Life's a beach!

We just returned from our annual Griffin beach trip, and I think we all agree that this was the best one yet! I was extremely anxious about traveling so far (8 hours, including stops) with a 4 year old AND a 4 week old, but my fears were quickly put to rest thanks to 3 things: our awesomely spacious van WITH a DVD player, Owen's Nintendo Gameboy, and my breast pump. Owen sat on the back seat and stayed occupied for hours with episodes of Looney Tunes and Word World, mixed occasionally with Zelda or Rad and Bad on his Gameboy. Ben slept really well in his car seat and took bottles of freshly pumped milk at nursing time. We only had to stop a couple of times for meals, diaper changes, and bathroom breaks. What a relief! I don't know how my parents survived lugging the 3 of us around without the "modern conveniences" of DVD players and portable game systems. :)

Owen hands-down had the best time of anyone...he swam from the time he woke up until it was dark outside. He made several buddies at the pool and had a blast playing with his uncles and aunt too. Richie and I took shifts staying inside with Ben--in the afternoon it was cool enough in the shade to bring him outside, but the mornings were just too hot. One of our best days was the 28th, which was Ben's 1 month birthday. We started the day with a visit to the zoo, where Owen got to hold a baby kangaroo like he did last year. He was very inquisitive and much more at ease this time around. He really wanted to see the kangaroo's pouch. :) Afterwards we had a delicious lunch at Lulu's, which is on the bay and is basically one huge covered deck with lots of fans. We came back to the condo and spent some time at the beach. After all the news coverage of the oil spill in the Gulf, it was a relief to see that the beach was still beautiful and clean. We saw some small tar balls, but nothing like what I had imagined. Following dinner, we went to the Wharf to ride the humongous ferris wheel, which is another annual tradition that Owen just loves. Then we ended our day with some Dippin Dots. Days don't get much better than that!

One Owen funny from our trip:
- One night the "big kids" went to a movie while my parents watched Owen and Ben. I got a text from my mother saying that Owen asked her if she was going to feed Ben with her boob. :)

Here are a few pictures of our week: