Topsail Island 2011

Vacation 2011. Can I go back yet? We spent July 23-30 at Topsail Beach, North Carolina this year. It was wonderful. It was exactly what our family needed to get away from the stress of everyday life and just enjoy each other. I think I finally have my husband convinced that he needs time away every year for his health :) The trip out there was something out of a movie. A horror movie that is. A cross between "Terminal" with Tom Hanks and "Planes, Trains and Automobiles". Everything that could go wrong did. Since that is a story in itself, I will wait to blog about that later. I am very overwhelmed by the over 200 pictures I took on vacation, but here is my short synopsis of our trip through pictures :) This took HOURS to put together and may not display my finest writing skills, but you get the idea through pictures!


The girls patiently waiting in O'Hare Airport. This was only 4 hours into the day so they were still smiling. More on that later.


Finally after over 24 hours of traveling (what would've taken us only 16 hours to drive if we would've driven the whole thing)... our first day on the beach. All of our travel stress melted away. This is why we come here.


The view from our deck looking south.


Looking straight out into the ocean from our deck


Looking north up the beach from our house


Mommy and the girls exploring the beach. I believe this was right about when Makenna found a dead crab :)


Probably looking for seashells. This beach is loaded with seashells.


Maryn relaxing in her shades


Daddy and his girls - 1st day on the beach


Our three girls - 1st day on the beach. Somehow we were extremely lucky and the weather was gorgeous. When I say we go on vacation to go to the beach, I mean it. We went to the beach twice every single day we were there, even the one day it stormed a little over lunch time.


Our house. It was a decent house. The location couldn't be beat... unbelievable views of the ocean. We had the best house positioning for view of any of the houses around us. On the other side we had sound views, which is almost unheard of... water on both sides. The down side is that while this house may look decent in pictures, it was not all that clean or user friendly. The owners have dogs and I was totally repulsed by the amount of dog hair in the house. But we go on vacation for the beach, not the house, and the beach was perfect as always :)



Our house on Topsail this year was called "Open Sea-Sun". Here is the main living area.


Another look at the main living area.


The dining room and kitchen


Master bedroom.


Me and Josh on the beach :)


The girls building a "wet" sand castle... Daddy taught them how




Daddy working on the "wet" sand castle with them


Of course Daddy had to dig something deep enough for everyone to lay in :) My favorite part was about 5 minutes later when Maya was walking backwards and tripped right into the hole. It was soft and sandy so she came up laughing.


Nenny on the beach


My biggest kid. No one can say they are surprised by this, right?!


Maryn chilling on the beach


Hat and shades... ready for the beach! (notice the nice fog on the pictures... it was so humid out that sometimes when I would walk from air conditioning to outside my lens would immediately fog over and thus I'd get foggy pictures).


Daddy and Maya watching the surfers at Surf City Pier


Mommy and her girls at Surf City Pier


Makenna, Maryn and Maya at Surf City Pier


My surf monkeys :)


Maya's fun new North Carolina shoes. I couldn't resist them!


Hanging out on the deck waiting for the sunset


Makenna and duckie on the deck


Maryn and puppy on the deck


Daddy, Kenna and Maryn by their very cool beach creation :) It had a moat that carried water from the tide all the way around the castle!


The tide is starting to come in and you can see how the water works its' way up into their sand castle


Still working on the moat


Kenna and Maryn


Beautiful Kenna


Sleepy baby. We were so worried she wouldn't nap on vacation due to all the excitement. Boy were we wrong. This little girl was so tuckered out she napped all but one day of vacation!


Daddy and Maya checking out the waves


My family in the ocean


More swimming


Tuckered out from a long day at the beach... watching some TV in our jammies!


The other two vegging...


Not only did we have an awesome ocean view, but the other side of the house was a spectacular view of the sound. Almost unheard of on the island to have views on both sides. Here is a sunset on the sound.


My four favorite people on the sound.


We went into town to go to the park one night. This cool park on the sound has docks that go out over the water.


My view from our deck one afternoon... I was reading a book on the deck while Maya was napping and Daddy and the girls were going up and down the beach trying to catch waves with their boogie boards :)


Once again, we lucked out with beautiful weather for our trip to Topsail. It only rained one day over the lunch hour, but we still made it to the beach twice that day. Here are the girls inside waiting out the storm. They were very focused on their sticker creations :)


Maya :)


Our family on Topsail Beach 2011


Mom and her girls enjoying the beach


Mommy enjoying the sun (courtesy of photographer Makenna!)


Makenna and Maya making some sand cookies


More beach fun


Nenny


Maya snuggled up under the umbrella


Maryn


Oh boogie boarding! My 7 year old is now proficient in boogie boarding and claims it was her favorite part of the trip!


The look of sheer determination on her face!!!


Maryn on the boogie board!


More boogie boarding!


Yes even our 2 year old can boogie board (with a little help from Dad!)


She LOVES it! I think my kids are thrill seekers (hmmmm, wonder where they get that from??? Not me!)


Dad and the girls...


Loving the beach... Makenna (complete in surf girl outfit!)


Maya


Maryn


Thursday morning we headed up to Surf City Beach. For our anniversary I had purchased Josh surfing lessons. He was meeting his instructor at Surf City Beach while the girls and I enjoyed the beach. I was super excited to see tide pools on the beach that morning! All down the beach were 10 foot wide pools that were 6-12 inches deep. They were warm and wonderful for the girls to play in!


My view of the Surf City Pier from the beach


Maya checking out Surf City Beach


Makenna and Maryn making sand cupcakes in the tide pools


Maryn totally at peace in the tide pools


More of the girls playing in the tide pools


Daddy getting his surf lesson on land... the instructor was impressed at his balance and they were in the water in no time


Daddy and Nick (surf instructor) heading out to "catch some waves"!


Josh paddling super hard to get on top of the wave!


I caught him mid-action as he was standing up!


More paddling around out there. It was really hard to get good pictures, as they were out far and I was still trying to watch the girls. Josh did a phenomenal job surfing (which isn't surprising to me at all). He got up on his very first wave! He even rode a few of them all the way into the beach! Not bad for a first-timer! Now Maryn and I are trying to convince him that he has to take us all to Hawaii so he can really try out his new surf skills ;)


Bringing the surf board back


Maya in the tide pools


There were these little tiny fish swimming around in the tide pools. My girls, especially Makenna, were fascinated by them. She kept trying to catch them and bystanders would laugh and tell her "good luck" in a joking tone. Well she showed them! She caught a fish with her bare hands!!!! I, of course, didn't have my camera on me at that moment so I don't have a picture of it, but here she is in motion trying to catch a fish!


Josh and I before heading out to Crabby Mike's for dinner! Our food was delicious! I had the steamed crab legs and my wonderful husband spent most of the meal cracking and cleaning my crab legs for me :) The wonderful seafood in this part of the country makes this trip worthwhile as well.


The girls before heading out to dinner


Friday was far and away my favorite day on the beach. The tide was extremely low this day and for some reason the night before a large sand bar (we're talking more than a mile long) formed in the beach in front of our house. The combination of this caused a 12-18 inch crystal clear pool of water to form all along the beach. It was probably 20 feet wide at parts and was wonderfully warm. I seriously felt like I was in the Caribbean with water this clear, calm and warm. Pure bliss.

Josh and I standing on the sand bar that created the "pool" effect


Our family the last day on the beach


Maya in the "pool"


The girls in the "pool"


Daddy and his girls in the "pool"


Maryn showing off her new "island" dress!


Doesn't Nenny look like she's on vacation?!


Our trip home went much smoother than the trip there. We did get lost in Chicago for a bit, lost a hubcap on our car, I sliced my finger open at the airport and Josh almost lost all our luggage, but that is all minor :)

Maya in the Raleigh airport on the way home


Makenna and Maryn in the airport


Now we're counting down the days until we can go back. I think the girls still ask daily about going on another vacation :) Maryn wants to live in North Carolina and asked if we could buy a house there so she could go to school there and have the beach as her backyard. Nenny got a little emotional and was ready to be back home. Our girls did a phenomenal job on this trip. They were wonderfully behaved and so much fun! I love making memories with my family! This is what it's all about!

Birthday Preparations

This year for her birthday Makenna wanted to make everything. Invitations and cake included. Being that she selected the theme "Jewels and Glitter" (how girly can you get?!?) I figured I could handle that.

First we made a trip to Michael's and purchased all the supplies for invitations. It was a fun experience but expensive. It probably cost seven times more than a package of regular invitations and that doesn't include the time it takes to make them. But we had fun making them so it was worth it!




I couldn't really figure out a cake and was worried about transporting it to the bowling alley for her party so we settled on cupcakes.... cupcakes with a big sparkly jewel in the middle (ie. Ring Pop) and edible glitter all around the sides!

Water Balloons

One of our favorite activities this summer has been water balloons. It's an easy way to cool off in the back yard after a long day! The girls think it's an absolute blast :)

Patiently waiting for Daddy to fill more water balloons






Maya likes "baby balloons"!


Makenna, Maryn and the neighbor girl Faith up by the playhouse... they take shelter there when Daddy is pelting them with water balloons :)

Big Girl Bed

Maya made the big switch to a big girl bed a few weeks ago! She's been potty trained for almost 6 months now and has been trying to climb out so we figured it was past time. Not to mention that she will be sleeping in a big bed on vacation this summer so we wanted to practice beforehand! She was very excited about the process but then when we showed her the bed after it was all set up all she would do is say "I don't like! I don't like! Daddy I don't like!" Over and over and over. She even shed a few tears over it. Luckily that all passed very quickly and now she wants to show off her big girl bed to anyone that comes to our house. I always dread this transition with kids, mostly because Makenna and Maryn made it difficult for me, but Maya was a piece of cake. She transitioned very easily and has only left her bed on a handful of times.

I asked her to lay down in her new bed in the midst of her "I don't like" rant and it didn't go very well. Notice how stinking long she is though!

Makenna - 7 Years Old

All about Makenna at 7 years old!!!





Nicknames: Kenna, Nenny, Nenna, Nenner, Nenner Benner, Nen, Buddy
Weight & Height: She weighs 57 lbs and is 52.5 inches tall. Her height is off the charts and her weight puts her at the 76%. She's tall and lean... her BMI puts her in the 29%.
Hair: Long blond hair. She wanted to grow it as long as Rapunzel's but I think I've finally got her talked into a haircut before school starts.
Favorite foods: Sushi, Hamburgers, Meatloaf
Favorite Drink: blue Gatorade
Favorite toys: her new iPod, Magic Fabric, anything that involves using her imagination
Favorite stuffed animal: Duckie
Favorite Books: Her goal for the summer was to be one of the top readers at our library so she could earn herself a special t-shirt :) She is doing really well and you can find her with her nose stuck in a book quite often. She loves to read non-fiction as well as Magic Tree House, BabySitter's Club Little Sister, Katie Kazoo series, and any of the Ramona books.

How I found her reading one morning...


Bedtime: It's summer and once again we've been slack about this. We try to have Makenna in bed by 8:30 and we let her read until 9:00.
Wake-up time: Her body clock typically wakes her up between 8:30 and 9:00. She is so our child :)
Best Friends: Makenna is a very social little girl and loves having friends to play with. She has unfortunately come to the age where friends are much cooler than mom and dad :( She has had some bad friend experiences lately though which has made her leary of friends and not as trustworthy. She would tell you that her best friends are Ana and Grace. She also loves her big cousin Josie!

Makenna and Josie



Latest Accomplishment: This summer she started riding her big bike... and I mean the new bike she got for Christmas. She's been riding without training wheels for a few years now but she made the jump up to an even bigger bike quite effortlessly. She has also made huge gains in her swimming and can swim across the pool by herself.
Likes: playing with friends outside, listening to music, reading, writing in her journal (she's currently writing a play!), getting to stay up a 1/2 hour later than Maryn, anything girly
Dislikes: when her friends fight, when she doesn't get to socialize as much as she would like (which is a LOT!)

Makenna is a TERRIFIC big sister and is a huge help with Maya.



Activities: This summer she took swimming lessons, played softball and went to church day camp. She will be participating in AYSO soccer once again this fall and probably gymnastics in the winter.
Fears: Storms and bad weather. Although I can't say I blame her. We had "tornadic activity" confirmed right behind our house this summer which caused quite a bit of damage. The kid has a reason to fear storms and she worries that every rain cloud will produce a tornado.
Favorite shows: She is so not a TV girl. Wish I could say that about Maryn as well, but it only holds true for Makenna. If Makenna watches TV, her preference would probably be Phineas and Ferb or Shake It Up. She still likes Barbie movies, Tangled and Ramona & Beezus for movies.
Health: She's been really healthy outside of an icky virus she had a few weeks ago. She has also now lost 6 teeth and has 4 permanent teeth that have come in... they are very crooked, but they are in :)

Picture after she lost her 6th tooth!

Fireflies & Fireworks

We had a very fun and busy 4th of July weekend. We spent Saturday at Lost Island Water Park in Waterloo. The girls had a blast! Maya enjoyed the kiddie areas and the Lazy River, while Maryn and Makenna preferred some of the bigger slides. Makenna got quite good at a rope you can climb across the water and Maryn went crazy on the littler slides in the kiddie areas. Everyone also enjoyed the wave pool.

Our fun continued that weekend.... we had dinner with Poppie and Peepie, visited Grandma Lu, I visited some friends, lunch and swimming in the pond with Budkes, neighborhood 4th of July parade, catching some fireflies and of course fireworks. The busy long weekend ended with the four of us (Maya was in bed) sitting on the counter eating popcorn after fireworks. Maryn said that was her favorite part of the weekend :) Silly kid!



Happy kids! Makenna and Maryn got to stay up late enough for it to get dark so they could catch lightning bugs. Our back yard and park look like a Christmas light display at night with all the lightning bugs!!!


She got one! My girls are so much nicer to the bugs than I was as a kid.... did anyone else dismember them to make glowing jewelry for themselves???


Maryn catching lightning bugs in the back yard


Makenna trying to get one... they were both pretty dramatic about it :) Imagine that!


Makenna and Maryn... Mommy made us stop running around in our jammies so she could take our picture :(


Sisters :)


Watching fireworks from the front porch!!! We live in a great location... every year we can see numerous fireworks displays from our front yard! It's not up close and personal, but at least we avoid the traffic this way :)

Summer Fun

I need to start learning how to shop better for summer attire for the kids... one swimsuit for every day of the week and just a handful of outfits. Seriously... my kids wear their swimsuits for a good majority of most days. I wish I had the total innocence and lack of self awareness that I could just parade around in my swimsuit when it's hot out! The joy of being a kid!


Makenna and Maryn with Ana one hot summer afternoon (they were taking a break in the shade on the front porch). I might as well consider Ana and her brother our 4th and 5th children as much as they are at our house.


Two peas in a pod - Ana and Makenna. These two are some of the best of friends I've ever seen. The NEVER fight or even disagree. They could spend hours upon hours together and never get sick of each other. They enjoy doing the exact same things and do a great job of sharing and compromising. AND neither of them complains when one of the little siblings tags along... how awesome is that?!


And as Makenna says "Maryn is my best at home friend!" :)


Makenna is blessed to have found such a dear sweet friend in Ana. I can't wait to watch their friendship grow.

Our First Harvest

Tonight we harvested the first vegetables of the season from our garden!! It is always a joyful occassion at our house... all of us get so excited :) I am so proud of our broccoli! We have never grown broccoli before and yielded a plentiful crop... we actually had twice as much as this but I gave some to our neighbors before taking pictures. We have tomatoes, beans and cauliflower coming as well! I think we're going to be in broccoli up to our ears. I planted a LOT of plants hoping that just one or two would take... well it seems that they all have taken and are producing multiple heads!! Whoo-Hoo! This is summer eating at its' finest!