Sand Tantrums

Over the weekend, we planned to head East just a ways and visit my parents in Panama City for a little beach getaway. But as we rolled out of the driveway on Saturday morning, we realized that we had a tire with a nail in it that was rapidly losing air. After making several calls, we decided to stop at the Walmart on the way for a quick repair at their auto shop. We figured this would take 30 minutes, tops, so it wasn't a big deal. We stopped and grabbed a bite to eat, Vivi harassed a baby she didn't know, and Bobby improvised with a pool noodle to use as a light saber in the store. Just your normal shenanigans. After a long thirty minutes, we headed back to the auto shop, only to find out that it wasn't a normal nail hole to patch up in our tire. Instead, the tired was punctured with two nails and a screw (how??), so we needed a whole new tire and then to have them balanced. Of course we did. So what began as a simple thirty minute stop ended up being a two hour, three hundred dollar stop with lots of shenanigans. Vivi chased down a lady in a wheelchair scooter and tried to climb up in her lap to ride with her, while Bobby was knocking everything down off all the shelves with his long pool noodle/light saber. Meanwhile, amidst all the shrieking and crap getting knocked off shelves, Alex was totally oblivious, like a typical man, doing man-stuff like looking for the correct engine oil for our car. How can men conveniently tune all this bullshit out? I cannot. But we all got to the end of our ropes once Vivi started pitching an epic hissy fit on the floor of Walmart because I wouldn't let her have a set of jumper cables. You've hit a new low, Viv.

Finally, after a way-too-long and way-too-expensive visit to everybody's favorite store on Earth, we were ready to hit the road again on our new tire. Once we arrived at the condo, we quickly hit the beach. It was a glorious Saturday at the beach, if that's possible to say with kids. Doing the beach with kids is not my favorite thing, unless you are staying at a condo that's on or near the beach. I don't like packing up the whole farm just for a couple of hours at the ocean, and then bringing back a small country's worth of sand in my car that will never ever come out. I guess that makes me a curmudgeon, but I only go to the beach when we are staying at a condo; I'm not a day-tripper. And being at the beach with small children is hard work. There's not a lot of relaxing being done. But I made my peace with that from the get-go, and we had a really nice day. We forgot Vivi's swimsuit at home, so she beached al fresco, which you can get away with when you're not even two.

#notanlines
We chased the kids for most of the time, since Bobby was set on playing with everyone's toys except his own, and Vivi pilfered through everyone's belonging within a five mile radius. We chased birds and played with dogs and pretend-rode jet skis. And had sand tantrums. Because you can't leave the beach without one of those. 

Ah, a sand tantrum. Slightly classier than the Walmart floor tantrum. 

After a few hours in the warm sun, and after Alex gave Bobby a swimming lesson in the heated pool, we headed back up to the condo to get warm baths and then watch Netflix and chill. We ate pizza and hung out and just enjoyed each others' company. I love spending time with my parents, because the kids love them so much, and it's so fun to watch them together. Vivi follows my daddy around like a little puppy dog because she knows he will always give her treats and bites of whatever he is eating. And Bobby loves curling up in their bed and reading or watching tv with them. It warms my heart to see my kids enjoying time with their grandparents; they're so lucky that they have this time with them. 

Sunday morning was a chilly one, so we slept in. 

Just kidding, we were up at the ass crack of dawn eating Pop Tarts and watching Peppa Pig. It was a little too cold to go on the beach for a while, so we chilled in the living room watching documentaries  because that's how cool we are. Meanwhile the kids begged us to go down to the beach approximately every three minutes. So finally the guys took the kids back down for some sand time while my mama and I cleaned. And then it came the time to hop back in the car and head back home. 'Twas a fun little beach weekend!

I am really looking forward to this week. The beasties and I have a busy day full of errands today, and then we are dropping the kids off at my parents' for a few days while we head to Jacksonville to finalize some things for our new house! They just put down the boards at our homesite, so it's really happening!

Hope y'all all have an awesome week! XO