Back to the Beach

The last trip to the beach that I took was exactly two years ago this week. I was SO ready to get down there again! We had hoped the weather would cooperate and be warm enough for us to make a trip...Grady's FIRST trip...to the beach for spring break. Fortunately, the forecast was GREAT for this time of year and we headed out to Orange Beach as soon as I got out of school on Friday.

SO...the beach. Hmmm... Grady's reaction wasn't exactly what we'd hoped it would be. I guess I just thought he'd be like his whole family and fall in love with the beach immediately, squishing the sand between his toes and running around all over the place, digging holes and building sand castles. Not so much! He was all smiles as we walked down the boardwalk to the sand and for whatever reason, I made the mistake of taking off his little water shoes so he could walk in the sand. Mistake number one. He FREAKED OUT when his little toes hit the sand. Started screeching at such a high pitched level that I'm sure glass broke somewhere nearby! Got that whole episode on video and plan on using it to embarass him when he's older.

Thank goodness Mom had seen a little duck beach chair at the grocery store when she got to the beach and bought it for Grady to sit in. He parked his little rear in that seat and didn't budge unless forced to pry his arms from the chair's arms with more screeching. Ha. It reminded me of my DaddyBill. Most kids are running around playing in the sand and MY child is glued to his chair like a little old man. hee hee.
Of course the water was cold this time of year and with the reaction to the sand, we didn't evern ATTEMPT to have him get in the water. You can tell by the wrinkled up nose in the picture below that he wasn't ABOUT to let go of Pete and put his feet in the water.

When DeeDee came down to the beach, she finally got Grady to sit on a towel and he warmed up a little to the sand. He was fascinated with sea shells. This picture cracks me up...notice how he makes sure his feet are not hanging off the towel one centimeter... ha!

After he warmed up a bit, he kind of enjoyed digging around in the sand with his rakes and shovels...but all done from his planted position on the towel. By the second day, he was actually touching the sand and helping build castle towers. Have a cute video of that, but it's too long to post.

Again...the wrinkled-up-nose-expression is still present in the picture with Aunt Jenny. That expression seemed to be glued to his little face!

SO...guess this was our breaking-in session. Hopefully we will have better results this summer! Thank you DeeDee, Pete, and Aunt Jenny for hanging in there with us! I'm still counting on Grady-man falling in love with the beach soon!