Goodbye to Summer!

Labor day pool party and goodbye to summer!  Pool was FREEZING cold! 

Last trip to BG

We made our last trip to BG on Labor Day weekend.  While Rob and I were watching Fielder on a ride (bc we are wimps) we notice who just so happens to be in line for the next ride....Uncle Matt and Katie!!  So funny!  They hop on with Fielder and he got a bonus ride.  We ended up finding Alison and Jenna and spent the rest of our day with them.  The kids loved being at BG with cousins!

We split up a few times so the more daring 2 could do what they wanted to do and Alison and I took Claire and Jenna to the animal show.  They enjoyed it and Jenna even got called up onstage and won a stuffed animal!

 

Topsail 2017

We just returned from our 10th summer vacation to Topsail!  Hard to believe we've gone 10 years in a row (not to mention a few summers we went twice!)  My kids have spent their vacations every single summer of their life so far in Topsail!  I'll start the giant blog post with my favorite pictures of the week.  It's never the favorite activity - having to blow dry hair, getting dressed up, begging kids to just stand still and smile for 10 seconds - but we ALWAYS love the results!  I treasure our beach pictures each summer.  Here are my favorites.

     

So to back up now....we arrived late Saturday.  After a long drive with tons of traffic, we were thrilled to arrive at La Dolce Vita, the same  house we stayed at last year.  Unfortunately right as we had crossed into North Carolina, we realized Fielder had a fever of 101 and was feeling terrible.  We immediately told everyone not to get too close to him and started unpacking the car.  By some miracle, once he had some childrens tylenol, the fever went away and he was back to normal for the week.  I had been SO nervous he had something like strep and was going to get everyone else sick. We really dodged a bullet!  

We had our traditional BBQ dinner and spent some time walking on the beach.  I think the first night is my favorite - I love watching the kids running around on the beach (and hoping they don't get completely wet and sandy!)  It's the most relaxing time - we're unpacked, we have the whole week ahead of us, and the beach just feels perfect at that time of day.

It really was a great week with beautiful weather, amazing food, and fun family memories.  I'm not going to lie though - "vacation" with kids, especially Fielder, is hard work at times.  (I was just reminded by a friend at work, "Even a bad day at the beach is usually better than a good day at work!")  We definitely had a few lows, but overall it was a great time and I love to see the happiness on the kids' faces when they are having fun on the beach.  And boy, do they love the beach!  Claire could play in the tidal pools and stare at the ocean all day.  Fielder absolutely loves to swim and play in the waves - and there is NO fear of the ocean!  He will face a giant wave head-on, let it smash right into him, and pop back up with a smile on his face.  Since I don't really like to go out far, Rob spent quite a bit of time with Fielder out there swimming and literally throwing him into the water! 

         

       

Andy's Eclipse Sand sculpture

We really lucked out with perfect weather almost the whole week.  We had 1 day that was cloudy and threatened rain most of the day - and of course the only time it actually poured rain during the day was exactly 5 minutes after I decided to go for a bike ride on the beach!  Monday we were especially lucky as it was the solar eclipse!  Tara brought glasses for everyone and I scared the life out of the kids trying to make sure they wouldn't go blind!  It was very cool to watch, although we were somewhat disappointed by the overall effect - we thought it would get darker outside with only 4% of the sun remaining.  Mom made eclipse cookies and Tara and I danced to "Total Eclipse of the Heart." It was pretty cool that we were at the beach to experience this once-in-a-lifetime event.

                                

(Who didn't have that song stuck in their head Monday?!)

The kids played really well together.  I'd say this was our best year so far - not too much fighting and they really got along nicely.  Samara and Fielder play together quite a bit - he follows her around and would agree to whatever she wanted.  For example:  

Fielder:  "I do NOT want to eat that.  Do you Samara?"

Samara:  "I want to eat it."

Fielder:  "OK, actually me too!"

Then other times, Samara and Claire would be great together.  Especially on the beach, they had different imaginary games going on for very long periods of time!  The girls loved the tidal pools and for some reason the further away from us, the more they liked it.  (Hmmm, a sign of things to come?)  It's great that they are finally old enough that we can let them wander a ways away from us and not be scared to death!  

When all 3 were together, the majority of the time they were on their kindles.  I've never seen my kids play on them for so long!  It was a great way to keep them occupied when the grown-ups didn't want to entertain kids!!  (Note to self, bring headphones next time!!)  

The girls shared the bunk beds, going back and forth between who got to sleep on the top bunk - but they were really nice about letting Fielder come in to play and hang out with them.  On the very last night, we let Fielder take a turn in the top bunk (he had been in the room with us) and the girls shared the bottom bed.  It worked out fine, once they finally went to sleep!  That part took forever and was quite frustrating but at least he slept through the whole night.  He thinks he's pretty cool for sleeping on the top bunk!  (And yes, the girls wore their new nightgowns from Mimi ALL week.  Like every single day and then by Thursday they switched to the Panda bear nightgown.  I didn't even need to pack regular clothes.)

Speaking of sleep, that reminds me of the first night.  It was completely dark in our room and Fielder screamed out "WHERE ARE YOU?!" in the middle of the night.  I bolted out of bed, reassured him I was right there, and he laid back down.  Then I heard in a very quiet voice, "Mommy, I really want a whoopie cushion."  Ummm.....ok then!

The food and drinks......aaaahhhh, we had the BEST food and drinks, I just wish I could rewind and have another of Tara's mojitos and a big plate of seafood again!  We had shrimp in some form almost every night.  My favorite was Andy and Tara's seafood night with their famous shrimp, the best bluefin tuna I've ever had, scallops, and delicious veggies.  And just about every night we had a cocktail hour with amazing drinks from our in-house bartender Tara.  Mojitos (my fav), margaritas, and pina coladas!  (And certainly Fielder needed to know exactly what we were drinking at all times and if he could have it too.  Tara was nice enough to make kid versions, but we decided to make them more and more sour in the hopes they'd stop asking!) Rob and I snuck in a date night at our favorite spot, Sears Landing.  I don't know what I'll ever do if they close and I can't have my crab cake with Island sauce (and a gin and tonic) once per year!  We even bought a bottle of their island sauce to have with other meals at the house.  And of course, I can't leave out some great breakfasts - the best of all was Tara's homemade pop tarts in 4 or more different varieties.  THANK YOU to all the chefs!!

We tried to fit in as many beach memories for the kids as possible, including a night out of mini golf, arcade games, and ice cream.  I will fully admit....the night did not start out fun for me.  I had given Rob a free pass because Mom wanted to go and there wasn't room in the van so Rob stayed home.  As soon as we got there, Fielder started to have a terrible attitude and was being extremely rude.  When Fielder is having fun and he's happy, he is oh-so-happy and fun to be around.  But when he's not, I just don't enjoy being around him and he can really put me in a terrible mood.  He was escalating and I could see in his face that he was going to have a hard time recovering.  I took him in the bathroom and explained that if he couldn't get it together, we would leave.  I was secretly hoping he would either turn it around and have a blast OR lose it 1 more time so I could just drive him home.  Figures, he walked a fine line in between the two and behaved just barely enough to get to stay.  We finished the golf and Uncle Andy took him around to play the games.  It was an exhausting night, but I guess it made good memories because both kids say it was one of their favorite things we did during the week!  

      

We also had some fun times back at the house - movie nights, baking cakes with Mimi, crab hunting on the beach at night, and glow-in-the-dark balloons.  My favorite funny thing Samara said all week was while we were crab hunting.  Fielder had thrown some sand at one of the crabs and Samara was mad at him about it.

Rob:  "The sand is the crab's home so it's not a big deal, it didn't hurt him."

Samara:  "Well, if you lived in a brick house, how would you like it if someone threw bricks at you?!"

ZING!

Another funny Samara quote.  So after the golf night, we were all joking that Rob should take the kids out somewhere the next night since he "missed all the fun."  The next day on the beach, Samara with a straight face says "So where's Uncle Rob taking us tonight?" and then busts out laughing.  

    

Random....Tara introduced me to Snapchat :-)  Claire and I love it and we had some good laughs!
   

On our last night we all put on our new t-shirts from Dad for another family photo.  These got us laughing!  ("Here's ma' butt, and here's ma' gutt!")  Thanks Andy for being the photographer - we got some good ones!!

I ended my week with a walk on the beach at sunrise Saturday morning.  I had been pretty good during the week getting in some running and some other workouts, but for the last morning I needed a nice relaxing and peaceful walk.  Even though it was cloudy, it was a beautiful sunrise.  We packed it up pretty quickly while enjoying donuts for breakfast and hit the road early.  Saturday evening after packing, driving, unpacking, 3 loads of laundry, and the grocery store, the kids ask "what are we going to do today?"  SAY WHAT?!  ha!!  We picked up Blaze Pizza (YUMMY) since it was still technically vacation and we called it a night!

It was a great week and we are so thankful to my parents for taking us each year.  Mom has already asked about a night in September that the kids could spend the night so we must not have driven her too nuts!  :-)  Thanks Mom and Dad so much!!  And thanks to the Mason Jr.'s too for helping to make it such a fun week.