Adam here-
The past 3 years we have gone to Lincoln City on the Oregon coast, and this year my parents rented us a place right on the water, thanks Nini and Papa 2! There were plenty of places for everyone to sleep and a nice deck to look out at the water.
I had been a little apprehensive as this was the first multi-hour trip we had taken with Sloane facing forward. The drive went pretty smooth as Sloane took a nap (and even had a little drool going), I guess I shouldn’t have been worried.
The three of us got a room with an amazing view, and Sloane enjoyed looking down at the beach from the windows, but mostly in the mornings she was eager to go and find her cousins. Then it was time to get down to the beach. Sloane is great at playing with her cousins! Despite the age gap, the cousins had a good time playing with her. All of Sloane’s cousins are wonderful to her… Molly and I are blessed with wonderful families.
Ellie agreed to pretend to be Sloane’s baby, Max was her puppy and Zander was her kitty. It was pretty fun to have the four of them laughing through the house and on the beach. Sloane got a kick out of digging and rolling in the sand, and didn’t eat as much sand as she did last year.
Sloane was a very happy presence at the beach and everyone got to have a turn with her in their lap or next to her digging. Nini got her down and into the water on the first morning, and Sloane loved it! I didn’t get a shot of it but when the wind would pick up Sloane would run to Molly and ask to go into her “hidey-hole”, and Molly would wrap Sloane up in her fleece, it was adorable.
Unfortunately, it was very, very windy. So windy, we couldn’t fly the kites for the kids, as the wind just grounded the kites after about 30 seconds. Sloane was a trooper, but there is only so much sand in the eye a little girl can take in a day… so we would spend some time in the hot tub to warm up and then play inside. Before dinner the kids got to watch some movies. It was fun to see the pile of cousins enthralled.
Sloane got in a little Auntie time, and it was great. Somehow all of Sloane’s Aunts are super patient, and that makes it easy for Sloane to hang out with each of them.
Have I told you Sloane is a little silly sometimes? This was a little cheese while getting dressed.
We even had some chances for a little Mom, Dad and Sloane time, here and there. Also despite it being a vacation Sloane did some hard work of continuing her potty training. She woke up from naps with dry diapers, wore undies most of the time and didn’t have any accidents!!!
It was a fun time and we can’t wait for another trip with family. Hopefully the next beach trip is less windy.