Summer beach hacks

This past weekend we went on our first vacation as a family a 5 and our first one ever with a newborn. Our stay in Ocean City, MD was more than perfect and all 3 kids had a blast. I did a lot of research before the trip on all of the life hacks to make our trip as easy and fun as possible and below I'm going to share with you my favorite hacks, the ones that worked, and the ones that didn't... plus some important lessons I learned along the way!

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1. Utility Carts

I've seen all the craze on social media this year about bringing a utility wagon to the beach to make carrying all of your gear a breeze. So we went to Walmart before the trip and bought one that happened to be on sale for $44 that I had seen in viral Facebook and Instagram posts before. Man was I excited to not have to lug all of our stuff down to the water. But to our mistake the cheaper utility carts are not beach friendly! The second the wheels touched the sand they locked up and my poor husband ended up pulling a 200 pound sled through the sand and back. Needless to say we only used it once and will be returning it. I'm sure the pricier carts with the inflatable tires or bigger wheels would work just fine so if you're looking into this life hack you definitely get what you pay for.

2. Makeup Brushes For Sunscreen

I always buy the spray on sunscreen for the girls simply because I hate having sunscreen all over my hands. And applying it to tiny faces without getting it in there eyes but covering the whole face is hard. I got a cheap elf makeup brush at target pre trip and used that to apply the sunscreen to their faces and it worked wonders! I will definitely be keeping a makeup brush in my beach bag from now on!

3. Less Might Just Be Best

Imagine this... you're getting ready for a morning at the beach. You've packed up the perfect beach bag. a towel for everyone, the brand new beach chairs you bought for your toddlers, a cooler of snacks, all the sand toys your kids could dream of. But after dragging it all down to the beach in your useless utility cart you quickly realize your efforts were a complete waste. The kids have no desire to stop playing to eat... or sit in their new chairs for that matter. They fight over ALL of the sand toys because of course there wasn't two of everything. That was my reality on our first morning there. So I decided for our Second and subsequent trips down to the beach I would pack light. A blanket for Everett, some water, and a shovel and pale for each of the girls ended up being all we needed to enjoy the beach. There was no fighting, no heavy bags to tote back, and my husband and I got to sit back and actually enjoy ourselves in the sand.

4. Timing Is Key

The most stressful part of the beach was trying to keep Everett out of the sun. Babies under 6 months can't wear sunscreen and the last thing we wanted was for Everett to burn. We had a Beach umbrella from amazon but we could not get it to stay put in the sand for the life of us (maybe another case of you get what you pay for). So after our first failed trip we decided we would just save the beach for early in the morning and later in the evening when the sun was behind the buildings and we could sit in the shade. This ended up being perfect. Everett loved laying on his beach blanket that I found in the target dollar section and it was less hot so nobody was sweaty and cranky. The few times we did go down to the water mid day when the sun was out I kept Everett in his carrier where he could be protected from the sun which he also loved! I have The ErgoBaby carrier and it has a nice head cover to keep him completely protected. The carrier and timing our trips with the sun made everything so much less stressful for us!

Even though that first beach day was a little stressful we were able to quickly figure out what worked best for us and the rest of the vacation couldn't have been more perfect! We were able to spend so much time on the water thanks to these tips and tricks and everybody had a great time! I hope some of these can help you in the future too!