Beach Trip 2009

Tuesday morning we returned from a great vacation at the beach. We went back to Jeremy's hometown of Englewood, Fl and stayed with some good friends of his from high school. This was John-Mark's first real trip to the beach and both of their first time flying. All in all it was a great trip and the boys had tons of fun!! Our friends have a great pool in their back yard that has this great little area about 4 ft wide that is only about 1 ft deep so they were able to play in that area and not be in floats or held all the time. James had a great time showing us all of his new skills he's learned from swim lessons. He loved jumping off the edge of the pool and going under. John-Mark wanted to get in on the fun so we let him "jump" in and go under as well and he did great - he somehow knew to hold his breath and rarely took in any water. Jeremy and I were both total water babies so we're ecstatic that they both love the water so much and aren't fearful of it.
We went to the beach two days while we were there. John-Mark was not a big fan of the sand (which I totally understand) but once we got out in the ocean and past the big waves he loved being in the water. He loved trying to put his face in the water - silly boy. The last day we were there we met some friends on the beach and Jeremy and James had a good time in the ocean but it must have been too much for James - he ended up getting heat exhaustion :( I was so proud of myself because after having been there for 4 days you would never have even known they had been in the sun because I had them so covered in sunscreen - then the last day James got too much sun. He ended up with a fever all night and on the plane ride home. He didn't look sunburned, just a little pink in the cheeks but it was obvious he was miserable - poor baby. Yesterday we just layed around the house all today praying his fever would break. By this morning he was our happy boy again - singing us awake at 6:45 in the morning! I guess he was well rested by then!
It was so neat to get to experience the beach with our boys and watch them experience so many things for the first time. It was our first trip back to Jeremy's hometown since I was pregnant with James so it was nice to get see everyone again and introduce them to James & John-Mark. Our boys LOVED our hosts, Pam and Eddie and their two dogs, Fin and Tippit. James would wake up in the morning asking for "Peam" and John-Mark and Fin were attached at the hip half the time. Fin would bark at John-Mark to play and he would just crack up - they were too cute!
Here are some pics from the trip:

The morning we left I finally got James to lay down in the tub and get his ears under the water without fighting me - then he loved it and wouldn't stop doing it - unfortunately he still was a little timid about floating once he got in the big pool.The boys checking out the sand James getting ready to jump to daddy - I have no idea where he got these arm movements from - we never did that. He would stand there and we would count - 1, 2, 3 and he would just say "2,2" - I think that is his favorite number right now.

Yay - another succesful jump!
John-Mark enjoying floating in the pool
Loving being able to crawl in the water
Trying to drink the water!
Ok Daddy - I'm ready to jump in too!
James getting ready to go out - ha- copying what he sees his mommy doing - Some friends from home were actually at the same beach so we got to hang out with them - here James and his buddy Fallon are glad to see each other - so sweet!
Us and Dan, Krista, Fallon & Nally at the Tiki Bar for dinner
Our last day we visited Jeremy's Aunt Debby and Uncle Tim. This was the first time both of them had seen the boys. Unfortunately this was when James started to feel icky so they didn't get to really see James full personality but they sure got John-Mark. He was all over thier house getting in to everything! Hopefully they'll come visit us soon so they can see both the boys at 100%!