Two Special Weeks at Wrightsville

Two whole weeks at the beach?!? I've always wondered how fabulous it would be to spend that long at the beach, and luckily, I finally got to find out. Let's just say the girls were not ready to come back after two weeks, and I was in a state of total relaxation. It is a real luxury!

Many thanks to Donna and Marty for making it happen. Because they offered to switch their summer beach week because it conflicted with VBS, they were able to get their holiday week (Memorial Day) and their summer week in June lined up back to back. This couldn't have worked out better because it gave Brian his longest vacation ever- 9 whole days! That was maybe the neatest part of it all; the girls and I getting to spend so much time with him at the beach. 

Now you know I take a LOT of photos, especially at the beach. And believe it or not, this is the edited version of what I shot. But prepare yourself, there are a lot of photos here because it was a special trip!

This might be my favorite picture from our trip. Addie learned to love the ocean this trip, including riding the waves with her sister. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time on the beach and had lots of fun moments to capture. 

Between the wave jumping and the hole building, these girls gave Brian a serious bicep workout every day at the beach.

I thought it was cute how the girls would go right to work the minute they stepped foot on the beach. Sometimes, they would try to stop and drop their things on the pathway to the beach. Couldn't get to playing fast enough. :)

We expected the worst from the weather with the threat of not one but two tropical depressions while we were there. But Memorial Day weekend was gorgeous, and we made the most of the sunshine. (The storm did get us a few days later, but Collins got sick and we were out of commision anyway so it wasn't that disappointing.)

I will always remember this next moment...the four of us were out playing on the beach having a good time when I happened to look up and see a rainbow over the ocean! I flipped out because Collins has always wanted to see a real rainbow, but has really never had the chance. So I start yelling and pointing, and she sees it and quickly goes back to work with her Dad building a hole. I couldn't believe the non-reaction, but nonetheless, it was such a beautiful scene and a happy time playing on the beach. 

All of a sudden, I had the realization that now was the time to tell the girls the news. I'm sure God orchestrated the moment because it just felt so right. I signaled the idea to Brian, and we got them together and told them they were getting a new baby and it was going to be a little brother. I was honestly worried about Collins's reaction because although I knew she wanted us to have another baby, I knew she wanted it to be a girl. :) But I was floored by her reaction...she was ecstatic! She literally was squealing and grinning from ear to ear for hours. I was honestly confused by her extreme excitement, but also really relieved. Her immediate reactions: 

"It will be like Addie was but only it will be a boy!"

"Let's call him Henry." (not sure where that came from)

"Where is he going to sleep? I know! He can take Addie's room and Addie can sleep in my room in bunk beds." (Quite impressed she could think through this problem so quickly and come up with the exact solution we were hoping for.) :)

Addie's reaction to the news was a little less subtle with her saying, "I'm going to be a big sister" and then moving on to play. I know she is going to be a really good big sister though and so glad she has the chance.

For the next few days, Collins could talk of little else except her baby brother- kissing my tummy whenever she got near me and thinking through how life would change when the baby came ("Since we can only have two riders in the double BOB, I will just ride my bike and Addie and baby brover can ride in the stroller.")

The baby quickly got his first nickname: "baby brover". Collins called him this (b/c she can't pronounce the "th" yet) and we joked that if he wasn't careful "brover" would stick just like Brian's grandmother ended up as "sister" her whole life!

On Memorial Day, I went for a run in the morning and was struck by this sight at the WB park. I took the girls back to see it later in the day so they could get a taste of what the holiday was all about. We finished the night with burgers (we are loving having a grill at the beach house finally!).

We had good timing on our anniversary this year. Got to celebrate eight wonderful years together with dinner at a fancy French restaurant we had never tried before. Fun night out!

Clouds came in the early part of the week so we decided to do something different and head to the south end of the island to explore. The girls loved it because there were no waves so they could swim easily and look for shells. 

When we weren't beaching it, we stayed plenty busy with a variety of activities...

Now that Collins is a real bike rider, she had a great time riding around Sea Oats and the neighborhood next to it. We even made it as far as Kohl's one day! Addie was cute on C's scooter and is getting pretty coordinated with it too.

I will not admit how many times we showed up at Kohl's, but let's just say it was way too many...and just add a lot of tacos, hot dogs, doughnuts, seafood and ice cream sandwiches to that list, too. We let it all hang out on this trip, and it was YUMMY. 

Oh, and did I mention spaghetti was enjoyed too? 

Love how excited Collins was to catch a big fish by the dock. She was sad that we couldn't eat it because it had too many bones. 

Our favorite day had to have been the boat day. Brian had the brilliant idea to rent a boat for a day, and I didn't realize how much fun it wasn't going to be. We spent from 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. exploring four different islands, the intercoastal waterway, the ocean, and everything natural and gorgeous in between. I forgot how much fun it was to be on a boat- to feel the wind and sun hit you- as you explore pretty parts of the marsh and beach that you normally don't get to see. I loved everything about it! I'm pretty sure Brian and I will have to be boat owners someday- he loves it that much too.

Brian had to convince me to leave Masonboro. It was so gorgeous, uninhabited, and relaxing that I really did not want to go. The water is so calm there that we took both girls out into the water and rode the waves. Talk about a happy moment.

After lunch at Dockside, we explored Figure 8 (had never been to that island) and the natural island above it. Gorgeous!

Then we stopped by the sand bar above Figure 8 to let the girls play in the shallow water and it was so pretty...

We finished our boat day by getting the girls a hot dog and ice cream dinner to eat on the boat. Perfect way to finish off our amazing boat day.

A few days later, I found out that Brian had been holding out on me. We decided to go on a bike ride in search of a pretty sunset, and he said, "follow me". He had found this spot down the road from Sea Oats behind a set of condos. There were some docks and perhaps the prettiest view of the sunset over the marsh on the island. So impressed by the hub's find! This was his last night with us at the beach so really glad we got to take in this view together. 

Alli came and stayed with us for two nights which was so fun. She left and Brian left which was sad. Then Collins got sick with a fever. Then it started raining a lot and didn't stop. Talk about a rough Monday! So we had the idea to do something different the next day and went to see the Airlie Gardens. In all our time at Wrightsville, we had never visited this close-by spot and were excited to see it. It was really pretty! Look at this tree! And the girls got to do a frog scavenger hunt which was fun until Collins's fever caught up with her. So we headed back home for some rest. 

Luckily, C was feeling better the next day so we headed out to breakfast and then the girls begged us to take them to the park. The park in the middle of the island was under renovation, but they had a small piece of play equipment close by so we stopped by to play. But what they found next to the playground was much more interesting- a garden complete with spray fountains. Despite our better judgment, we let them strip down and play. It was such a summer moment, I couldn't say no. :)

This was a fun afternoon...Donna and I decided to take the girls back down to the south end of the island so they could swim with their new floats. It was a sparkly and beautiful day and a fun place to watch the boats go by. The girls and I floated and laughed and made happy memories.

 One last dinner out (at this point, I was officially cut off from fried seafood and was considering different detox programs)...

I couldn't resist one last sunset on our last night of vacation. There is a gorgeous spot to watch the sun set in the neighborhood across the street from us. After packing, I hopped on the bike and got there just in time.

Many, many thanks to Donna and Marty for putting up with all of us for so long and for such a wonderful two weeks!