Beach Family Pics

So while we were at the beach, we got some family pics taken since the entire family was there.  Here are a few of my favorites.

"Everyone look at my little sister, she is crying!"  - This would have been a great picture, Madison.

My parents and their grandkids.

The whole family.

Just the girls.

My two little blondes.

Towards the end, Carter got a little Carter.  We had them by the water taking pictures, but it escalated quickly.  The photographer got a bunch of great shots though.

My two kids summarized...

You think he is is capable of mischief?

Labor Day Weekend

When we got back from the beach and sent Avery off to Kindergarten, it was a 3 day weekend straight away and it couldn't have come at a better time.

We took Carter to the salon to get his hair done for Stephanie's upcoming wedding.  He was not impressed by sitting in the airplane and had to be held by Mommy the entire time.

After a quick lunch at 5 guys we headed to do some "They already started school, but we count this as back to school shopping."  Carter had a blast running down the aisles and everytime he got under a speaker pointing at it and starting to dance.  Avery didn't need any more encouragement to dance, so we were the family with our kids having a dance party in Old Navy.

On Sunday, we headed out to the park to let the kids run off a little energy compared to Saturday.  Avery showed us her impressive climbing skills.

Carter had a blast as well, but required a little more close supervision as he wanted to do everything that Avery did.

 

We may have also gone to the pool, but I don't see any pictures of that so I will substitute a picture in his "Muscle Shirt" according to Avery.

For Labor Day we decided to head out to Carowinds for at least one more trip before the end of the season.  First up was the carousel after Avery took a few turns on the big kid rides.

Carter didn't really like riding on the horses, but enjoyed the carriage.

The girls of course enjoyed the horses.

Since Carter can only do a few things, we took several rides on the kids train.  

He stayed pretty focused.

During lunch, Avery got to meet some of the peanuts gang.

Beach Trip Part 2

For the second half of our beach week, we moved down to the other end of the island to stay with my family and let my mom do all the cooking.

The 4 grandkids all looking at the camera and mostly smiling.  As you can imagine this was a monumental feat.

Carter really loved sitting down in a hole at the beach and getting as sandy as possible.  Anna was more than willing to help out.  Where are Carter's shoes was also a fun game that we played.

A couple of the mornings there were tide pools to play in which made the beach a lot safer for little man.  He enjoyed getting wet and throwing sand, but wasn't really afraid of the waves.  Which meant that we had to be pretty close to him at times.


He did enjoy a good adventure on his one, but mostly stayed nearby.

Nope, that isn't Avery playing with Carter...  Anna had a great time with two kids to play with, 3 if you count Uncle David.



Avery enjoyed having a little more attention and a few less kids running around.  She really liked taking "adult" walks after Carter had gone to bed with Mommy and Daddy on the beach and showing off her dance skills.

 

Madison could really take or leave the beach, but was pretty relaxed the entire time.
 


Aunt Sara bought an inflatable boat that the kids loved to take rides in.  It was exhausting for the parents hauling them in and out of the surf, but Uncle David was there to take a few turns.



Carter really enjoyed the tidal pools in the morning.  He ran around in them for at least an hour, splashing, throwing sand, or just sitting still.

Beach Trip Part 1

The week before we started school, we packed up the car and headed to Ocean Isle Beach for the week.  The first part of our trip was with our friends and all of our kids.  8 adults and 8 kids.  Overall, all of the kids played together really well.  There were the obvious meltdowns and arguments about toys, but having that many kids on different schedules and playing as hard as we did everyday they all did great.  The downside is we always had our hands full with a kid, 2 kids, 3 kids, or a bunch of beach gear so we didn't take a ton of pictures.  Here are some of the best.

The car was uh....full....

The first day we actually got all of the kids eating at the same time.

Both kids immediately headed out to the beach for some fun.

Carter really liked the sand, but was really excited about all the snacks we had packed.  It took at least 2 snack breaks to stay at the beach for 90 minutes to 2 hours each morning.  Some days that was not enough and he would fall asleep on the way back to the house, but he loved playing in the sand and the water.

We tried to get all the kids together for a group picture, but this was the best shot that I had.


We found that if we dug a hole, Carter would spend a good deal of time climbing in and out of it, rather than picking up handfuls of sand then coming to give you a sandy hug.

Avery and her buddy Easton working on digging Carter a hole.

Avery was a great big sister helping her little brother get as dirty as possible.  We are still finding sand in the car and in our bags.
   

A great time at the beach!