noticed his Durango was running hot.  He turned the car off and checked the radiator fluid and discovered there was none in the reservoir.  Not good!  So we piled the kids into the front seat of my car and waited while he ran across the street to the Kmart to get some.  I am thanking God that we stopped at an exit with lots of stores.  We added the radiator fluid and I went in for a 2nd round of Starbucks-Shaken Iced Tea Lemonade mmm... (I guess this would be a good time to mention that I was up packing for the trip until 2:30 am so I was super tired.)  Finally, we were on the road again.  It was now after 5 pm and we still had a LONG way to go.

Gunnar did sleep a good portion of the trip (Thank you Lord!)  Celeste took a 30 minute cat nap until she was awoken by her sister rubbing her blanket on her face.  Ugh!  Luckily, everyone was so excited to be going to the beach, they did a good job even with no naps.

Thankfully, the Durango was driving fine and we made it to St. Simons around 10 pm.  The trip typically takes us between 5 1/2 to 6 hours.  We made it in a record 8 1/2 hours.  Yikes!  Nathan and I unloaded the car and managed to get the kiddos in bed around 11:30 pm.  I decided it would be easier to unpack everything minus children so I stayed up once again until 2:30 am.

Every Mom's hope is that if your kids go to bed late, they will sleep in late...and then there is reality.  The children woke up at 6:45 am.  I just looked at them and said "I don't think so" and sent them back to sleep a bit more.  Thankfully Nathan got up with them a little while later and let me sleep in till 9 am.  Woohoo!  We went out to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Spanky's.  I love their crab stew and shrimp quesadilla.  We got several comments from people in the restaurant about how well behaved and sweet our children were.  That is always nice!  The highlight for the kids was getting to see the shrimping boat docked by the restaurant.  They also love the fish tanks inside of the restaurant.  After lunch, we headed to Harris Teeter for some groceries.  Then, we came home for nap time.  After dinner, we went to Target.  The kids got to pick out a toy that they had earned with their money from doing their jobs last month.  Despite the fact that I asked them to think of what they would want ahead of time, it still took them forever to decide.  Unfortunately, I think they inherited that from me, but that is another blog for another day :)  We finished the day off at my favorite, TCBY!  White Chocolate Mousse with gummy bears yummy!  Once we arrived home and got the kids to bed, I crashed around 10 pm.

This morning, Nathan and Cooper went for a bike ride around the island.  They stopped for breakfast at the "WH" as Cooper calls it (Waffle House).  We had decided to go to the beach after they got back.  We got all packed up and headed there.  I was very excited to use the new gadgets we got to make vacation better (see previous post here).   I got Gunnar happily situated in the Gypsy Water Wrap and was able to take some shots while we headed down to the ocean.

The blue bag in Nathan's left hand is the tent & in his right hand is the Wonder Wheeler with chairs.

We had several comments, "Are they all yours?", "Wow, you must have your hands full!", etc. but they followed it up with how well behaved they all were so that was nice :)  Once we picked our spot on the beach, Nathan proceeded to set up the tent.  For whatever reason, the tent did not come with instructions so we were just trying to do the best we could.  The older 4 dug in the sand while Nathan and I (with Gunnar in his wrap) attempted to set it up.  Things were not going too well because it was so windy and the top of the tent was like a sail and blowing everywhere.  Luckily, 3 nice ladies saw that we had no clue what we were doing and came over to help us.  They all owned one themselves and gave us tips on how to set it up.  With their assistance, we got it up quickly.

They also told us the key is to leave the top on it when you store it so it will be a lot easier next time.  I am very grateful that these ladies were around!

Cooper decided he wanted to be buried in the sand, so Nathan and the other kids assisted him in his endeavor.

After digging in the sand a bit more, we all went down to the ocean.  It felt really nice and it was low tide so they could "swim" around.

I am happy to say that Gunnar did excellent in the Water Wrap.  I had him completely covered so he didn't even need sunscreen.

After playing in the water for a while, we came back and played in the sand a bit more while under the shade of the tent.  It was so nice and well worth all of the "issues" trying to put it up.

Gunnar woke up long enough to get a couple of photos of his first trip to the beach.

Taking the tent down was a lot easier.  Nathan and I both feel confident that set up will go a lot smoother in future.

We got a late lunch at the yummy BBQ restaurant.  Then, we headed home for naps.  This evening, we watched a movie together and relaxed.

We discovered that I did not do a good job of putting sunscreen on Nathan's back.  We bought the spray kind of sunscreen that you don't have to rub in.  Apparently, when I thought I was spraying his back, the wind must have blown it away.  He now is a bit burnt :(  I feel bad because he did a great job on my back.

We have had a great few days with lots of adventures.  I can't wait to see what will happen next!