Spring Break Beach Trip-Day 3 (Family Beach Pictures)

When we got back to the condo from our miniature golf and shopping we changed clothes and headed down to the beach for family beach pictures. I've learned that with my boys I have to have a plan in mind and get pictures over with as soon as possible. Neither one of them are fans of my picture taking obsession so I know they put up with it because they love me. 

Eli went first and when I was reviewing the pictures on my camera later that evening I noticed just how grown up he looked to me. He's growing and changing so much.  

His smile felt very forced to me so Josh went into "make Eli laugh" mode and we got quite the array of expressions from Eli. 

Then it was my turn in front of the camera with Eli. I love this little boy with all my heart and consider it such a blessing that God picked me to be his mother. 

After a couple of pictures with mom, it was time for some with Dad. Oh, what a wonderful relationship these two have. They are quite the pair and I love watching them spend time doing the things they love and have in common with each other. 

It was about this point I was nearing my photo limit so we did a couple of family pictures using the self timer on my camera. One of these days I'll bite the bullet and hire a professional photographer to take pictures of us but for now these will have to do :) 

Josh and I took a quick couple picture and then we were done. We had officially finished family beach pictures! Hooray for us! Until next year...

We were walking away from the beach heading back up to the condo and I noticed the gorgeous sunset behind us. What a beautiful ending to a great day!

Spring Break Beach Trip-Day 3

We woke up Tuesday morning and the first thing Eli and I did was talk a morning beach stroll. Morning strolls on the beach are one of my favorite things to do. Growing up, whenever we would go to North Carolina to visit my grandparents, my grandmother and I would always walk the beach in the morning looking for shells. Every time I take a walk on the beach looking for shells I think of her. This morning, tons of seashells had washed up on the shore so we had such a great time looking through them and collecting the ones that were special to us. 

We passed a few fishermen who had gone out early to set their lines and they had lots of company from these herons(?). I said something to one of the fishermen and he said that they love the shrimp they use as bait. I bet so! They were hanging around hoping they'd get some scraps.

By the time we got back to our condo, Josh was awake so we laid out all our shells we'd found for him to see. I think we found some that were really interesting! Now to figure out what to do with them :)

We ate breakfast and Josh and I had coffee out on the balcony. We all decided that we could probably use a break from the sun (all of us had gotten a little sunburn) so we went into town instead to have some fun. We ate lunch at the Shrimp Basket and then stopped to get Dippin' Dots for Eli. He loves to have Dippin' Dots when we go to the beach. 

I chose to hold out for TCBY which was a little further in town, but the wait was worth it! One white chocolate mousse and peanut butter swirl in a waffle cone please :) Yummy!

We kept driving until we arrived at Pirate Island Adventure Golf. Even though there are many other miniature golf locations in the area this is the ONLY place Eli wants to golf. I think we've played here  every year for the past four years we've been coming to the beach. It's a Wilson tradition now. 

The weather was perfect, not blazing hot and not freezing cold. I wore a 3/4 length shirt and I was very comfortable the entire time. That's unheard of during the summer season. Usually when we finish golf we're a sweaty mess!

Family pirate selfie

We left miniature golf and went to the outlet mall to spend the rest of the afternoon there. Since we weren't doing to the beach, we (I) figured we (I) might as well shop! We didn't stay too long. We all got a few things from some of the stores and then it was time to head back to the condo for family beach pictures :)

Spring Break Beach Trip-Day 2

Monday morning at the beach dawned bright and clear. The weather was perfect! We all enjoyed a morning walk on the beach, drank coffee and ate breakfast on the balcony, and then packed up our bags and ice chest for our day at the beach. We planned on being down there all day so I packed tons of drinks, snacks, and lunch in the ice chest. The beach was beautiful that morning, but the water was still REALLY COLD (remember we went in March). I didn't get in very much at all the entire week because of how cold it was, but I loved sitting right at the water's edge and letting the waves hit my feet. That was perfect! 

Eli being a kid didn't realize the water was cold and jumped right in. How do kids not feel temperature like that?!? He was boogie boarding and riding waves in no time at all and having the time of his life!

Josh braved the water for a little bit, but even he said it was cold. Eli loved having his Daddy out there with him to help him ride the waves onto the shore. 

Eli took a break from boogie boarding and he found other fun things to do. He played in the sand, chased the birds, walked on the beach, tossed the Frisbee, ate snacks, and much more. Josh and I would take turns of being the "parent on duty" so the other one could read or nap and not have to worry about Eli. It worked out great. After lunch, Eli wanted to play with his football and throw it into the waves as they were crashing on the shore. He and Josh started that game last year when we went to the beach and Eli still loves to play it. 

We stayed down at the beach pretty late that first day. You never know what the weather is going to be like so when you have a gorgeous, rain free day at the beach you want to make the most of it. We did just that and didn't come back up to the room until around 5 o'clock that evening. We all took showers, changed into dry clothes, and Josh grilled. We wanted to rest, take it easy and not fight wait times at the restaurants. 

After supper, we all donned our headlamps to go crabbing. It's a Wilson beach tradition and we always have so much fun. We all have our respective jobs. I'm the spotter and the bucket holder, Eli is the runner and the catcher for the small to medium crabs, and Josh is the catcher for the large crabs. Eli has gotten so much better at catching them and has so much fun snatching them up. 

Most of the ones we found this night were in the small to medium range so Eli felt very comfortable grabbing them. We all had a blast and after a photo op we released them all back to their homes. Josh used to make us play a game where we all had to put our feet in a circle and then he would dump out the bucket. Whoever left their foot there the longest after the crabs had been dumped out was the winner. I lost every single time because I'm not about to let those things crawl on my feet! This time we just dumped them out and didn't play the game :) 

It had been a WONDERFUL first day at the beach and we couldn't wait to have more fun on Tuesday!