Sawyer's 1st beach trip

Sawyer went on his first real road trip to North Myrtle Beach last week. It was a long overdue family vacation we'd been looking forward to for months. The weather was nice; the crowds were gone; and the house we stayed at was awesome.

Sawyer enjoyed exploring the huge deck on the house most. His poor knees took a beating from crawling around every inch of it. (It luckily had a gate to block off the stairs!) It overlooked a pond where we saw turtles, herons and ducks. We truly loved the porch swing and the shade (no sunscreen!).






He also got his first taste of the beach: the sand, the ocean, the seashells. And when I say taste, I mean that literally. The beach is not the best place for a boy who has to put everything in his mouth. Fishing tiny clams out of a baby's mouth does not equal fun, for mom or baby. Sawyer was not nearly as delighted with it all as I thought he would be. Maybe next year?





We went to breakfast, a seafood buffet and walked on the pier (it was about 2 blocks from our house), but our big outing was to Ripley's Aquarium. Sawyer has a baby DVD that has all kinds of ocean creatures, and he is mesmerized by it. So I knew, when we planned this trip, we HAD to go to the aquarium. He was not quite as taken by real-live fish as I imagined, but he did take it all in and enjoyed watching the other kids as much as the sharks, sawfish and surgeonfish.

I, on the other hand, LOVED the aquarium. The highlight for me was the touch tank where you could pet stingrays. (They feel very fleshy and smooth but have a hard bumpy spine). I could've sat there waiting for them to swim by all day.







On our last day (while Daddy was dealing with a dead car battery), instead of doing the beach (which quickly became not worth the effort), we took a long walk with the stroller and then played in a makeshift pool on the deck. Check out all those teeth!




And it wouldn't be a trip with Mama if we didn't work in some portraits. Sawyer woke up early Saturday, so I took advantage of the early morning light for some portraits on the shore in a cute beachy outfit I had brought for the occasion.