Birthday at the Beach

Because the hurricane damaged the Sea Oats house, we haven't been able to spend much time at Wrightsville Beach lately. So when it came time to celebrate Brian's 40th birthday, I realized it would be special if we could get away to the beach. Donna and Marty rented a place on Lollipop Cove for MLK weekend, and we excitedly headed out of town.

The house was on a quiet road on the cove which was great for scootering and bike riding...

and the house had an elevator! This blew their minds.

But the best feature of the house by far was the water views.

We weren't as close to the ocean as we normally are, but it was just a short scooter ride there...

But we quickly realized that there was plenty to entertain us at the house...

We headed to the south end of the island to hunt for shells...

and we found a big one!

Luke's favorite part of the beach house was our own private beach where he could throw rocks into the water...

Finally, the sun made an appearance...

 We watched the NFL playoffs and celebrated with birthday pound cake...

Then raced down to the end of the road for the best sunset views...

 

We tried fishing, but we think the fish were too cold to bite. :)

  It was Luke's first attempt at holding a fishing rod. He was a little dangerous with that thing!

 

 Our last night there, something cool happened- a rare red wolf moon appeared...

I stayed up until after midnight to watch the eclipse, and it was completely worth the lack of sleep. The low that night was about 20 degrees so I had to keep popping out onto the deck to see the progress of the eclipse, but I couldn't stay out too long because it was that cold. It was amazing to watch the progress of the eclipse- especially over the still cove. Once the moon was directly in front of the sun, it was completely dark and quiet. And then the moon actually appeared red! You could see every star in the sky and feel the breeze. I felt bad for the rest of the family that they were sleeping through this amazing solar phenomenon!

Sunrise over the cove...not a bad place to drink your morning coffee.

 

 Love when she reads to her sister...

Our last morning there we went for a FREEZING bike ride...seriously the wind brought tears to our eyes! It was frigid cold that day.

 Sweet sleeping baby on the way back to Raleigh...

It was a wonderful birthday getaway! We celebrated our favorite boy, took a break from all our recent stresses, and spent time together at the beach. Exactly what we all needed! Many thanks to Donna and Marty for making this fun trip happen.