1st Weekend of Summer

One tradition that my parents have kept up since I was 2 months old, has been heading to the beach for some length of time every single summer. There were years when we only went for a week and then as I got older, we were fortunate to stay for 6-8 weeks. There is something about the summer and the beach for me that makes me happy. Plain and simple. I love tradition and I love passing on that tradition to my kids.

In the past few years, a new tradition that some members of my family have done is participated in a 5 mile race through a neighboring beach town which coincidentally has fallen on my parents' first day. Each year, this race is a goal of mine because of different reasons but mostly to show how far I have come after having my kids. This year was a bit tough because although we talk about how small Colin is for his age, he is getting heavier to push when running. I may have not improved from last year, but I enjoyed it (when I was done) and I was proud of myself for getting to this point after having Kailey.

Colin enjoyed the run and was waving hi to families camped out on their lawns as we passed by. The best part though was the fact that he waved to the people standing there as we crossed the finish line.

Kailey and Daddy joined my mom and Kristine as great support for us runners. Couldn't do it without them!

It was a small crew of us this year, with my brother Pat beating all of us.

The kids were a bit off schedule on Saturday because we had to get them up early. Kailey was off all weekend, but Colin absolutely enjoyed the beach. After attempting to eat the sand once, he didn't do it again and only had to be told a few times not to throw the sand. Each day he would wear himself out so much that he would fall asleep on the walk back from the beach (a 5 minute walk). After falling asleep in the wagon yesterday, we decided to bring the stroller for him today so that when he fell asleep, he would be a bit more comfortable.

Today, Colin spent a lot of time down by the water, mostly with Daddy. Despite the fact the water was only 66, Colin LOVED every minute.

He did a lot of standing as the waves we come up and splash him. In fact, there were a few that got him in the face but he didn't even react at all.

Kailey really wanted to be a part of the action and was not happy unless she was sitting up checking out what was going on.

I think Colin is going to be eating lunch later every day because of his tendency to fall asleep on the walk back for lunch. Today he slept for 2 hours in the stroller before getting up to eat around 2:15.

We had a great weekend and look forward to many more this summer. It's exhausting!