It’s been Spring Break here. Extremely early, I know, but allegedly my boys’ school district here had some problems with their calendar and now the timing is “off” compared to the other school districts around here. Most kids I know of are having their Spring Breaks later in March, or even in April…with Easter being late this year.

Unlike other Spring Breaks we’ve had, this time around we had nothing significant planned. We visited the Air Force Armament Museum (for another blog post) and as the weather slowly warmed up, by midweek we took our first “real” trip to the beach! We’d been a couple other times since we moved here, but it was not really to play…more to look around.

My boys LOVE the beach.  They always have…they seem to be transformed into angel children.  They play hard, they play well together, they’re polite, they don’t fight.  They even eat the healthy snacks I bring for them — without complaint!  And they are worn out enough that I can even enjoy the good behavior for the rest of the day, and they go right to bed at bedtime.  Now that both boys swim decently, I don’t have to be in the water with them, and I can even blink a few times while watching them from shore.  It won’t be long before I could possibly read a book at the beach!

On Wednesday we were lucky enough to set up near another neighborhood family and our kids had a great time playing together…so much so we got together again on Friday!

Timmy let the girls bury him…unlike other “burials”, the older kids dug a VERTICAL hole!

Timmy did amazingly well with this — even waiting for me to come back from the restroom to take a picture of this!

We could see schools of fish swimming in this clear clear clear water!  The sand really IS like sugar here!

Jacob liked the purple umbrella when I was umbrella shopping at Walmart.  It turned out to be unique enough, it’s easy to see where we’ll be parked on our beach outings!

The kids really enjoyed just lazing around…

Timmy and his new friend would hold hands floating around…I don’t think it’s romantic, I’m not worried!

On Sunday, with Dad not having to work, we spent yet another afternoon enjoying the beach. This time we hung out further east than before, where there are less people, and the waves are less active because of a sandbar about 100′ out that takes the brunt of the wave action. After about 3 hours out, the boys and I took Dad to our new favorite hangout: Tommy’s New Orleans Sno Balls!

What?  I’m in front of the camera???  Whoo hoo!  I brought some margarita on the rocks with us to enjoy.  Don’t worry, I only had one…

Timmy is face-planting himself here.  Trying to make a face-print…seriously.

He regretted it afterwards….

Timmy lost his first front tooth over the weekend…we found a baby crab, but I think he was dead.

Tommy’s New Orleans Sno Balls — it opened up a couple weeks ago and every time we pass the place there’s a line.  But it’s yummy and cheap!

Tommy’s Sno Ball stand is just north of the Navarre Beach Bridge.  A seasonal stand, it’s been HOPPING this week!