Eliza's first beach trip

With the warmer weather starting and a free Sunday, we decided to take Daniel and Eliza to the beach - Eliza's first trip. After having breakfast, we packed our beach bags and headed to Dee Why. After driving around a couple of times to try and find a parking spot, we scored a great place next to the beach and in the shade. Winner! Eliza had a little nap on the way there. I was so excited to be going to the beach again - first time in a while.

Ready to go

Daniel is looking quite grown up, wearing boardies, sun glasses and thongs. He was pretty excited to be at the beach again.

Beach boy

The boys headed down to the water while I helped Eliza get into her swimmers (she looks so cute!). She was pretty happy to put her feet on the sand for a little bit.

This is sand!

 When we went down to the water, one kid was very happy and the other wasn't. 

Not happy!

As you can see, Daniel was in his element... Eliza was not very happy at all. I think the difference from a really warm day to the chilly water didn't work for Eliza. The poor little thing. When the waves went out she seemed to settle down but as she re-entered the water, she became upset again.

So Eliza spent a little bit of time in my arms while Daniel enjoyed playing with his bucket and spade in the water and sand.

I had another go with Eliza asking Daniel to hold her hand. It still didn't go so well.

I decided to give her a feed to see if that helped her settle a bit (she did have a nap on the way so was due for a feed). While feeding her, she fell asleep in my arms... maybe her nap in the car was too short. She then proceeded to have a nap that went for 45mins-1hr. Possibly another reason why she wasn't very happy when putting her feet in the water. She is just so cute while she sleeps!

While Eliza slept, James and Daniel had a wonderful time by the water's edge. The built sandcastles, dug a hole to make a puddle pool, went into the waves, watched other people playing in the sand, and lots more. It would have been nice to have joined in and played with him too, but that time will come later as Eliza grows up. It was lovely watching James and him interact.

The boys building sand castles and making a puddle hole

Throwing Daniel in the air

Playing in his hole

After changing the kids back into their clothes, ready to head home, we stopped at a cafe so James could get a coffee and I could get an icecream. There were some kids seats out the front so we had Daniel sit there and Eliza sat next to him. They are pretty cute kiddies!

I'm looking forward to our next family beach trip!