A Special Visitor

This morning Joshua and I walked to Alys Beach. It isn't that far, but it was at least a mile each way, which is kind of longer than I usually have him go. But it was fine because on the way there we stopped at the semi-famous Charlie's Donut Truck. Donuts are not something we have on a regular basis, so it was a fun treat.

After donuts, we kept walking until we got to the Alys Beach playground. This was a fun little park with some nice slides and an old-fashioned see-saw, but the main attraction was a giant and very steep hill. I am not sure what it's original purpose was (it's possible it was always part of the playground, but there is a broken sprinkler head at the top so I am not sure), but it was really great for Joshua and the other kids there. It has a path to get to the top, but Joshua refused to use it and really enjoyed climbing up and down the hill.

On the way back, he was tired, but we took breaks. He had somehow grabbed a bottle opener from the vacation house that he was really excited about and I told him he could hold it during breaks so we took a whole lot of breaks. I think I am going to try to find a swiss army knife for kids since he loves it so much and it really isn't that safe since it isn't made for kids.

After we got back, my mom was able to come over to the vacation house and hang out with us. We had a lot of fun. She was a super fun Grandma in the pool and played with the kids a lot. The kids especially thought it was hilarious when they threw water at Grandma and she would go under water.

After swimming, we had lunch. My mom was nice enough to bring crab cakes for everyone.

They were super great. The best I have ever had. We will definitely be doing Sarah K's crab cakes on all future visits to the area. After lunch, my mom had to go home and we said goodbye since we won't see her again on this trip.

After naps, but before dinner, we decided to get a few photos of the kids on the beach. Some people do professional pictures this way, but we didn't do that on this trip. Getting all three kids to look, much less smile is always a bit like herding cats, especially so on the beach because Clara was freaking out about the sand. But we got at least a couple that were decent.

Most of this was because of Jason since he is much more fun than me and can almost always get the kids smiling, and he also is much more detail-oriented, so he is always in charge of photos when possible because he notices things I don't notice.

But the other thing that really helped was bribery. So while I went home and cooked dinner, Jason took the kids to the Sugar Shak to get a treat. I think Clara would say that made her sand-trauma worth it. We had another great day today, full of fun.