Beach Week 2013

For the past six years, Boppa and I have been renting a condo on the beach and having the grandkids come stay a few days with us. Sometimes parents come, too, and sometimes they drop off their little ones.  This week we were able to get a place for 11 days.  The first two days we spent alone, building up the energy to babysit and plotting our strategy.

On Saturday morning, the first five arrived.  We spent the morning in the pool.

This is the 2 year old. She's the youngest. Let's call her Bug.

This is the oldest who is 9. We call her Diddles.

I bought our 8 year old a shark mask, which was a hit. He's known as Tater.

The five year old with his dad admired pelicans flying overhead. His uncle calls him Bumbo.

The baby put herself down for a nap.

We finally got to the beach.  Here's our beach beauty, Bug.

The four year old, Washy, is fearless in the water.

Tater started the week off ill, but got better.  Here he watches the others.

All of the kids got a chance to catch baby angelfish.

Here is Diddles' victory run.

JT decided to dig a hole.  It was used later by some stranger to secure her beach umbrella!

Washy tried flushing out coquina with this water blaster.

The kids watched Boppa and my son try to save toys and our canopy during a bad rain storm.

In the morning, Bumbo and Diddles watched for dolphin.

Hot tubbing with JT and Tater.

JT photobombs this photo of my son, Bumbo, Diddles and Washy.

Tater and Diddles discovered a turtle nest on our evening walk.

JT didn't mind dead crabs, but Tater did!!

Our one and only evening swim.  It stormed almost every evening.

JT loves to make crafts. Here he created a thermostat.  Yes, you read that right.

JT scared me to death when I thought he was stuck at the bottom of the pool. He was waving.

Tater giving us his surfer look.   

The last four go home.  Bug and Bumbo had left earlier in the week to fly to NYC for a family wedding.