When both sets of grandparents AND great-grandma Cuca are in town,
what do we plan to do?
Head to the beach!
We had a glorious long weekend at Carolina Beach.
We stayed in the left half of this house, A Deck Above.
It was PERFECT for us. Plenty of room for everyone.
We started planning this vacation months ago, and I'm all about taking kids out of school for family time. Unfortunately, Brandon's high school does not agree with my sentiment. If you miss more than FOUR DAYS in the semester, you have to make up the time you missed, staying after school or coming in on a SATURDAY. Seriously? Boo on that. He was sick several times this year (I blame early morning seminary) and had already exceeded his four absences.
So, I booked the house from a Thurs-Tues. However, Brandon and I had to stay behind so he could go to school on Friday (at least half the day) and we had to come home Monday evening, so he could be here for school on Tuesday. (Monday was a holiday). It still felt like a wonderful break, but I wish B and I could have been there the whole time.
Everyone else had beautiful beach weather on Friday.
Care Bear was excited to boogie board.
And she did awesome!
When you're that light, the waves can really take you!
B and I arrived late Fri afternoon.
Oh, how the beach makes my soul smile!
Everyone else was already done for the day,
but Andrew came down with me to boogie board
for a little while. So fun!
We went out to dinner that night at The Deck House,
our favorite seafood restaurant.
Crab legs!!
On Saturday, we enjoyed another FABULOUS
day at the beach. A tropical storm was coming through.
The waves were bigger and more powerful than I've
ever seen at Carolina Beach.
And when it started raining in the early afternoon,
we ran back to our house.
But it was a beautiful morning in the sand and sun!
Shell/mussel hunting with Gigi
Hopscotch with Grandma S
The little boys from the family next to us wanted to
hang out with Brandon. He's so good with kids.
That night was Caroline's birthday.
She planned out the menu for her birthday dinner:
Steak, rolls, twinkies (which we forgot),
potato wedges, cheetos puffs, and strawberry fanta.
Gigi also made a scrumptious fruit salad to go with it.
In her happy place--with steak grilling on the patio!
A table for ten. Loved it!
Dinner was a hit!
Then cake and presents.
She got a chalk bag for climbing and a certificate for another horse ride.
After dinner, she wanted to go fly kites at the beach.
She is such a fun girl!
She even took a turn flying our fun two-stringed kite.
She did pretty well!
As much as her daddy wishes she would stay little,
this girl is growing up! She is such a happy, smiley,
easy-to-get-along-with girl. We LOVE her.
On Sunday, we went to church,
took naps, and played games.
The funniest ones were an LDS Headbands game where
every other answer was "John the Baptist." The girls and I
laughed and laughed at that one. We also had fun playing
One Night Ultimate Werewolf.
We are not very good liars. :)
That evening, I talked everyone into heading down
to the beach for family portraits.
It's so rare that we're with both sets of grandparents.
Love it!!
Wish we would have a little more blue sky.
But still... we're at the beach! :)
When we first got there, there was a beautiful rainbow.
But I couldn't figure out how to fit all of us AND
the rainbow in the pics. :)
If you look REALLY close, you can
see it above Andrew's head in this one.
And then the kids humored me with
their jumping and stunts.
So fun.
She called this her "majestic unicorn"
B can front flip and land it in the sand!
Not sure what was going on here...
And on Monday, we had one more day to soak up the sun.
So fun to see both sets of grandparents
happily married after all these years.
Grateful for their examples.
I bought this awesome little "surf hopper" ball that
bounces on the water. We had a lot of fun with that.
Andrew's just about ready to catch it in this pic.
We tried to stop at Britt's donuts...
the line was too long.
We gave up.
After our beach time on Monday,
we headed to Squiggley's for some yummy, yummy ice cream.
The line was also long there.
But we didn't give up. :)
After all that fun, Brandon, Whitney, Grandma Cuca and I
headed home. (Darn school responsibilities!)
Care Bear stayed with her daddy and grandparents one
more night before they headed home, too.
Lots of fun memories!
