Summer 2014 - Days 18 - 25

Saturday, July 5th - Day 18 through Saturday, July 12th - Day 25 (Beach Week)

We just returned from the Everitt family beach trip at Topsail Island.  We go every year and it's one of my favorite weeks out of the entire year.  I love Topsail.  I've been vacationing there since I was an infant and I love that Ryan is building his childhood memories there, too!  We spent a whole week lounging around, building towers and trains (surprise!), eating wonderful food, being on "island time" and enjoying each others company.

Some of the highlights of the week:
--going for morning runs on the beach (just me, not Ryan)
--walking on the Surf City Pier at night
--catching a starfish
--seeing the sea turtles (note: standing in line to see them was NOT a highlight)
--building sand castles
--playing on the bunk beds in the kids room
--jumping over the waves
--running to the pier (or at least trying to)
--looking for big shells
--the beach balls
--the hot-air paper lanterns (so cool!)
--seeing fireworks from the pier at night
--making ice cream in a bag
--building towers with Julien
--splashing in the tidal pools
--the hose to spray off our sandy feet


Some funny Ryan quotes from the week:
--"Daddy, can I have a lot of ice cream?"
--Levi: "Ryan, how many times do I have to tell you?"  Ryan: "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.....twenty"
--"you're gonna like it!" (said in a sing-y song voice)
--"Mommy, I like the ocean.  Can we jump over ALL the waves?"

Here are some of my favorite pictures to document our beach week (note: all of these are from my phone, I'll upload the ones from my real camera later):

"Is it time to go to the beach?  I need to go to the beach!"

We're almost there!  We're almost there!

The Swing Bridge!  I love this bridge - it has so much character and charm!

Our view for the week!

A view from our walkway

Ryan, taking it all in

On the beach!

Testing out the water

Watching the waves

Catching some air with Daddy

Running away from some waves

One of my favorite pictures of Ryan from the beach

Running along the beach

One of my favorite pictures of Ryan from this week

My view during my favorite time of day

Eating breakfast in the morning with Levi and Julien

What's more fun than building trains at home?  Building trains at the beach!! 

Ice cream in a bag

"I ate it ALL up!"

"Come on, Mom!  Let's go down to the beach!"

Look at all those waves!

Swinging on the bench

"Are we up high, Mommy?"

LOVED the view, especially at sunset

Heaven

We would make a point to go on the deck right before sunset and watch and relax.  By far, one of my favorite things to do at the beach.

Creepy, but cool picture of Ryan on the Pier at night

Ryan and Levi playing games on the iPad

Very absorbed into the game

View from Sears Landing Grill & Boat Dock (favorite lunch spot)

At the sea turtle hospital!

Waiting a very very long time to see the sea turtles

In the turtle hospital

In the turtle hospital

Another picture of our fantastic view!

Julien and Ryan building towers and trains in the morning

The ceiling of the Crab Pot

Watching paper lanterns fly in the sky at night

Our playground for the week

"Yes, Opa, feed me while I watch my Daniel Tiger episode"

Dinner at Beauchaines 211

Our silly boy!

Our last night!  The moon was gorgeous!

All in all, it was a fantastic vacation - can't wait until next year's trip!!

Now, it's off to California for the next 12 days for more family fun time!

Summer 2014 - Day 17

Friday, July 4th - Day 17

Happy 4th of July!!  I absolutely LOVE the 4th of July - I love the cookouts, the gatherings of friends/family, the summer heat, the pool, the excitement, the relaxation, and of course, the fireworks.  It runs a very very very close second behind Christmas in my book in terms of my favored holidays.  This year, Ryan is FINALLY old enough to stay up late enough to watch the fireworks.  He's seen fireworks a few times here and there and has LOVED them, so I was really excited to show him the real deal with fireworks with a July 4th display!

We started the day building towers and trains (of course).  We took a quick trip to Trader Joe's, and then we went to our neighborhood pool for their July 4th celebration.

Still loves the water squirters!

Love this picture!

Enjoying the cookout at the pool!

Taking a break!

Ryan had a great time at the pool and it was such a fun atmosphere there!  The pool had a DJ set up, they organized a big neighborhood potluck cookout, and lots of fun games for kids AND adults (we didn't participate in them though).  Ryan loves going to the pool!  Joe even joined us for a bit (he had to work - booooo) and so we swam in the "big pool" for a bit, too!  Ryan even put his nose in the water - just the tip of his nose - but this, friends, is huge.  He is really scared of puting his face in the water or holding his breath and going underwater, so he was really brave and conquered a little bit of his fear and put the tip of his nose!  So cute!

After a few hours at the pool, we came home for a quick nap and then went to another cookout.  We met up with some old family friends and ate some more delicious summertime cookout food and then went downtown to watch the fireworks.  One of my best friends lives in downtown Raleigh so we walked from her place to Boylan Brew Pub to watch both the Fayetteville Street fireworks and the Red Hat Amphitheater fireworks.  Ryan absolutely loved them!

Waiting for the big show to begin!

I love this picture of the two of us!

I know the quality of the pictures isn't that great, but Joe was taking them with my iPhone.  Better than nothing, right? :)

Awww, a heart for me and Ryan!

From where we were standing, it seemed that the Fayetteville Street fireworks were better than the Red Hat fireworks, but eh, fireworks are fireworks and they were all fantastic.  Maybe next year we'll venture down to Fayetteville Street to watch the show from there.

And now, we're off to the beach for a week of family, beach time, walks, shrimp, the pier, riding the waves, picking out shells, seafood, and FUN FUN FUN!