Beach Days

It's been a while but there's so many reasons why . . . how much time do you have? Right this minute, I have time all to myself as I sit here at my Dad's house in VC. Nathan is sleeping like a rock and I have a few minutes before this long day knocks me out too. We are visiting for a long weekend and enjoying every minute so far. I'm trying to make up for lost time too, revisiting the last month or so.

Late June we went to Carolina Beach with the fam for a weeks' vacation. We got a nice 3 BR house near the beach, and very close to an ice cream place too! Greg, Danielle and Lily came to Raleigh first to see our house, went to Myrtle with friends, then joined me, Leo, Nathan, Mom and Ed at the beach. Overall, there isn't a ton to tell which is the way a beach week should go. Mornings on the beach, afternoon naps, evening dinners (some in, some out) and later evening festivities if time allowed. Nathan fell in love with the ocean and everything about it. He loved the sand knocking him down and dunking him under. If I haven't said it before, I'm saying it now: The kid is a thrill seeker and I'm in trouble. He loved the sand and just being outside. His naps were long and peaceful every day on that living room couch. It takes a lot to wear him down but the beach did it!

I must say it was quite different from other vacations pre-kids. We had the extra grandparent hands to help us along, but having kids with you is just different. We love to sit around and play games but they didn't start until well after 9 and then we were all so tired from being parents all day that 11 was the cut off for bedtime. It's a bit of a let down. Not in a totally bad way - we love our kids! But it's just different when priorities change so much. Kids do that to you.

As for the kids together, Nathan enjoys when Lily is around. I don't know if it's vice versa but mostly because Nathan moves so fast he probably scares her. I tried to keep him out of her face but he was very curious and actually very loving. I'm glad they will get to see each other again soon.

We did the regular things: ice cream, mini-golf, local shopping, etc. The mini-golf was nothing amazing to see, but they had a good rain policy. If it rained before your 10th hole, you get a rain check for another day. It happened to be a potentially rainy evening so we took our time and stopped at the 10th and came back the next day to pretty much play again for free. And it was quite a storm that came through. It was a good decision on many levels- including leaving the kiddies home the 2nd time.

We took turns cooking. I like this a lot because I like to cook for others and I really like when others cook for me! If there is ever taco/ fajita night at Greg and Danielle's, get yourself invited. It's delish!

There was a small boardwalk area at CB, if you can call it that, that we visited one night. It had a free bouncy house, Spongebob walking around and some other free kid stuff. There were fantastic doughnuts there.Nathan was very excited to bounce (since he does all the time anyway) and enjoyed the carousel where they had a little carnival set up. We would go around and he would wave at the rest of our posse every time. He was so excited to wave he would wave early to another family altogether. He did not want to leave. I wanted more doughnuts. I guess it was a success if only for an hour or so.

We took a ferry from Fort Fisher to Southport one afternoon for lunch; Nonni and Lolo came to see us at the beach another day. We kept pretty busy and managed to keep it low key too.

The last night we went to Wilmington for dinner. We met up with Stan, Sharon and Logan again for dinner. The wait was looooong, but the food was good. And although the two boys were getting to me (they were being good, but they were being hyper boys and I was reaaalllly hungry) they did pretty well and had a good time together as always. It was nice to walk around the town a bit and discover Italian sodas with Greg and Danielle, a fence of keys (http://www.wwaytv3.com/fence_keys_makes_everyone_artist/03/2010)  and watch Nathan go on a horse-drawn carriage ride with Gigi and Grandpa Ed.

We all enjoyed the week together but were also happy to return to our own beds (the ones there were super squeaky!). We had adventures at home to look forward to and some involved seeing everyone again so it was nice to say "see ya soon!" and mean it. And so here we are. In NY. And the day is catching up with me now .... But soon I will catch you up again. Pictures too I hope.