camel rides on the beach

Adelaide and Arabella enjoyed a camel ride with their Daddy at Diani beach.  The owner of the three camels came by and stopped at the beach in front of our villa showing off the enormous beasts.   Two days before our departure, Addie was brave enough to ride which made her friend brave enough to try.  The next day all the kids wanted to go for camel rides.

They are truly magnificent beasts!

the beach at Diani

Justin and I are beach people.  We will forever prefer to vacation with an ocean out our front door.  When it was just the two of us we would lay on the sand and read until we got too crispy and they jumped in the cool ocean.  Our beach vacations are not nearly as lazy now.  Mostly, we are building sand castles or digging with plastic shovels, picking up seashells, holding tiny hands as our girls learn how to jump in the waves and holding them in the water; calming their fears of jellyfish (as we calmly move away from the stinging jellies-pretending nothing is wrong).

Diani beach has gorgeous powdery sand.  It's not quite as white as the sand in Boracay, Philippines but the Indian Ocean was a tad warmer than the Pacific.  The seashells were plentiful and perfect for our towering sand castles.

swimming at Diani

The villa had a wonderful private pool for us to enjoy. The kids were in heaven!  I cringed a little every time the girls chose swimming in the pool over swimming in the ocean, when given the choice.  The Indian Ocean was extremely warm with very small waves.  Perfect for swimming, but kids love pools don't they?  We tried to split the time evenly but Addie would choose the pool over the ocean every time.  I'm certain it's because she started swimming on her own while we were there and she wanted to practice her new skill.  Bella wore arm floats and Justin or I help Ashlynn. She also sat in a floating inner-tube that she liked a lot.  I almost wish the pool was refrigerated though because in the Mombasa heat the pool was just too warm.  My camera died a few days into the trip so I didn't get any photos of Addie swimming or jumping without her arm floats. The last few days on our time at Diania Bella chose swimming in the ocean with her Daddy, "sliding on the waves" as she called it.  We won our middle daughter over to the ways of the open ocean.

Diani Beach, Kenya

We have returned from eight fun filled days at the beach in Mombasa, Kenya.  We stayed at Diani Beach with two other families; seven kids total.  Addie was the eldest so little kid activities filled our Thanksgiving week vacation.  It was a great kid friendly place to vacation.  We rented a huge villa with a cook on staff and a housekeeper. We had a pool and beach access on the property.  The kids were all up before the sunrise every day ready for another full day of swimming, sand castle building and playing.

We were so eager to get out of Ethiopia that we left our home in a rush leaving it a disaster.  I truly believe that it isn't a proper family with small children vacation if you aren't absolutely exhausted at the end of your trip and ready to return home with a new sense of appreciation for your kitchen, soft bed and clean shower.  We made the most of every moment at the beach and came home with suitcases filled with salty wet sandy towels and swimming suits.

Here are some of the photos from the locations we stayed.