Jaxsen's First Trip to OC

Shortly after Jaxsen's birthday, we were treated to a mini-vacation for some much needed R&R. The Believe in Tomorrow foundation generously gave us a room in their House by the Sea respite where we could relax and unwind all while having a blast at the beach. Believe in Tomorrow is a foundation that provides respite housing services to critically ill children and their families. Their goal is to send families away to one of their clean, comfortable houses to help them rejuvenate and reconnect. They know how important it is to have time to relax and be together in a stress-free environment during the child's exhausting medical treatment. We were so thankful to be on the receiving end of this amazing organization.

It has been a crazy year since Jax's diagnosis, with  frequent trips to the hospital and a jam packed schedule of events for cancer awareness and  research. It has therefore been so difficult to find some time to just sit back, decompress, and relax. So, needless to say, we were all very excited when we were given the opportunity to go the beach and take in the sun. The whole week leading up to the trip, Jax would constantly talk about the beach and he kept asking, "Can we go to the beach now?"

It was Friday, time to head out on our great ocean adventure. We were all packed and ready to go...with enough stuff to stay a month! Jax was so excited that he stayed awake during the entire 3-hour-trip. He watched in amazement as we towered over the bay while crossing the Key and Bay bridges. We played games like I Spy to pass the time until we reached the bridge to Coastal Highway, which is when I queued up the Jurassic Park theme song (yes, we own the soundtrack because of someone's obsession with the movies) to listen to as we made our way from the inlet to our destination on 66th Street.

As we arrived to the beach house and made our way up to our room, we were greeted by a bunch of sea critters scattered throughout the walkway. We opened the door to our house to find a cozy room with warm, welcoming colors and a basket filled with toys and fun activities for us to do during our stay. After we got unpacked and settled, Jax took a quick nap while Meg made a schedule so we could pack in as many activities as possible. As soon as Jax woke up, we made our way down to the boardwalk and set up camp on the beach.

    

The weather wasn't really ideal for early spring, but we didn't complain. We were all wearing pants and hoodies to stay warm, and even though the sand had a chill, it felt good between our toes. This was the most vacant we had ever seen the beaches there. It was good for Jax though. He could run around wherever he pleased and we didn't have to worry about anyone bothering him.

Jax had a blast. He filled up his dump truck with sand and pushed it all over the beach while Meg and I played catch. We made the best of the weather we were given. Since it was windy, we decided it would be a perfect time to fly his kite. The line was unwound all the way and the kite was flying way above our head. Jax did a good job of piloting his first kite... until he thought it would be more fun to let go of the string and watch daddy run like a madman to catch it before it hit the only other family on the beach!

After an hour or two, we decided it was time to get some food in our bellies. Believe in Tomorrow treated us to a meal at The Dough Roller and ice creams at Dumser's. It was perfect ending ending to our first day at the beach.

The next day, Jaxsen decided we should go back to the beach to finish playing. So we began our second adventure in the sand, but this time we went closer to the inlet so Jax could see the giant Ferris Wheel and walk under the pier. Once we arrived, Jax started running all over the beach while pushing his dump truck.  

           

He finally lost steam after about two hours later, so made our way to Thrashers for a quick boardwalk snack. While eating, Jax saw all f the lights and heard the sounds of the arcade, so we went inside where we played games, won tickets, and even posed for a photo-booth shoot. Jax ended up leaving the arcade with three bouncy balls, a rubber snake, and a snorkel. His charm got him more than the 35 tickets we earned. He only had enough for one bouncy ball, but the lady behind the counter couldn't help but give Jax all that he wanted.

On our way back to our house, we stopped at the indoor pool at the Holiday Inn, which was conveniently located next door to the beach house. We had the whole place to ourselves, and there was even a one-foot-deep kiddie pool just for Jax. We brought water squirters which we used to soak each other from across the pool. Jax even swam all by himself... with a little help from his floatie. He could not stop smiling and laughing. It was getting late in the afternoon though, and the little man needed a nap. So we gathered up all of our pool toys and made our way back to our house so Jax (and mama and daddy) could rest.

After nap time, it was time for a nice dinner at Mancini's. Believe in Tomorrow had reserved a table and treated us to an Italian dinner for the family. The atmosphere was comfortable and homey, and the food was delicious. They even had gluten-free pasta for Jax and Meg. We were all stuffed to the gills, so we went to the boardwalk to chase Jax around and burn off some of those calories. We played in the sand again and we even got Old Time photos taken.  We all posed as pirates with swords and treasure. This would sound fun for pretty much any three-year-old boy, but Jax wanted nothing to do with it at first. His attitude changed once he was given his own pirate treasure, and you would never guess he was sad at all by his silly face in the picture.

We were all ready to head in for the night to relax. On the way home we stopped at Dumser's again. It was too hard to resist their yummy sundaes and milkshakes. We had planned on having a family movie night, but it was too late and we were all beat once we got settled in. Day two was a success.

Before we knew it, it was our last day at the beach. The time seemed to go by in a flash with all the fun activities that Believe in Tomorrow had planned. We woke up early with Jax and packed all our stuff and cleaned the room, then we went back to The Dough Roller for a big breakfast. We fueled up for our last hoorah.

There was a dinosaur-themed mini-golf place right next door to The Dough Roller, so of course we took our little future paleontologist over to see the dinos. He loved running around and telling us the names of the dinosaurs that he knew. We had planned on only looking at the dinos instead of playing an actual game of mini-golf, but the girls behind the counter gladly gave Jax a club and ball, free of charge. I quickly taught Jax how to play. He was a natural! He even got a hole-in-23 ;)

After we visited all of the dinosaurs, we made our way to the boardwalk for one last visit. We rented some bikes and enjoyed a brief bike ride on the boardwalk. It was so nice to be able to go for a family bike ride  right next to the ocean. Jaxsen soon decided that he would rather play on the beach than ride bikes though, so we returned our bikes and made our way down to the ocean.

Jaxsen had so much fun getting as close to the freezing water as possible, and then running away before it touched him. He even dragged poor mama into that game, although she wasn't as good at it as he was, and her feet got soaked! We then spent some time digging in the sand and spelling words with shells. We didn't want to leave the beach, but it was getting late in the afternoon and Jax needed his nap or else he would soon be grumpy. We reluctantly packed up all of our belongings and slowly made our way back to the car. We were sad to leave, but we were taking with us so many memories that are definitely going to last a lifetime. Let the countdown to our next family vacation begin!