Vacation Day 2

Beach day 2 looked a lot like day 1. Here are more of the same pictures:

Matthew decided to join Caroline in her "waves are gonna getcha" game

Caroline repeatedly threw her arms up and yelled, at the top of her lungs, "I love the beach"

The pretty seagulls...Caroline called them woodpeckers the whole time

My two favorite dudes!!

Another long nap, ahhhhhhh

The picture below is Caroline telling me that I may NOT build sandcastles with her :-( She told me I was messing up her perfect castle (when all I was trying to do was teach her how to build one!)

So while Little Miss Independent built her own sand castles...Matt read his book, Matthew slept, and I took pics, swam in the ocean and read my own book. It was quite nice actually :-)

My attempt at some sibling pics:

This pic makes me laugh...they are making the exact same squinty-facial expression. Can you tell they're related??

"Matthew, Matthew, put down that sand right now! Do you hear me?? Matthew! Put down that sand!"

My loves:

Please excuse the huge glob little bit of drool on Matthew's chin

Our fam...smiles all around!

Vacation Day 1

We just returned from our first trip as a family of four! It was a mini-vacay...we drove to Alabama to stay with/visit my aunt (and her sweet fam!) for a few days and take the kids to Orange Beach. Matt and I decided to do this trip very last minute and were excited but nervous too. We didn't know how a 9 hour car drive would go with both kids. But they did great! Caroline watched movies the whole time and Matthew slept a lot, ate (I just crawled in the back seat and fed him when he was hungry) and played in his car seat. We only stopped once on the way there and once on the way home...pretty good!
The first day we were there, we headed to Orange Beach. Caroline was very excited. She has been asking to go to the beach to "play in the sand" for a long time. This was her second trip to the beach but the first one she might remember (she was only 5 months old on her first trip). Of course, it was Matthew's first time at the beach. They both loved it and are complete beach bums...which is good because so are their parents :-) It was beautiful weather albeit HOT. But with lots of shade from our tent (thanks, Mimi and PopPop) and the nice ocean breeze, the heat was bearable. Here are way too many pictures from our first day at the beach:

Who's that little ole' man sitting on the beach? ;-)

Can you find Matthew?

Thumbs up for the beach!

Squirt gun fight!

Matt, swimming in the ocean. I was too scared to join him for very long the first day. Those waves were big!

 Some cuddle time with my sweet boy. He was so relaxed!

 Playing in the sand together. Matthew loved picking up the sand and dropping it.

 Watching the ocean in amazement:

 Such a happy boy.

 And an excited, goofy girl!

 Walkin' on the beach with daddy to find sea shells:

 The sound of the waves were the perfect sound machine. Matthew took a 2 hour nap:

 Loungin'

 Running to the water to play our favorite game...

..."the waves are gonna getcha"

More to come on beach day 2!