Beach Trip

So in August we actually took a full week's vacation at the Beach with my family.  We have done a lot of things the past few weeks of which blogging is not one of them.

Carter of course had a blast playing in the sand.  Here he is getting buried.

 The eclipse happened while we were at the beach.  We all had funny looking glasses to watch the eclipse.  We only got 99.3% coverage, which you would think would have been good enough, but it was not.

 The kids has blast on the beach all week.  Avery mastered boogie boarding and I mastered pulling her out into the waves.  Carter mastered playing in the sand and getting himself buried again.

Gigi brought some random toys, so the kids formed a superhero group and fought crime after dinner.

It was so much fun to watch these two play together all week.  There were fights of course, but they really do love each other.

 Doing their beach yoga while keeping an eye on birds to chase.

Did I mention that Carter really really enjoyed the sand?

 The motley crew for the week.

Beach Trip

So while I went on a golf trip in early June, Laura took the kids to the beach with Mary and Julie.

The first day was rainy, so they took the kids to the aquarium.  Avery touching a starfish...You knew Carter was going to do it.  I am not sure how Laura kept him out of the tank...

 What I imagine the weekend was like...

They did get some beach time the first day, so Carter was loving all the dirt he could play with.

A double rainbow!

 Somone didn't take a nap, so he fell asleep during dinner.

 Avery is such a good big sister.  There are so many pictures of her helping her brother build sandcastles that I am sure he stomped down as soon as they were done.

 Mommy and Boogie.

 All 5 kids.  Carter, Avery, Reese, Easton, and Ellie

 Carter is not a fan of selfies...

 This is more of his style...

 I am sure snack time on the beach is very popular...

Carter and future girlfriend, Ellie Mae.

 Both kids being a boss in their own special way...

 Little kid tea parties.  I am not sure how much pretending to drink the pool water was done vs actually drinking the pool water, but they look cute doing it.

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!

At the Beach

Robert has an annual golf trip in Myrtle Beach with some guy friends.  This year the kids and I hitched a ride with him and dropped us off at Ocean Isle Beach.  We had a short vaca with Mary and her kids (Jimmy went golfing with Rob) and stayed at Mary's parents' house on the second row.  We arrived late Wednesday night so we had 3 full days of just the moms and kids at the beach!  

It actually went very smooth all things considered.  Mary and I greased up the kids, packed the wagon up and got to the beach by around 10:30 am both Thursday and Friday.  The big kids could have splashed around all day, but the one year olds were done after and hour and we pushed it to 1.5 hours.  Then we would go in for lunch and a long nap and finish the day around the pool. 

It was a fun trip - hopefully daddy will let us do it again next year :)   

We made it!

Easton and Avery dancing in the water

 Carter's favorite thing to do on the beach - eat snacks!

 We got seashells!

Tea party at the pool with Ellie

Carter and Ellie looking for the garbage truck one morning

The shirt says it all - "Big trouble in a little shirt"

One morning Mary's parents set up a "treasure hunt" for the big kids

Mary's mom took Avery out for some boogie board practice

One evening, we bravely loaded all the kids in the minivan and went out for dinner!  Mary and I joked about how much going out to dinner at the beach has changed since our high school days.  We left the house at 4:45 pm with no shower or make up on and 4 kids in a van.  Change is good :)

All aboard!

Mary's mom bought the kids matching OIB shirts at the local souvenir store

 Group shot at the restaurant on the marina

Carter was having NO part of the kids only group shot

The kids were so well behaved at dinner so we stopped on the way home for Sunset Slush at the OIB pier.  It's good stuff.

Watching their nightly cartoons on the iPad.

Avery reading a story to Easton before nap time