First Trip to the Beach

Tommy's first trip to the beach was on July 8th. I have to note that in case I forget to write it in his baby book right away! We were on vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I'm still baffled that we did not get to the beach in New Jersey with him before this trip since we live only 10 minutes away. I'm hoping my little guy becomes my fellow beach bum eventually. He's a little too young right now to appreciate it, but I hope by next summer he'll be better. My mom says that I LOVED the beach and the ocean from a very early age, and I couldn't get enough of the water. So far with Tommy, we have not had much success with going in the pool, so both John and I were very realistic about how Tommy's first ocean experience would go.

First glance at the ocean

Daddy will protect me from the waves, right?

Poor baby was very tired! He was napping, but woke up when we arrived at the beach.


The water was a bit rough as there was supposed to be a storm coming in. Even though the sky was blue, we could see storm clouds in the distance. But the three of us ventured out with my sister Karyn, her husband Dave and my niece Alexis. They have a 4-wheel drive jeep that can drive on the sand, so we parked our car and they drove out with our stuff onto the beach, which was convenient. Since we only had the umbrella stroller, John and I ended up carrying Tommy in it because it obviously does not move in the sand. Since it was at/near the time that Tommy had napped all week, we wanted to have the stroller in case he did want to nod off.

Snuggling with his mommy!

Clinging to me like a little monkey!


How about I just sit back, put my feet up, and have a drink?

This is more my speed than the water, at least for now!

What, praytell, did Aunt Karyn do to you? Dip you in the ocean?

I must admit, taking a baby to the beach is A.LOT.OF.WORK. I used to lug a ton of stuff just for myself when I went to the beach before Tommy. And John is NOT a beach person like me, but I can't imagine going to the beach alone with Tommy for a while. When I have gotten John to go in the past with me, we usually set a time limit for how long we'll stay so he didn't get antsy wondering when we would be leaving and I didn't get annoyed since he couldn't ask "how long are we staying?" We did do a diaper change on our first beach trip too, which was not fun or easy. I have to admit that while it was tough not to buy a season badge this year, I stuck with the decision I made LAST summer that I would not, as I knew I would not get my money's worth out of it. The two hours we spent at the beach is a new record LOW for me, the biggest beach bum ever! I'm not complaining; I'll just have to get my sister, who is not a big beach person either, to come hang with Tommy while I take my niece Alexis to the beach!