Life is so much better at the beach!

We ended up having 2 unexpected trips to the beach during the past couple of months. Our first trip was not due to good circumstances, however, and was very spur of the moment. We skipped town rather quickly in all my crazy pregnancy hormone freaking out after the horrible tornadoes hit our area at the end of April. Please don't judge. You try being told that your power is going to be out for at least a week (turned out to be 5 days) when you are very pregnant and very hungry all the time. With no way to cook my food storage (looks like I'm going to have to do some revamping and prepare better) is like a death threat. So, we headed south. After 4 years of not setting foot on the beach, we were extremely excited to go. Plus, Cade had never been, and we just knew he would love it.

WRONG!

This was him for the first hour- sitting in my lap. He did not want his feet the touch the weird "snow" (didn't matter how many times we told him it was sand, it was forever going to be snow), and he sure as heck did not want to go near that scary water.

Daddy tried to break Cade of being scared by forcing him to go in the water while Chase held him to show him it was fun. Nope, not fun. He screamed and was terrified the whole time. Then, when finally back on the "snow", he ran in the the complete wrong direction crying for me and tried to find solace in the arms of another momma who was definitely not me, which made him even more upset. So this is him finally running toward the right momma. It was all very dramatic.

After awhile he became more comfortable in the "snow" and started to play with his beach toys. But still keeping a very safe distance from the water.

Day 2 on the beach was MUCH better. He got over his fear of the water and would let it hit his feet. Afterwards, he kept saying, "That was fun!".

Trip 2 to the beach was due to Chase having a business trip to Ft. Walton, and Cade and I got to tag along. Yay! We had such a great time. We got to stay right on the beach and enjoyed a nice big room. Our hotel also had 2 pools which Cade loved. He loved being able to say, "Let's go beach" or "swimming pool, Momma?", and then just picking up and going to whichever one he pleased. It was really great, and he had a blast to say the least.

Cade was completely fine with the water this time. Daddy would take him out in the waves, and Cade loved it.

Coming back from the pool.

Family friends Marty and Christie were also there with us, and Cade was obsessed with going out in the waves and building sand castles with Marty. Here they are out in the water:

On the trip home, Cade had to stop and see the airplane.

Cade now asks almost everyday if we can go to the beach. We definitely need to take fun family trips more often.