Ribbons and Bows...and little boy stuff too!: Our first family beach trip!

Well....after many years, we've finally taken our first family beach trip! Allie has been to the beach lots of times with Granny, but Will's only trip to the beach was to Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii when he was 9 weeks old (not too shabby! But, he was due for his first "real" beach trip). So, we decided that it was time for us to attempt to take both kids on a beach trip...albeit a short, 3-day trip connected to a genetics meeting, but a beach trip none-the-less! And, we had to take our favorite PA babysitter, Ms. Amanda, along with us to help out!

Now, a little background here....Living in Central, PA makes it difficult to get most anywhere! The only way we could fly to Ponte Vedra Beach, FL directly was to drive to Newark, NJ (~3 hr drive) and fly to Jacksonville, FL from there. Needless to say, it would be a long day for us! We headed out optimistically at 6:45am towards Newark. The car ride went great! I was nervous about it because Will has had very few car rides that were that long, but with only one potty stop, we made it to Newark earlier than we had anticipated, which is always nice when you are flying out of an unfamiliar airport. We got there with 2 hrs and 15 minutes left to spare before flight time! After getting parked, getting bags checked, and navigating our way through a less than desirable airport, we had about an hour and 15 minutes to wait.....until we learned that our flight was delayed 2 hours! As always, the flight ended up being delayed even more....for 3 hours, and we were stuck in a very cramped, small terminal in the Newark airport. We decided to sit down for lunch (and a bloody Mary!), and the kids did great. We kept feeding them special treats, smooothies, etc. to keep them occupied during the delay. They were really fantastic. About 30 minutes before boarding time, Will was starting to get really tired (he had missed his nap, of course) and was getting restless, until he spotted this great ancient toy....a pay phone! David looked at the pay phone, got the number, and then called the phone from his cell from a few steps away so Will could answer it and talk to him. It was so funny....and it kept him busy for the final 10 minutes before we boarded! After 5 hours in the airport...we were finally on our non-stop flight to Jacksonville!

As soon as we got on the plane, Will settled in and fell asleep...he was actually asleep before we took off. Allie, Amanda, and David were soon behind, and they all napped for a while on the ride. Things were going great....until we got closer to Jacksonville and heard our pilot's voice over the speaker. He informed us (and remember this was a group of passengers that had already been delayed 3 hours in the airport), that the Jacksonville airport was temporarily shut down because Obama was there and was preparing to depart. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough fuel to circle for an hour so we had to deviate from our predicted course and land in.....Savannah! Not a great trip so far, right? So, we land in Savannah to get more fuel and await our instructions. Not long after landing, we learned that Obama was headed out of Jacksonville and the airport would be opening again soon. We were in Savannah for maybe 30 minutes refueling waiting on the tarmac, and then we were finally cleared to take off again for the whopping 20 minute flight on in to Jacksonville. At this point, we were exhausted and we still had an 40 minute drive ahead of us after we got situated in our rental car in Jacksonville. Fortunately, the rest of the trip went smoothly. We ended up only be 4 HOURS LATE! It was a 13 hour trip from our house to the hotel. The kids finally got to bed at ~9pm that night, as David and I headed out to meet a group for dinner a few hours late :-)

I'm happy to report that all of our "adventure" on this trip took place on the way down, and the rest of the trip was fabulous. We all spent some time at the beach playing in the waves and building sand castles. Allie, Will, and Amanda spent each afternoon at the pool while David and I played a bit of golf. It was a fabulous first family trip to the beach!

Will getting his first look at the ocean.


He wasn't so sure about the waves! He would walk toward the water, but as soon as the waves started rolling in, he would turn and run as fast as he possibly could! We were laughing so hard! It was hirlarious (check out the video below).