Packing for the beach!!

Ok so we are already here but, packing was a chore in and of itself. I pretty much knew what I wanted to pack for myself and had no real issues with that. (I've started wearing more dresses and it is SO easy to throw a few dresses and bathing suits in a bag and go.) Ayden's bag was a different story. Packing enough for a 7 month old is next to impossible- even if it is only for a week. And to be honest, I have an X-terra but I still only have so much room in the car. So packing the pack-n-play, high chair, bag of clothes, food for the week, diapers, wipes, diaper bag, stroller, bumbo seat, boppy pillow, bibs, blankets, bathtub, and the list goes on was a daunting task. I'm not writing this to complain however...I'm writing to let you know that I think I've figured out how to pack an infant- because let's be honest... He doesn't care if we didn't bring the pool floating contraption or not. So here is what I know... Packing clothes: Ayden's clothes are small in comparison to mine so why should his clothes take up as much space as mine?! So his outfits, to make it easier to dress him, were all packed in ziploc bags. It is so easy to choose the outfit without having to search through things that have gotten thrown into his bag. Soooooo easy! Plus, and no offense to Noah, but it makes it easy for daddy to dress the baby so he is presentable. Just grab a bag and put the clothes on. Also, and this is a plus, I can just grab the baggie and throw it in the beach bag as a back up outfit and I'm not worried about water or sand getting all over the outfit- just in case I use it tomorrow. Packing the food: Ayden is now on solids and we are making a lot of the food. So a few days ago we had a food day and cooked, mashed, and froze a ton of food. He is now on squash this week and we had made enough for the week. That was frozen in the baby bullet storage and then cantaloupe and strawberries are in ziploc bags. Packing the food wasn't terrible but I do recommend having a separate cooler for baby stuff. It was easy to feed him as soon as we got to the beach instead of having to unpack everything just to find his food. As for all the other stuff: High chair: We brought the bumbo instead of the high chair. The high chair isn't bulky but in all honesty, not needed. We had the feedings of solids in the bumbo and mom just fought a little harder. Stroller: Although we could still do the larger stroller that holds his car seat, the convertible stroller is a lot easier and he likes to watch everything at this age. The convertible stroller is smaller and easier to move around. I highly recommend the convertible stroller instead of the full monty. Crib: We obviously went for a pack-n-play but we are lucky enough to have bought a mini p-n-p and it is perfect for the beach. I highly recommend going with a mini...it's the best and easily portable. I think that's about it. Wish us luck that we can fit everything in the car when we leave. :-)