Lessons from the Beach; aka, Beach 101

i've been to the beach many times, but three years ago i i started taking beach 101 for kiddos. haha. no joke. the beach is SO different with kids. i will begin to lay out the things i have learned since my journey in 2009. disclaimer: my week is not over so there may be a part 2, if more lessons are learned.
*if you think you will get to lay out like you did before kids you are out of your mine. regardless who comes with you, you are their momma and what baby doesn't want their momma?
*when packing just pack it all. the things i knew he wouldn't want he wants and we have ended up buying when we got here. for example i knew he would only want to play trucks and left the sand castle stuff at home. of course he wanted to build castles so he could know them down with his trucks!!!
*bring meds! just because it is vacation doesn't mean you are void of illness. my good buddies the hanuers have had the greatest vaca sick stories and i never knew how bad it could be until we had our own story. this week we have ALL had some type of illness. Walker voided one night after eating a weird pasta dish. Davis puked every 30 mins, 6 times, until he was literally empty. about one hour into d's illness i was holding him as he was puking on the floor and i told walker i was gonna be sick. the next thing i knew Shelley was standing over me and there was three of her. PASSED OUT COLD! i'll omit the rest of the details but let's just say it did not end there with me. to say the in laws were tired of watching us drop like flies is an understatement. PACK ANY AND ALL MEDS YOU THINK YOU MIGHT NOT NEED!!
*bring a kiddie pool and fill with fresh water. this is an essential for washing the hands and just allowing the young ones to sit in the "clean water" to wash off, play, etc. also, you will need a pretty good size bucket to fill it up, unless your daily ex is gonna be walking back and forth to the water hose!! (learned the hard way!!!)
*DO NOT LET SALT WATER AND SUNSCREEN IN YOUR KIDS EYES. accident or not you do not, i repeat, you do not want salt water and the sunscreen mixture in your babes eyes. it took almost an hour to calm d down because he could not quite rubbing his eyes and kept spreading more and more sunscreen, salt, and sand in his eyes as he would rub. bring a cold wash cloth to the beach in the cooler to wash their eyes if this occurs. we ended up just taking a "ittle bitty name" as d would call it, which made it all better!
*spray sunscreen may be easier but it does not go far. we went through one bottle of spray screen after covering 3 or 4 bodies. in my opinion it is worth it for the little ones (i used only one bottle on d all summer long, last year). not only is it quicker if you have restless babes and it stays on great. i like the target brand btw! the today show said it was the best too! i say all this to say bring plenty of screen, you're gonna need it! d browns like a biscuit, but i still kept him coated.
*a hat or sun glasses are essential for kids and adults. it keeps you from squinting and allows your kiddos a break from staring at the bright sun. d has white blonde hair and i was scared his head would burn so we kept a hat on and it not only kept him from burning, but allowed him to see without the awkward squinting in the sun.
*most condos have a washing machine, so bring fewer clothing items so you can pack all the beach nessiteis and just wash your clothes! seriously with just one kid our jeep was packed to the max and we had no room to spare. packing less clothes was our only option since we had so any other essentials we NEEDED! haha
i am sure i am leaving off some of the lessons, but it is getting late and i