Beach Baby

We have spent the last week in Carilo, a little beach town about 4 hours outside of Buenos Aires city.  It has been a nice, quiet getaway (with some quirks, which I will discuss later) that allowed us to show Jon's parent's a different side of Argentina.  

This trip also marks Gretchen's first time on the beach - with the sand and the waves and the 1,000,000 things to put in her mouth.  She loved it!  We had so much fun playing with our little girl!  So, before I write a post about the ins and outs of Carilo as I see them, here are some pictures of our little beach baby.

This is the first time we put Gretchen on the sand, her face says it all: "I'm not totally sure what this is about, but I don't dislike it..."

After applying full sun protection to our fair child, through a very broad hat, loads of sun screen and this fashionable sun-blocking swim suit, we were ready for the water!  Here is Gretchen's first, very confident steps into the ocean.

And here she is dragging Poppa back to the water, which she did over and over again.  This little one has no fear.

We were able to hold her still for a quick family shot - but only for a second, she has things to do!

Like hunt for shells with Poppa.  She is lucky to have such a patient Poppa that helps remind her not to eat the shells. Even if she tries to eat them every 3 seconds.

Our good friends the Kempfs also decided to vacation in Carilo this week, and we are so glad they did!  We got to hang out with friends, and Gretchen was able to spend lots of time playing with their adorable daughter, Claire.  Here Claire is, showing off her Iowa-girl-side and eating some corn on the beach.

And a close-up of this little duckling in her super-cute robe.

Though Gretchen and Claire have lots of fun together, they are still 4 months apart, which is a lot in baby time.  I love this picture, Gretchen has this huge smile on her face, which Claire seems to be so sad that she can't move fast enough.  In due time little Claire!  

We did have some (lots) of questionable weather during the week. This particular day, it was sunny but extremely windy, so we took Gretchen upstairs to the terrace of our hotel which had some little kid toys.  

She was particularly fond of this little pen filled with plastic balls. She played with the balls, tossing them out of the pen, and putting them in again, longer than she'll play with any of her toys back home.  

Check out our big girl!  

We also stole a few of the balls to bring into the pool (the indoor pool, that we visited on a different bad-weather day).  The balls were a hit there too!  We decided to forego the bathing suit for the baby this time around, no one seemed to mind.

And one last shot of an incredibly happy baby, enjoying her warm, sunny days on the beach.  Happy February everyone!