The Mollie Chronicles: Beach babe!

Today was our first day this year, to step foot onto our Charleston beach!! (We've been to Myrtle Beach, but not our own backyard!) How can that be?! For the long wait, it was welllllll worth it and SUCH a blast!!!

We started the beach excursion by stopping off at Jack's Cosmic Dogs for a quick bite and to see the new James Island location--just as awesome, if not better, than the Mt. P one. We're gunna have to go back for an ice cream or shake next time!!

Our last beach visit to Myrtle had us a little timid to go back on the beach with her. Granted this was a couple months ago as she was a bit younger. She was fussy out there, her nose got stuffy and she was just not really a happy camper. I couldn't believe MY child was not obsessed with the beach--how is that possible?? Well, I'm delighted to say after today, she is a beach babe!! I knew she had it in her. My sweetie.

Any of you moms know that anytime you leave your house, you have to take everything including the kitchen sink for baby. Even with Mollie being 11+ months, I still am scared to not have something she might need. We of course had the beach plan pretty thought out ahead of time; knowing what we wanted to bring, thinking about her fave toys & adding in a few new surprises for her, but we also thought a little out of the box. We have these great party tubs that we use for chilling drinks at home gatherings and figured, hey, let's make this a little pool on the beach!! Mollie LOVES the water, so we knew this would buy us some time if/when she got tired of the beach, but we weren't--haha.

Happy as a clam!

Kicked back, feet propped--just as the beach should be!

I think Matt & I just hit upon something brilliant--who's with me?! You carry your things down to the beach in this tub, THEN your baby plays in it. Yeah, like I said, brilliant;) Highly recommend this for you with kids age 6mths-1 year!

As we play in the sand a bit, I was so excited to see what M would do with the rush of waves--the girl loves a little adrenaline rush (to be rough housed, to be flipped upside down, etc). The waves came up to us way faster than expected, as you see here Matt & I both reached in to hold her from tipping over & she just has this look like BRING IT! Great..a little daredevil girl.

I was a bit afraid that she'd hate the sand and freak out if it was on her-totally not the case. Little did I know she'd want to eat the wet sand AND even make a gigantic mess. I mean, I should have known because she loves being messy with her food--what the heck kinda shape is her 1st birthday smash cake gunna be in?! I already feel sorry for that poor cake.