Birthday Week: Beach Trip

To kick off Helen Claire's birthday week, we took a quick weekend trip down to Laguna beach.  My mother rented a beach house for our whole entire family for the week, and we got to spend Saturday and Sunday hanging out.

It was Helen Claire's first trip to the beach, and I tried to capture all of her reactions to seeing the ocean and sand.  

She was so funny walking down the pier to the water.  I wanted to get a shot of her face the first time she saw the water, and she was so curious and cute about it.  

She LOVED seeing the water...

it actually touching her at first was a different story.

But, she got used to it and really loved playing in the sand (as long as she was sitting on a towel).  Eventually, Jonathan got her in the water, and as long as she was with him, she did fine.  I think it was a security thing, which makes sense.  That's a lot of water for a little girl! She played so much and tired herself out in the sun.

We spent a lot of time being lazy by the pool or at the beach after naptime.  

Bay-bay joined Helen Claire in the pool.  We had lots of discussions about why Bay-bay could swim (he's plastic) and why our other dolls needed to stay out of the pool.  She loves to tell us now which baby dolls can get wet and which ones can't.  Bay-bay can swim, but Phoebe cannot, in case you are interested :)

Snack time by the pool...

Playing with "Rio."  Helen Claire is obsessed with the Rio movie, and there just happened to be a fake bird at the beach house.  She loved having her very own Rio!

We headed back out to the "beash" later in the afternoon.  That was fine with us, since Jonathan loves being in the ocean.

She was definitely more used to the sand and water the second time around and splashed in the ocean for a long time with Jonathan.  He said she would grab his face and just laugh and hold onto him.  He had as much fun as she did.  She played better in the sand, too, and it didn't seem to bother her as much.  I think by next summer, we'll have a pro on our hands. 

Mother took a few family pictures for us while we were there.  Helen Claire's face in these first two are so her.  Jonathan and I don't look that great, but I had to remember her funny personality in these. Such a mess.

Since the trip fell the weekend before her birthday, we went ahead and had a little cupcake party while we were with family.

She got almost all the candles out!

She was one tired girl by the end of the night.  While HC's had her fair share of sleep problems, we have NEVER driven around to get her to fall asleep.  We got rid of that rule at the beach.  She was so tired and way too excited to fall asleep, so we rode around for a little while and she fell out.

Sunday morning we had another little "Happy Birthday" so Papa and Newt could have a cupcake too.

Still rubbing that same piece of hair, two years later :)

Before we headed back home, we stopped at Pier Park for Helen Claire's first sno-cone! Josh was super excited.

Pink lemonade was the flavor she picked, but she had a lot of my Blue Coconut, too.

 

Helen Claire was getting really sleepy and it was so so hot!  So, Jonathan took her on a carousel ride, but eventually told the attendant she could turn it off because Helen Claire was about to fall asleep on the horse.

With Pillow, Phoebe and Puppy, we were ready for the trip back.

Thanks for having us, Mimi.  It was a fun way to kick off birthday week!