The past 10 days have been absolutely amazing. Now that we are home, I feel so grateful for the wonderful memories I was able to create with my amazing family. It isn't too often that we all are able to get together. And at the beach no less!
I feel so rested and excited for this summer. Babysitting ends in two weeks, and we finally get to move into our new place that following weekend. We are busy planning our move, but we can't help but look back on the past 10 days with pure happiness. We were going SO hard everyday that I often times forgot I was even pregnant. I would be laying down in bed at night nearing midnight and feel that little baby kick every so often. I am even more grateful I wasn't feeling too sick or fatigued. It was the perfect vacation!
I am not sure how to go about blogging about it. But let me just start from the beginning.
On Friday, Ryan and I drove to
Charleston, SC to visit our friends and also sleep for the night. The drive to Topsail Island, NC is about 10-11 hours from where we live, so we thought, why not cut the drive in two and see friends! Charleston didn't take us out of the way so it was perfect. My best friend Maricela made the most legit taquitos, homemade refried beans, slaw, and salsa. Ryan was in heaven. Don't get me wrong, I was in heaven too, but I definitely regretted eating all that spicy wonderful food when my acid reflux was a raging monster!! But, it was so worth it :-) Glad we have such wonderful friends that live so close to us!
The next morning, we got up, lounged around the house and packed up our car again. We pulled out around 11am for the 4-5 hr drive to Topsail. There isn't one road to get to the beach, so thank goodness for our gps! We passed by so many golf courses it was getting a bit ridiculous.
We pulled up to our new house for the week around 4pm and my parents and grandparents, brother and his wife, and my other brother and his family pulled in behind us about 10 minutes later. The beach house we stayed in had a room for every family. It was big enough to have our own space, but small enough to be able to hang out with each other without feeling too disconnected. Ryan and I had a great time getting to know the newest member of the Steele clan, my brother Jared's wife Cassandra. She is an awesome girl! We barely had any time
at their wedding to say more than 3 words in passing to each other because of how crazy fast that weekend went by, but having a week together? We all bonded by the end. I kept asking her if we were
too much for her to handle. She kept laughing and saying we were all totally fun. Wish we all lived closer to each other.
Our days were filled with lots and lots of beach time. The kids played for a few hours, and with help from the daddies (their job after playing golf every morning practically) to get the kids fed and put down for naps which the mamas had some quiet alone time on the beach. Those were my favorite moments! I even dug a hole for my belly to be able to suntan on my stomach! It was awesome. We threw around the football and baseball and the men even boogie boarded one afternoon. I think I impressed both brothers with my football and baseball throwing/catching skills. Little did they know this pregnant mama had some skills! We had to work around the tide schedule the most because everyday, it was pushed back an hour. Some mornings, low tide would fall around 10am, the perfect beach time. But as the week went on, the tide was high later and later, which forced us out on the beach earlier and earlier. No complaints! We took morning and night walks with the dogs and kids. We all were so relaxed and happy to be on the beach, little mattered! We were in no rush to get dinner going and had so much fun just playing in the sand.
Staying right on the beach front is the perfect vacation. We didn't make plans to do anything else. We worked around the kids nap and bed schedule which helped them play hard, and sleep hard without any disruptions. There wasn't much to do in Topsail, but we came to the beach to PLAY on the beach! By the second full beach day, we had the routine down with digging a hole for the beach umbrellas, lining up the beach chairs, and of course, the bocce ball. It was a hit for sure!
Other highlights: 9-holes of golf in the morning for the men, pedi's for the girls, lunch date with Ryan, fresh seafood for dinner, barbecuing hamburgers and brauts and hot dogs, eating yummy summer salads, good naps for the kids, Rook tournaments, and nightly walks under the moonlight. It was the time of year for the sea turtles to come lay eggs, so we were determined to find a turtle after we put the kids to bed, but we only found crazy crabs running around along the waters edge.
The miracles from the week were that no one got seriously sunburned, or hurt, or lost. It was wonderful. I am such a worrier when it comes to water safety, but the kids really didn't go into the water. I stayed in the sun for about 6 hours straight one of the days and developed a pretty intense sun rash. My fault completely. Even with SPF, I needed to stay pretty covered up when we were at the beach.
Brinley had a great time with her cousins. They all played so well together and there were rarely any big fights to break up. They were all so busy working on their own thing on the beach that the only arguments were who was using which shovel. Now that we are home, she can't stop talking about her cousins and aunts and uncles. Brinley became pretty obsessed with Grandpa (my dad) and Sophie (their dog). She followed Sophie around everywhere. We all had a great time seeing Sophie's patience be tested. She really is the best dog.
One of the best things about this trip was that we were able to attend Sacrament meeting at one of the local beach Wards. It was a wonderful meeting and later that night, we had our famous family devotional after the kids were in bed. We started this tradition a few years ago that anytime the whole family is together, we would share testimonies and stories and reflect on the past year. My grandparents prepared a little devotional about my grandpa's ancestors and how they joined the church in the 1800's. It was so fascinating. It really made me think about how we are passing down our testimonies and faith to the next generation. We didn't even talk about my mom's side of the family joining the church in Germany, or my grandmother's family joining the church, which is even more remarkable that they all came together and we have this legacy of membership in the Church. I felt a bit overwhelmed with this new feeling of responsibility to continue teaching my children in righteousness. I was so grateful for that night. We all really connected and felt the spirit together. I have a firm belief that families need to continue to feel the spirit together and to share testimonies often to stay connected.
On Saturday, we packed up and drove to Durham, NC to celebrate with my brother. He graduated from Duke Law School. It was such a wonderful experience, and it totally geared Ryan and I up for this next year! It was so wonderful to see all my brother's hard work come to this point of graduating. He has worked so hard and it was great to be together. We all kept saying, this time next year for Ryan! Holy cow, only one more year, really? It has come so fast!
We drove back to Charlotte that night to spend the night at my parents. We woke up early and made the 8 hour drive back home. It was a great trip and we are all pretty exhausted. My body is tired and sore. My washer/dryer have been going nonstop. And Brinley seems really bored. She keeps asking to go to Grandma's to see her cousins. It may be a long recovery week!
**Pictures to come!!!**
