Bye bye beach

I got waylaid by some intestinal issues, so this beach vacay wrapup post is a little late... Oh well, better late than never. We took the girls to a dress rehearsal to see daddy play his tuba, and they nodded off after a few minutes. It was the quietest they have ever been, or probably ever will be, during a show. Maggie and I were thrilled because it meant we actually got to stay and hear the whole symphony rather than bolting for the nearest exit after a few minutes. This was the scene at intermission, and they stayed in these positions until the final applause—yesssss!!!




I finally figured out a hairdo that will hold up to a long day of rolling in the sand and playing in the waves—we now call it Beach Braids! This style stayed put, kept hair out of faces even in the midst of gale-force winds, and also stayed really clean, which is a huge bonus if you don't want to have to bathe your kids while you're on vacation. (What? We can't be the only ones who try to stretch out the time between baths as long as possible, can we?):

The girls played with their driftwood house every single day. And it was kind of fun to come back and see what the college kids had added to the house each night. Here Ro is sitting on her pretend potty while Ree makes an elaborate tiered sand cake:

I shot a few snippets of video with my purse camera. It was kind of windy, which you can hear on the video, and WAY too chilly for my body to get anywhere near the water, but that didn't deter our happy little beach girls in the slightest. They danced and danced in the waves:

During one of the wave dances, Ro tripped and got doused. Ooooo, she was mad. Wet and mad:

A quick shirt change, some baby powder and towelling, and she was ready to roll again. Which reminds me, do you guys pack baby powder when you go to the beach? I learned this trick from my sister-in-law. Just sprinkle the baby powder on wet, grimy, sandy parts and then you can easily rub the sand and wetness right off. It's like magic! Ro and Ree love to do it themselves. I have to drag along an extra-big Costco-sized container of powder they love it so much.

We had planned to use the wagon to haul all of our stuff around, but the girlies just found it irresistible and climbed aboard any time we were on the move. They looked pretty smug and cute up there, so we let them have their perch:
 

Goodbye Avila, we'll be back soon!  

PS: I took the girls in for a trim today (they get one every couple of months) and the hairdresser pointed out that they have split ends all over the place. She thought maybe I was blowdrying their hair all the time or they were always in the pool. But puh-leez, I don't even have time to blowdry my own hair (hello ponytails) and it's winter, so I think they've been swimming two times in the last six months. Does anyone else have this problem with your daughter's hair? Any idea what could be causing it or how to prevent more split ends in the future?