A couple weeks ago we went on our first family vacation with the girls; this means a trip other then to Grandma's house or other family, even though we like those trips too! Growing up I remember my mom talking about doing a spring break at a beach house, but for one reason or another we never did it so ever since then it has been something we've been wanting to do.
We originally went in on a beach house with my parents for the week of their spring vacation. The beach house we got slept 12 so we decided why not invite Eric's grandparents and little brother too. I bet some of you think that was a bold move planning a vacation with both of our in-laws and while we did have minor bumps here and there, it was a really fun experience, especially since we don't know how many more things like this Eric's grandparents will be able to do in the future.
As luck would have it we picked the chilliest week out of the month, however that didn't seem to stop us from having fun! We took morning walks along the beach, played in the sand, celebrated Easter with an Easter egg hunt and dinner, went whale watching, played at a nearby park, went to some movies, Eric got to go deep sea fishing, we went to the LA temple and as usual we ate way too much food, including some really good sea food!
The beach house couldn't have been more perfect either! It was right on the beach. had lots of room and had this great fenced in patio off the side of the house where the kids could play without wandering off.
Leading up to our vacation I checked out some books with a beach theme or about the beach to help Mia get a sense of what it would be like. One great one was "Ladybug Girl Goes to the Beach". Mia loves the Ladybug girl series. If you have a little girl read those books! Anyway Mia went right out and got right in the waves. She was so brave and having so much fun until she was being a little too crazy, lost her balance and literally face-planted it in the sand. She came up with a big mouth full of sand and crying and pretty much wouldn't get in after that.
For Easter weekend, my brother Tyler who lives in California came up with his two kids. Mia has SO much fun playing with her cousin. They only came up for air from playing for meal times.
Eric's family has a tradition of dying Easter eggs every Easter. My family isn't as big on Easter so it was fun to still be able to do those fun things with the kids since his Grandparent's were with us.
I borrowed my friend's camera for this trip so I could take videos of our vacation. If I was to do it over I would probably figure out had to take a video before actually wanting to capture things and possible learn a lesson in holding more still but hey, it's a fun little keepsake from our first vacation nonetheless!
