Beach Happy

My Toppall team and I lucked out again.  For the second summer in a row, we've been offered an amazing invitation to travel with good friends and use their relative's beach condo for a week.  This time it was with Kelly and her girls.  She has two girls, one is a year older than Ian (and in the same grade as him) and the other is a year younger than Ian (and in the grade below him).  Sam, being the big girl that she is, did her best to keep up.  For the most part, it was like we had 4 kids all the same age.

Our beach destination?  Emerald Isle, NC.  It was a gorgeous week at the beach.  The sun was shining each day, it wasn't too hot and there was a breeze in the air that kept us very happy to log many hours outside. 

The condo was stayed in was fabulous.  It had two bedrooms and two full bathrooms.  Ian, Sam and I slept in one bedroom and Kelly and her girls slept in the other.  I am always amazed when my kids and I can manage to sleep in the same room together.  I keep thinking back to the days when Sam had to be completely by herself and no one could even dare turn the door knob to check on her.  We've come far from those days and even managed to get a good night's sleep each night with all of us in the same room.  Of course, my kids and I are very early risers and by 6:15/6:30am each morning, we were hanging out in the living room ready to get our day started.  By day two, we finally got in the groove of enjoying the downtime and hanging out for a few hours -- by then it would only be 9:30/10:00am!

The four kids (who don't normally have many playdates together -- Kelly and I see each other way more than our kids do) were amazing together.  I am blown away how they instantly came together and created this bond.  It was awesome they had each other. They really had a great time being together.  Whether we were at the pool, beach, chilling at the condo, eating at a restaurant, walking around the town, the kids kept themselves entertained all on their own.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is nothing like traveling with friends to make the trip much sweeter for all of us.

We spent the majority of the morning and afternoon at the pool and beach each day.  Unfortunately the ocean was super rough, and we couldn't go much past our waist before a humongous wave would come crashing down and knock us over.  Both Kelly and I noticed that the waves in the ocean didn't have any set patterns and it made it difficult to anticipate what would happen next.  I think it had to do something with a big storm that recently had come through up North. 

Later in the day, we made it out for some fun (and crazy!) adventures.  Thanks to us, Kelly's girls have now experienced Go-Karting.  Fortunately, Kelly is still talking to me.  If they do this with us again, it might be wearing helmets.  :)  

We also tried Bumper Boats.  This was much more harmless.  Be warned!  You do get wet!!

One of the highlights for me was the restaurant Flipperz.  They had gluten-free bread!  And this place was so yummy!  I had a grilled chicken sandwich.  Loved it!  The homemade potato chips were uh-amazing!

We even made it to the movies and saw "Monster's University".  It was a wonderful week of fun, sun and hanging out with good friends.

The timing of our trip was perfect.  Jeff was traveling for work anyway and wasn't home.  I can't wait to see next Summer who invites us to join them at the beach.  :)