While my family might not be hitting the beach this summer, I thought I could just do some wishful thinking.  I love the beach, it is for sure one of my “happy places”.  I love the warm sun, the water, lazy days, lots of yummy food, toes in the sand, beautiful views and time spent disconnected and away!  We took a trip to the Cayman Islands the day after Christmas thru New Years to celebrate my MIL 60th birthday, and it was the first time we took the kids to the beach.  I reached out to my peeps on facebook for some friendly family beach advice, and it was so helpful I thought I’d share it with you!

• pack plenty of sunscreen [it’s typically way more expensive in beach towns]
• some people said to bring your own beach toys, and I brought a few but didn’t need to.  The condo’s we stayed at had a ton of beach toys that other guests had left that were sort of “communal property”  – but if you are driving to your destination, you might have more room to pack these!
• bring your own snorkel and goggles if you are into that!

• we brought these fun baby floats as well as their puddle jumpers – it was nice for babies and for us!  easy to pack and we just blew it up when we got there
• BABY POWDER!  I didn’t NOT know this trick before, but it works WONDERS when you are trying to get sand off babies…just toss it in your beach bag and put on your kiddos when you are ready to go inside! genius!
•  lavender oil for sunburns, or aloe vera gel

• rash gaurds + hats were a must for us!
• swim diapers, and more swim diapers
• light weight stroller

• don’t leave your favorite little puppy at home 😉
• I brought mac + cheese, “squeezys” as I like to call them, apple sauce and some other staple snack items
• plastic reusable sippy cups, and bowls were easy for lunch on the patio

• water shoes – this was perfect for us because the beach we went to was sorta rocky
• I always [while swimming] take a warm comfy t-shirt and clean diaper with me so they can get all comfy cozy after a morning of swimming + get ready for their nap!

other ideas that we didn’t do this time were:

• inflatable baby pool for the beach
• pop up tent for beach

these were harder since we were flying + in another country, but if we were road tripping to the beach this would have totally been on our list!

overall, a trip to the beach was so fun with the kids!  they just love being outdoors, in the water, and in the sand.  they are happy with whatever they have.

if you are going on a beach trip this summer, I’d love to hear what you would add to this list!