A Trip To The Beach Already!

We had made plans to meet my Aunt and cousin for lunch today down near the ocean, so I got to see the ocean on my first full day in NH. Yay! Our lunch with my cousing Debbie (whom I haven't seen in probably 10 years!) and my Aunt Carol was so special. I mean, it was crazy too with the overtired traveler boys, but it was so special to be with extended family reconnecting and having them see my boys.

My cousin brought Melissa & Doug puzzles for Koen & Tavin (so thoughtful!) and they enjoyed playing with them as a distraction at the end of lunch. Thanks, Debbie. That made such a difference!In the picture above, Koen's working on the puzzle in his sunglasses because when he asked Gramma to help him with a puzzle she said, "yes, but I have to put my glasses on" (meaning her real glasses. Well, Koen wants to be just like Gramma and Grampa so he said he needed to put on his glasses too. Sure, why not? He kept them on for the rest of lunch. Priceless!

After our nice lunch we drove down just to see the ocean really quickly (it was very important to get the boys home for their afternoon naps - I'm big on after putting them through the rigors of traveling making sure they get a chance to catch up on rest!). Koen was a little confused about our quick stop because he was associating the ocean with his swimsuit, barefeet, sandcastles and jumping in the waves which we so recently experienced in Florida. I had to explain to him that this water was so cold he couldn't go in. That we couldn't even take our shoes off in the sand today. He wasn't happy at first, but thankfully he bounced back once we went down onto the sand to search for shells, climb the rocks at the wave wall and quickly touched the icy water. Tavin hung out with Gramma on the other side of the wall happily listening to the waves. He actually even recognized the ocean right away and pointed to it wanting to get in too when he first saw it.

After our quick visit to the ocean, we piled back in the car and arrived home only a little late for the afternoon naptime. They went to bed without complaint and it's almost 5:30pm now and I will have to go wake them both up. I'm so thankful they got in a good rest after our adventurous travel day yesterday!