To The Beach! (Thursday and Friday)

*** Unfortunately, I was not the greatest photographer on this trip. Sonny took lots of pictures with his camera, too, so once I get those pictures from him (Sunday, perhaps?), I'll update this post to include those. ***

We've marked another item off of our summer "to do" list. And this was a big one! Lately, anytime I said, "Where are we going?" James would yell, "TO THE BEACH!" So to the beach we went!

My dad, brother, brother-in-law, and Eddie planned a boys-only fishing trip to Steinhatchee, Florida, for the weekend after July 4th. Since I knew I'd be alone for two nights with the boys, I decided we'd go on our own vacation.

I loaded up our car last Thursday morning and around 10:30 the boys and I headed out toward Tifton!

After we arrived in Tifton and ran a few errands, we went to Anna's house to eat our lunch, feed Will, and pick her up. We probably left her house around 1 or 1:30.

The trip down was pretty good. James watched his DVD player for some of the time. I think he was excited so he chatted a good bit and was antsy. Will woke up and cried for a little bit right outside of Jacksonville but then went back to sleep.

When we arrived at the condo we unloaded, picked up Cacky and Poppy, and went to dinner at J.T.'s Seafood Shack which is right down the street.

J.T.'s was CROWDED. We had about a 45 minute wait but since we're a good ways down from St. Augustine, anywhere else we went (even if it hadn't had a wait) would've taken us just as long to get to and get seated. While we were waiting I was entertained (*ahem*) by a man who had been playing golf all afternoon and had probably had one or two (or three or four) on the course. He'd lost a bet and had to buy drinks for his friend and the friend ordered strawberry daiquiris. He chatted with me while we waited and I was GLAD when our table was ready. :)

After dinner we went for a nighttime swim. James showed off his swimming skills and all were impressed! He did much, much better in the pool this time than he did at Kelly's house the other day. I think he was a bit overwhelmed last time with all of the "James, swim here! Swim to me!" We were all excited that day and it threw him off. I decided to try to be a bit more casual about the approach and the first night just let him swim when he wanted to swim and go to whomever he wanted.

Friday morning we got up and headed to the pool right after breakfast. I believe this was the day that Sonny took lots of pictures and I took none. :/ Oh well. This was also the morning of the competitive daddy. There was a family there with a little boy who was four or five years old. It was their last full day at the beach and he had on a life jacket. Well. That daddy took one look at James with no swimmies and decided his kid wasn't wearing his life jacket anymore either. They were very nice. Mom played with the kid for a long time. He was just not a water-confident kid.

Every day we'd go to the pool and then go back to the condo for lunch and naps and then head out to the beach.

James had the BEST time playing on the beach and in the sand. He loved jumping over the waves with Poppy and he loved digging and looking for seashells.

Friday night we stayed in and had boiled shrimp, corn, and green beans. It was delish!