Beach Trip...

"Summer, summer, summer's gonna turn into fall, you and your baby doll better go to the beach..."- Magnetic Fields

We followed the suggestion above from one of our favorite bands, and headed to Cherry Grove in SC. Eric's grandmother graciously allows us and other family to stay in her oceanfront condo, and it's wonderful each and every time we go. Eric especially needed a break- no laptops allowed!

We had a few days of cool weather and rain mixed in, so we enjoyed some outlet shopping. Lots of cool stuff and bargains, except for the shirt from Banana Republic for Eric with the realllly long arms. When he put it on, he reminded me of Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba (click here to see what I mean). Guess there was a reason it was 70% off. ;)

The highlight of the trip was taking the kids out on the beach. It was Ella's first beach trip (her first vacation, for that matter). She seemed somewhat impressed. :) Jackson, however, was over the moon with being on the beach and out in the water. His favorite thing was playing in the waves. No interest in sitting and playing in the sand (or sitting at all!). He was fearless, even when getting knocked over or smacked in the face with water every now and then. He was laughing so hard, and smiling the whole time. He kept signing for "more" and "water". The ocean made quite an impression! This was his 5th trip to the beach, but he definitely enjoys it more and more each time.

We also got to see family when we were there, which was great! My mom came down Friday, and hung out with us on the beach. She stayed until Saturday, which allowed Eric and I a date with a fabulous martini (key lime for me, dirty for him) at one of our favorite restaurants Friday night. On Saturday, we all went out to dinner with my cousin Peter, his wife Clau, their adorable twin boys, and Peter's dad Aftab and Clau's mom Lety. My cousin David was also there. Peter and his family are moving soon for his job, and David's leaving for graduate school in London this month, so it was so wonderful to get a chance to get together. We got some great pictures of Ella with her twin second cousins (Jackson was already in bed), which I'll put on our picture website soon. My extended family is pretty much scattered all over the country (and sometimes, the world), so it's kind of a rare treat to see any of them.

There was one awful part about the trip- the 6 hour ride home! Thanks to traffic and stopping multiple times, the 3 hour trip took 6. Eric and I took it in stride, the kids somewhat less so. :) We had a great trip, but were all very happy to be home.