Beach Baby, Beach Baby, There on the Sand...

We had a super fun week last week starting with my birthday!  I love having a July birthday...summer is my favorite.  I take a lot of pride in the fact that I have never ever once had to work/go to school on my birthday...is that super cheesy or what?!  I didn't want any presents from Darrin and Lulu, my only request was that we go to the Atlantic coast for a weekend and do nothing.  Oh and a cake, of course I needed a cake and Darrin came through with top honors on that one!  Such a cute little cake perfect for our little family of 3 (although in my current state you might as well count me as 2 because I'm pretty sure I ate half the cake myself).

I managed to blow out every candle but one.  Lulu was a bit worried that we didn't have candles for the cake, but I found some buried deep in our spice cabinet.  The box was missing a few so the cake was actually 2 candles short...no problem I'm fine with pretending I'm 2 years younger.  Lulu is definitely her mother's daughter and goes for the frosting immediately....mmmm.

On Friday we hit the road for Chincoteague Island on the eastern coast of Virginia.  Lulu managed to fall asleep just after we picked Darrin up from work but was awake again before we even got out of D.C.  Traffic was notoriously bad and I believe we spent the better part of an hour getting out of the city.  And I thought we'd get a break leaving at two in the afternoon...no such luck.  I didn't pack much to keep Lulu entertained in the car, thinking she'd sleep a good bit.  Luckily, I had some stickers to keep her occupied for a while.  "Hey guys, I can't see you."  

After about 2 hours she started getting really restless so we found a K-mart just off an exit and bought a little magic coloring book with marker and some Dora stickers.  I really should have known something was up as quiet as she was being but I was suffering from pregnancy compounded motion sickness and didn't think much of the silence in the back seat.  She is quite the body artist...Darrin thought she looked like a little hippy princess...if only!

Finally we made it to the little island.  It only took us 5 hours to get there with all the stops we made and traffic.  Lulu had to make a beeline for the hotel pool where she promptly puked from being overly excited.  She bounced right back and we traveled over to Assateaque Island and enjoyed the beach until dark.  

Saturday morning we got around and planned to ride our bikes into the beach.  Of course it rained.  Of course it did!  What was I thinking with wanting to ride to the beach and stay for the day?!  We rode to the beach alright and then rode back to the hotel sopping wet.  As soon as we were back, it promptly quit raining.  Of course!  Jeesh can't a girl catch a break?!  We drove back out to the beach and enjoyed a long afternoon playing in the waves.  It was quite lovely since the sun wasn't beating down on us.  The air and water were both warm and that's all we cared.  I have been known to sit on the beach under a blanket.  It really doesn't get much better than that!

In the evening on Saturday we went for dinner and intended to just take a drive around the island hoping maybe, just maybe we might catch a glimpse of the wild ponies.  When we got to the beach, Lulu insisted that we get out for a walk...we really were not dressed for a night at the beach.  Darrin and I both had jeans on and Lulu was wearing a maxi dress.  But what the heck, you can't just sit in the car when there's a beach and ocean to be had.  We got a great family picture too!

Lulu runs straight to the water...she really wanted no part of the family snapshot.  I tried to tie her dress up so she wouldn't be soaked.  

Eventually I just gave up on trying to keep her dress tied up!  She's like the little Coppertone girl minus that cute little black dog.  This first picture is precious beyond words to me.  

 We left for home on Sunday.  We went back to the beach one last time for blue skies and tons of sun. It was hard to get Lulu and Darrin out of the waves to head home. I'm not sure why we didn't take any pictures then except that we were lost in the moment. 

  Lulu had to feed the horses at the hotel one last time before we could leave.