After church this morning I took Abbi and Javan home for lunch and naps while Peter and Bresa stayed for the second service. Peter was playing this week and there is a special theology class that is put on for the older kids that stay for two services every week. After they got home and had their lunches and the two napping children woke up we were all kind of sitting around. Peter’s friend, Chris, was supposed to come over but realized last minute that he had other obligations so we had nothing planned for the day. Peter asked what I wanted to do and I said I would really like to take the kids to the beach. Peter was surprised that I would want to go so late in the day but I figured it would be less work and less likely that him and Bresa would turn red as quick. As we were trying to figure out which beach to go to we remembered that our friends Bill and Brenda were at a condo in New Smyrna so we gave them a call and they told us to come out. We quickly got the kids suits on and grabbed our towels and headed off. It didn’t take us long to get there and once we parked and lathered everyone up with sunscreen we walked out to the beach. There were only a few people out on the beach and the sky was a bit overcast so the heat wasn’t too bad.
The girls took Brenda off to the water and once I set things up I went out to meet them. I took a ton of photos while the girls had a blast. They both were just screaming and squealing the whole time. I think they really liked that they could scream and I wasn’t yelling at them for doing so. Peter eventually brought Javan out to us and I thought for sure he would be afraid of the water the same way the girls were when they were little but he just laughed and squealed while playing the waves. Daddy held on to him because otherwise he would get knocked over and he didn’t like that but every time a wave hit while Peter helped him stand he loved it! After we played in the water a while we went back up to our spot and all us girls worked on a sandcastle. It wasn’t too great but the girls were proud of it. We took another quick dip in the ocean to get the sand off of us and we headed back to the condo where we all took a swim in the pool. Javan wasn’t aloud to be in the pool because he isn't potty trained so I sat with him along the side of the hot tub and we put our legs in while the bubbles massaged our feet.
He enjoyed that but if I didn’t hold him back he would have jumped right in to swim all around himself. The girls swam in the big pool with Bill and Brenda and probably would have swam all night if we had let them. Eventually we got hungry so we went back to the condo and got dressed (the kids in jammies) to get some food. Brenda knew of a little shop that sold sandwiches and ice cream that sounded good so we headed that way. After a small dinner we decided to treat the kids to ice cream. Peter and I got two banana splits which we all shared together and the girls loved every bite of it, Javan ate most of the bananas. It was about time to head back so we said good bye to Bill and Brenda and thanked them for a wonderful time and we headed home. Bresa was the only one to fall asleep, much to our surprise (of course she is the only one who didn’t get a nap) but when we got home and cleaned up we all went to bed. We really had a great time and none of us got burned and there was very easy clean up, not like my childhood beach days when we had to unpack the car of all the coolers, toys, clothes, and beach gear.
I think the evening beach thing is the way to go. I might even be able to get Peter to go out to the beach again after this (he has never been a beach guy).
You can click on the images on the left to see the strips larger.
kids are out for summer they have been at home all day everyday and poor Daddy is having a hard time getting anything done. My friend told me about a good deal on kid's movies on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so today we decided to check it out. My mom came with us for the fun and we started our day out by watching "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" at the big theater. It was $3 each (Javan was free) and that included a box of popcorn and drink with admission. The movie was really cute and Javan did great this time and didn't fuss once. After the movie we decided to check out a big splash pad at Fort Mellon Park in Sanford that I had heard lots about. 
There was a $2 fee for each person, including Javan but the pad is really big. Because they charge for it there were only a few other kids there which was nice but the pad itself is not real exciting so I don't think we will be going back to that one. After the kids played for an hour and a half we called them out to get dried off so we could grab some lunch. We ended up going to Fazoli's for something different and since they were having a 99 cent kids meal special today only. We all filled up on pasta and breadsticks and 
then went over to Target just to walk around and stay out of the heat. I know that the kids grow so quickly and lately I have been trying to take advantage of them being little while I can. Bresa is almost 7 years old and I know pretty soon she will be 18 and off to college. I want to make sure I don't regret working all the time and not spending enough time with them now.
