Devastated Without the Camper

So. It's the boys' fall break, and I convinced Al to take us to the beach. It's the first Halloween that we have not spent at home. We got this hotel suite for super cheap, but it is soooo nice. Especially considering our typical outdoorsy type of traveling accomodations. Alan and I have our own room and the boys are sleeping on a Murphybed in the living room. Have so never seen one of these in person. Matthew and Michael were happy as clams and were so totally wiped out when we finally got the lights out that they went right to sleep. We checked on them about 15 minutes later, and this is what we found:

That's Matthew with his arm around Michael. And both of them wrapped up in their Beloved Blankies. I had visions of the bed flying up into the wall with them snuggled under the covers in the middle of the night, but that did not happen. However, I'm struck with what a perfect place that might be for "time out"...
All of us adore the beach (except maybe Alan...he's no Beach Boy despite the grinning picture below). It's like going to the World's Biggest Sandbox for M&M, and they spent the whole time running back and forth between the hole they dug (where Michael was flinging sand) and the ocean.

This is the first year where we don't feel like we have to quite watch our kids like a hawk. I looked for sharks' teeth (hi Mary!) and found six. Alan just kind of tooled around helping the boys and checking out his hot wife. HA! Just checking to see if you're still reading. The temperature was in the 60s, so swimming was not really an option. Because we're not FOOLS. But it was so, so comfortable to be out on the sand.

The boys did end up getting a bit wet. Where there's water, they're boys. And doggone it, when you have to fill your bucket with sea water to fill up your sand pit, it's a sacrifice you have to make. Michael was like a little sandpiper darting all around. This was maybe his one still moment.

Our hotel also has this great water park, so even though it's too cold to swim outside, we can take advantage of the heated pools, water slides, and lazy river. Matthew was all over the place. The two of us had waterslide races. Michael was timid about the lazy river, but was a bit more amenable to giving it a whirl after being promised a brownie when we got back to the room. Yes. I believe in child bribery. Here, Alan and Michael are squirting each other with spouting elephants. Not quite as, you know, threatening as the lazy river.

Tonight: a little pirate and dinosaur will pay a visit to Broadway at the Beach for an evening of trick-or-treating.