Beach Bums

While the summer is winding down, so was my husband's last few days away from work. With a few days of nice hot weather we decided to take the kids to the beach-- a "first time" taking both kids.
The most important thing we needed to bring with us wasn't food, or towels... It was making sure we had adequate shade from the sun.

We don't own a lot of beach stuff.. Aside from the bucket & shovel we have for Ericka to play with in her sand & water table.  So we had to think of a way to make sure we were shaded comfortably at the beach.

On our way down to Port Stanley, we decided to check out a JYSK store to see if they had any beach umbrellas. They didn't.  But they did have a nice pop-up tent that provided shade & privacy. The bonus of this all was the ability to nurse Evan comfortably at the beach without smothering him in a nursing cover and worried about people behind me watching! It was such a win-win!

Once there, the tent popped up nicely and we all enjoyed a wonderful time at the beach! (minus the dead fishes washed ashore. Ick!)

Pop-up tent score!

Ericka enjoyed her first time at the beach and even Evan got to play in the water. Then he ate and slept wonderfully in the Ergo as the sound of waves soothed him to sleep.

Best. Time. Ever!

There's a sleepy baby in there

It was definitely a wonderful experience to have the pop-up tent ... but a word of caution: make sure you know how to fold the tent back up or you'll be that silly husband and wife trying to get that tent back into a little circle disc, then having it pop back out on you... Erm, yah, that was us!

But have no fear, as soon as we got home (yeah, we jammed a half folded tent into our truck) I finally figured out how to get that bugger back into its original packaging! Phew! (It wasn't that hard. It was just hard to try and figure it out in front of people haha)