First thing's first, thanks to the Cooks for letting us stay in their phenomenal house. There was plenty of space, not to mention everything we could have possibly needed (not just basics but I'm talking beach and pool toys, chairs, boogie boards, etc. too!). And clearly it didn't hurt that the house is absolutely beautiful! Here's the view we woke up to every day:
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| You can't see it, but there's also a pool and hot tub on the ground level, and both pools are heated! Luckily, we had the perfect weather (especially considering it was the first week in October) and didn't need any of it.
My Mom takes an annual beach trip with her sisters and parents, so when Dan, Lilly and I arrived on Wednesday night, they had all been there for several days. I was so glad we got to spend some time with everyone before they headed out on Thursday. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of that, but Aunt Jo took two good ones on Thursday morning that she sent me.
As I mentioned above, we couldn't have asked for better weather...it was honestly perfect. So we spent a LOT of time on the beach, which was fine by everyone, especially Lilly.
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| I know it's hard to see because it's a long way in the distance, but she was going after a bird in this one. She was obsessed with them, and in this photo she was chasing the bird with her little hands out saying, "Hold you, baby bird! Hold you!" Unfortunately for my sweet girl, "baby bird" didn't want to be held. |
It's hard to believe that L used to hate the sand. By the end of our stay, she had to be hosed down thoroughly (in addition to a naked swim in the pool) before going inside because she was always covered in it! She dug lots of holes and looked for sand crabs with Daddy.
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| Day 1 was not one of L's best days, she was a tad cranky and out of sorts (luckily that mood only lasted a day!). She refused to put on a bathing suit after nap but still wanted to go to the beach, so we left her in her PJ's. She didn't mind one bit! |
It was cousin Mason's first beach trip! He had a blast as well, as evidenced by some later photos. :-)
Another obsession of L's were seashells. I swear the first day we were on the beach she spent the whole day collecting them and putting them in various containers (and don't even TRY to pour any of them out, trust me). At one point I think she spent at least an hour and a half trying to see how many shells she could stuff into a water bottle. She could not be bothered to do anything else, it was hilarious!
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| Mason is clearly intrigued by the beach! But he had a neat little beach bungalow set up. |
I mentioned above that L loved the sand, but the hilarious part about that is she would play in it for a few minutes and then immediately want to wash her hands (she is her mother's child for sure!). At any given moment there were approximately 5 buckets full of water and she would just go down the line and rinse her hands off in each one. Hilarious, I tell you!
There were a lot of picnic lunches and snacks on the beach. No one complained.
Baby Boy made an appearance as well. I got brave and decided to rock a two piece for the first time in (literally) years, hence the whiteness of the whale belly (seriously I have not worn a bikini since way before I was even pregnant with L). I surely will not post a full-body photo and I almost didn't post this one either, but I figured he deserved some acknowledgement!
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| I don't remember at what point we had this genius idea, but we filled the toy bin with water and Lilly had a BLAST. It was like her own personal swimming pool. More pics of this below somewhere. |
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| Not sure why my Dad is carrying him like this, maybe he has a poop? Anyway, PawPaw and Mase match! |
Lilly decided at some point that yoga on the beach is the best.
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| Hilarious, yes? |
PawPaw builds the best sand castles!
One of the boys (PawPaw I think?) bought a kite thinking it would be fun for Lilly, but unfortunately we couldn't get her to sit still long enough to realize that the kite was connected to the string, so she lost interest pretty quickly. Everyone else had fun with it, though.
Lilly did, however, develop a new-found passion for bocce.
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| More bird chasing... |
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| ...and seashells. |
There was a fish that was on one of the kitchen tables as decoration, and Lilly thought he was hilarious. She wanted to share all of her meals with him. I actually didn't mind, because a few times this was the only way I could coerce her into sitting still long enough to eat! "Fishy is hungry, Lilly. Will you feed him?"
Thankfully, the weather held out until our last day in Ocean Isle (it was gross most of the day, although we did get to go out for about an hour for one last beach hour). It was pretty yucky for most of the morning, so we took our time getting breakfast ready and also took the opportunity for lots of snuggling and a cousin photo shoot in matching (monogrammed, of course) outfits that I bought them before Mason was born.
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| Dan had fun with playdoh, too! |
I was also secretly a little thankful for one crappy weather day because it gave us an excuse to go to the outlets. Lilly of course scored pretty big, and loved riding around in the shopping car.
We haven't gotten to go on a family vacation in a few years, and I am so thankful we had this time together. We had an absolute blast, and I can't wait to (hopefully) do it again next year!
This preggo is too tired to think, but hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! We surely did, so be on the lookout for tomorrow's weekend recap.
Sarah
Just wait until you have 2 kiddos in those pictures! It is so hard to narrow down total cuteness :)
ReplyDeletePS. Love Lilly's red bathing suit!