New Year's 2012

We spent New Year's at the beach. We have been traveling so much lately that I was not exactly looking forward to another long drive, but I was SO excited about getting some much needed R&R. After hosting both of our families for Christmas and basically being on my feet for 4 days straight {while John tended to the children that whole time}, I was utterly exhausted. Like, slap wo' out. John and I both worked the day after Christmas, so we left on Thursday night to head to the beach.

My parents and brother were at the beach with us until Sunday, and then it was just the 4 of us until we came home on Tuesday, so we had some nice quality time with our little fam.

Last year at the beach, the weather was warm and beautiful. This year was FREEZING but still beautiful. We didn't do much of anything, which was GLORIOUS! Every day we hung around the house until SC woke up from her morning nap, then we would walk to down to Seaside to browse and let the girls play on the playground. Then we would spend the rest of the day at home. It was loverly.

I put a lot of pics on Instagram, but here are some others {and a few repeats from IG}.

chilly willy

Cakers didn't seem to mind the cold temps or the wind

Curran said she wanted to take our picture, and John and I were laughing so hard at her trying to capture us. Here are some of her shots.

We would see where she was aiming the camera and try to move to get in the shot.

{ignore the fact that I borrowed C's hat. It was frigid. And either the hat is huge or I have a little head. Or maybe a bit of both.}

We went out to eat one night {blurry pic above}, and I was so impressed when C drew a tic tac toe  board! I didn't know she knew how to do that. I had a proud mama moment. Not sure everyone else at the table was quite as impressed as I was, but if your mama's not going to brag on ya, who will? Now we just need to work on the concept of only putting one X {or V, whatever} in each square. Baby steps, people.

C wanted to hold SC in her lap.

my happy girl

They loved swinging on the playground in Seaside. This was actually SC's first time to swing. We have a baby swing in our front yard, but I haven't taken the time to clean it off in months. I need to get on that because clearly she would enjoy it.

We got to see lots of pretty sunsets, which Curran particularly enjoyed. {At noon one day, C jumped up in a chair on the steps and said she was going to sit and watch the sun set.}

Love all the Christmas lights in Seaside. C loved seeing them too.

We hated to say goodbye to the beach but were so glad to have been able to go for as long as we did. It was the perfect way to start our new year!