Topsail

**Super long, picture-filled post.  I apologize in advance.

We didn't let a day go by without starting our summer fun.  School let out on Friday--and late that night our cousins arrived so that we could all head down to the beach for a week.  Saturday morning we piled into the vans and set out on a little (5 hour) road-trip down to Topsail Island.

When we stopped for gas I bribed all the boys with red vines to stay against this wall so they would be out of the way and out of the street.  I also told them I was going to take their picture... so I took a few so that they'd actually stay over there.

They also took turns sitting up on top of the magazine stand.  It said "free" on the box... and a lady came up and asked which of the boys was going home with her.  They weren't quite sure what to think about that.

We did pretty good until the very end and then Henry was just too tired.  We left at his naptime hoping he'd sleep for a good bit of the trip.  Instead he slept an hour and was miserable. 

We finally made it to our home for the week.

We sure got a work out on those stairs a hundred times a day!

The weather was perfect the entire time we were there.  Every day followed the same pattern--mornings on the beach, afternoons taking it easy inside, and after dinner we'd head back out again until bedtime.

Henry loved to pick up handfuls of sand and put it in his hair.

The boys loved to build sandcastles and try to defend them against the waves.  I think they called it "castle defense".

The cousins had so much fun playing with each other.

A few times we even found these awesome little jellyfish.

William, James and Ben really loved riding the waves on the boogie boards.  But William would spend hours in the water and was pretty awesome out there.

James really loved sitting on the beach in the sun.

Can you blame him with this view?

Alexander loved to play in the sand.

Anna and Alex were the only two who would let me bury them.  I have fond memories of my aunts burying me in the sand.  Once they buried all of the cousins at once and we looked like a bunch of heads sitting on the sand.  I wish I had been able to get a picture of these kiddos like that!

William needed to start a collection of something for cub scouts so he chose to collect sea shells while we were at the beach.  He found a TON.




One day we even ventured over to a park for some change of scenery.

 Aren't these trees awesome looking?

There was a cool little walkway where we watched some ducks and crabs.

Of course, James dropped his shoe into the muck.  We tried to hang him upside down to grab it but he got scared... so Rich hopped down there to save the day.

The week was so great!  There was lots of sand, perfectly warm water,  plenty of food, and wonderful relaxation and conversation.

Some highlights: late night walk down the beach with Rich, playing bananagrams after the kids went to bed, playing Uno with the kids, watching the cousins play with each other, sitting on the deck listening to the ocean, and catching some great waves on the boogie board.

The last few days our friend (and Bob's former roommate), Rob, came to stay with us.  It was fun to have him around.

Poor William learned that he should listen to his mom and drink more water.  He got dehydrated on our last day there.

By the evening he was feeling a little better so William and I took a little walk down the beach... with some ice cream sandwhiches.

It was a beautiful night and I enjoyed spending a little one-on-one time with my oldest boy.

We even found a birthday cake made of sand...

And I nearly stepped on this little crab!  He was so fast!  (Earlier in the week Bob, Rich, and James each claimed they had been pinched on the toes by a crab--it was probably this guy!)

We can't wait until we can get back to the beach again!