Provincetown (Great trip, loooong post) :)

We just got home from a 4 day mini-vacation to Provincetown. Overall, it was a great trip. We decided to board Lainey near us so we could pick her up and take her to the beach if we wanted. Since the kennel closed at 5:00 Thursday, Charlotte, Lainey and I left around lunchtime. Stephe worked, then drove down to meet us late Thursday night. Charlotte and I dropped Lainey at the kennel then went exploring. After 3 hours in the car, she wasn't too happy to keep driving so I found a little playground for her to stretch her legs and have some fun. We left the park and saw what looked like a neat little trail on the side of the road. There were 8-10 other cars parked along the side of the road so I pulled out the stroller to check it out. I noticed a lot of shoes and even some bikes along the side of the trail and thought it was kind of funny but it didn't click as to why they were there. About 300 yards in, the nice dirt, wooded path turned into beach sand making it a LOT harder to push Charlotte. Then, not only was it beach sand but there was a steep hill. I still kept going figuring if I could just get to the top, I'd have a cool view of something. About 1/2 way up, a family was walking down and I asked what was out there. They said, oh, it's BEAUTIFUL! If you get to the top of this dune then go over another dune, it's the most spectacular beach. I thought cool. Charlotte will love to play in the sand and see the water. Well, after stopping to talk, I couldn't even budge the stroller. They laughed and said they'd been walking from the beach for 29 minutes. Needless to say, we turned around and went back to the car. I never even got to see the view!

The next day, we took Charlotte to a beach called Head of the Meadow. The park ranger told us there were decent waves and at low tide, they have over 300 seals come on to the beach to sun themselves. We happened to be there for high tide and never got to see the seals but the beach was still so pretty. I was excited for Charlotte to play in the waves. We couldn't even get set up before Charlotte was heading for the water. So I have no pictures of her in the waves. She was LOVING them too. Until after about 10 minutes of laughing and screaming, a wave came out of nowhere and kind of knocked her down a little. She didn't go under, I was ready and caught her, but she wasn't expecting it. That was it for Charlotte and the waves. She was perfectly happy to sit and play in the sand with a bucket of water. :)

That night Stephe and I decided to take Charlotte back to that playground for a little while. It was our way to beat the system while Charlotte got to have fun. Parking in Provincetown is tough, all the lots are a minimum of $10 and there really isn't much street parking. Well, that playground has some spots along the side of the road with signs posted that say playground parking only from 8am-6pm. We timed it so we'd finish up at the playground right around 6 and just walk downtown from there. Worked like a charm!! The playground was really nice, it had 2 climbing structures, one small and one big. I was amazed at Charlotte. She climbed up the big slide all by herself. It was so tall that I couldn't really reach the very top. Here's a picture of her climbing up then sliding down.















After playing for a while, we went to meet Grandma Sue and Grandpa Dick for a nice dinner at a restaurant with outside seating. Then walked around Commercial St. What an interesting area. It has really cute restaurants and galleries but the best part was the people watching. Here are a couple pictures of what we saw. A man in a bikini doing a hula hoop. He was actually really funny. If we didn't have Charlotte, we probably would have gone to his show.

Then, there were bubbles everywhere! Charlotte loved them. :)

Saturday was definitely the highlight of the trip. We went to the beach where Stephe's cousins were staying at the Race Point Lighthouse. It is by far the coolest beach I've ever seen. You have to have a 4WD vehicle to get there because you drive for a good mile or 2 through the sand dunes. The land is untouched out there and the scenery is really indescribable. My pictures certainly don't do it justice. You have to have your car inspected, have certain tools (a rope for towing, a piece of wood in case you get your wheel stuck, a shovel and a tire pressure gage). If your car passes, you have to watch a film strip on the rules and what to do if you get stuck in the sand. Our car did not pass. The first thing they checked was our spare tire which apparently is only a temporary so we weren't able to get a permit. It worked out fine though, we just parked at the visitor's center and hopped in with Dick & Sue. Stephe and Dick let the air out of the tires and off we went. Here are a couple picture of the drive.















We got on the beach around 11ish and stayed all day until probably 9 or 9:30 at night! Charlotte did great. Stephe was pretty proud of himself for getting Charlotte to fall asleep on him. I would have bet serious money that she would never fall asleep with so much going on. The nap wasn't long, maybe 20 minutes, but it must have been enough because she was very happy all day. She got to play with her cousins Grace, Jesse and Cassie. Grace is 3 and seemed to have a lot of fun playing with her. They kind of resemble each other, you can definitely tell they're related. I've been wondering where the heck the pin straight blond hair came from, turns out it must be a Landry trait. Grace had the same hair, only she's a little older so it was a little thicker.

Stephe's cousin Priscilla with her daughter Grace

Charlotte & Grace playing in the sand

Charlotte checking out the big hole Jesse dug

Stephe's cousin Laura taking Charlotte out on the kayak

Low tide

Daddy playing with Charlotte, the tide is starting to come in

Just chillin' having some cookies
Love this picture!
Even Lainey made a buddy

Charlotte having her first smore made by her big cousin Cassie

Here's the only shot I got of the sunset. I was actually just taking a picture of the kids making smores and it happened to be at sunset. You can also see the lighthouse in the background. Stephe's cousins have it rented for 2 weeks!!

We stopped off for a quick lunch on the way home. Here's Charlotte having her first fast food burger. She really seemed to like it but she was way more into the apples... She can't be my kid! :)


She just woke up as we pulled into the driveway. When she saw the house she got pretty excited. It made me feel good to see how happy she was to be home even while she was still groggy.